Cohen: 'The status quo is not stable'

CWA President Larry Cohen marches with ver.di leaders at a strike rally in Düsseldorf, Germany.

In Germany, CWA President Larry Cohen is given a flag signed by hundreds of ver.di activists. It will be displayed at CWA Headquarters.

CWA members support German T-Mobile workers.

 

CWA President Larry Cohen, renewing his call for international solidarity, used a trip to Germany this week to underscore how the erosion of American workers' rights should serve as a wake-up call for the global labor movement.

"The status quo is not stable," said Cohen, speaking to 250 leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Bonn. "We cannot stand still. The enemies of collective bargaining are always on the lookout for opportunities to weaken trade unions. And in fact, a primary export from the USA is the set of tactics that employers use to undermine trade union participation and policies to reduce collective bargaining rights."

Cohen said the SDP leaders indicated overwhelming support for a joint campaign of ver.di and CWA to bring bargaining rights to T-Mobile USA workers. CWA has been working with T-Mobile USA workers who want a union voice, but U.S. management of the Deutsche Telekom-owned company continues its campaign of fear and intimidation of workers. T-Mobile USA announced recently it will close seven call centers, affecting the jobs of 3,300 workers.

Speaking at a strike rally with 10,000 ver.di members in Dusseldorf, Cohen told workers he had hoped Deutsche Telekom would import Germany's high standards for workers' rights when it first entered the U.S. market in 2000. But the exact opposite happened.

"Now we are even afraid that Deutsche Telekom could export the U.S. model of union avoidance," he said.

In 2008, CWA and the German union ver.di formed a joint union for T-Mobile workers named TU to represent US workers of T-Mobile. ver.di leader Lothar Schröder and other ver.di activists and members have been crucial supporters of the campaign to topple the double standard of the company recognizing labor rights in Germany, but ignoring them in the United States.

However, T-Mobile USA has continued to deploy a barrage of anti-union tactics, Cohen told Social Democratic Party members this week. Management holds mandatory meetings to discourage union organizing, disciplines workers for reading union literature and films interactions between employees and union organizers. The company's human resource department has even advertised for managers with skill in maintaining a "union-free environment."

"We have great challenges ahead of us to establish labor rights as a central element of an open economy," he said. "Our politicians must take seriously the need for global standards. Too often labor standards are moved to the side — or worse still dismissed as secondary. Our collective interests are united in raising working standards higher, not see them fall lower. Only our collective movement can create conditions to restore workers' rights to organize."

Cohen said to "reverse union intolerance," workers need to hold each and every company accountable. In the case of Deutsche Telekom, he urged lawmakers to sign onto a German statement of principles: Ein Offener Brief für Arbeitnehmerrechte. (An open letter on workers' rights.)

At the strike rally, Cohen said CWA members have been inspired by ver.di's strength in its rolling strikes against Deutsche Telekom. Over the past two weeks, T-Mobile workers and CWA activists have gathered in front of T-Mobile stores nationwide, holding signs reading, "Solidarity with ver.di" and "Good work — fair salaries."

"We cannot win our fight for union rights, decent work and fair pay only in one country," he said. "This is a global fight and that's why unions have to stand together all over the world."