Labor & Employment Law

Global Unions Call on T-Mobile to Respect Workers? Rights

By James Parks

Protestors march outside the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 2007 to demand justice for Deutsche Telekom workers.

In many countries around the world, T-Mobile USA’s parent Deutsche Telekom (DT) follows internationally recognized labor and human rights, including the freedom of association and the freedom to join a union. But not in this country. Instead, the German company allows management to harass and intimidate workers who want to join a union.

In a joint press conference last week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, and UNI Global Union, said this double standard must end now. UNI, CWA and ver.di are pressing DT for a global agreement that would protect the fundamental labor rights of the company’s workers worldwide.

CWA President Larry Cohen told reporters:

T-Mobile USA…chooses to ally with the worst of U.S. managers who fight collective bargaining for employees in every imaginable way. These companies use the loopholes in current U.S. labor law that support and permit anti-union campaigning by management.

Cohen pointed out that one major U.S. telecom company, AT&T, has agreed to remain neutral when workers are choosing whether to join a union and to recognize the union based on a majority sign-up. DT is even failing to meet standards set by two of its competitors, France Telecom and Telefonica, which have signed global agreements with UNI respecting workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively.

Lother Schroder, an executive board member at ver.di, said DT is ignoring its own social charter, which calls for compliance with international labor and human rights rules.

John Logan, a professor at San Francisco State University, said his research has confirmed that DT is not exporting the constructive and cooperative labor practices it uses in Germany and other countries to the United States. Instead, he said he found:

• In 2003, T-Mobile distributed “The Union Free Privilege,” an anti-union memo, to its operations across America.
• Routinely, T-Mobile security officers take down the license plate numbers of workers who take union leaflets outside T-Mobile call center and support facilities.
• T-Mobile employees are forced to attend management-led meetings where they are warned about joining a union, with both implied and open threats that they will be fired for doing so.
• In 2008, an updated anti-union memo was distributed secretly to front-line managers offering instructions on what to do if CWA organizers attempt to communicate with T-Mobile rank-and-file employees. 

Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union, which represents 900 trade unions and 20 million workers worldwide, said:

UNI members are tired of the lame excuses of DT. It is in the grip of U.S. management that is out of line with DT policy. The time has come for DT to spring clean their operations to bring compliance with their own social charter.

Last year, CWA and ver.di joined to form TU, a union for T-Mobile employees.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).