Alcatel's Treatment of Workers: France Vs. the U.S.

Bargaining power makes all the difference. Just ask French workers at Alcatel Lucent, who are fighting against the same anti-union employer as 2,500 CWA members in the United States. Lucent Communications merged with the French company Alcatel in 2006.

In France, where 95 percent of workers have collective bargaining, employees at Alcatel Lucent have been able to make real gains in protecting their jobs.

A demonstration of more than 3,000 participants in Paris plus protests in other French cities reinforced the efforts by French workers and their union to save jobs. Alcatel Lucent executives met several times with worker representatives of the European Works Council because such meetings are required under French labor law.

The result: Alcatel Lucent has pledged to the French government that none of 12,500 planned job cuts will occur in France.

In contrast, in the United States, less than 8 percent of private sector workers have collective bargaining rights. That means that so far, Alcatel Lucent can get away with refusing to provide information to CWA about job cuts.

Alcatel Lucent is refusing to give U.S. union workers access to jobs at its non-union California and Texas operations. And in a blatant attack on union members, the company has refused to transfer CWA installers to LGS, the subsidiary set up by Alcatel to meet government requirements that a foreign-owned company not work on sensitive defense, government and other national security projects. All management personnel were transferred to LGS, while CWA members — still employees of foreign-owned Alcatel Lucent — were stripped of their security clearances and made ineligible to work on most secure projects.

CWA is working with unions in Europe to fight back against these anti-worker actions, said CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, communications and technologies, who met with unionists in France to build solidarity. Maly noted that Alcatel is threatening to cut jobs in Italy, Germany, Spain and other countries. But the critical difference for the U.S. is that labor laws are much stronger in those countries and workers have more power because a very large percentage of the workforce is covered by collective bargaining.

It's a textbook example of why American workers need the Employee Free Choice Act, CWA President Larry Cohen said. "We know that in European democracies, workers have had full collective bargaining coverage for many years," he said. "But look at a country like South Africa, which just 10 years ago was a state of apartheid. Today, South African law requires collective bargaining coverage when just 30 percent of workers indicate they want a union voice, as is happening now at Vodafone. It's this kind of bargaining power and strength that we are determined to build here in the United States."