Hundreds of German Workers Rally to Support Americans at T-Mobile

At DT Shareholders’ Meeting, Protesters Demand Rights for U.S. Colleagues

Supporting American workers fighting for their rights at T-Mobile, more than 500 members of the German telecom union ver.di protested last week in Cologne at parent company Deutsche Telekom’s shareholder meeting.

More than 500 German workers descended on Deutsche Telekom’s global shareholders’ meeting in Cologne last Thursday to demand that the company respect the right of its American T-Mobile employees to unionize and bargain collectively.

The workers, members of the German telecommunications union ver.di, formed a human chain around the meeting venue and released black balloons in mourning for their U.S. coworkers’ lack of rights.

Union leaders warned Deutsche Telekom that its attitude toward American workers could jeopardize its pending sale of
T-Mobile to AT&T. Noting political opposition to the sale, Lothar Schröder said DT needs the continued support of ver.di, CWA and their joint union, TU. Schröder is deputy chairman of the DT supervisory board and a ver.di national executive board member. “But that must ultimately mean an end to the opposition to union activities at T-Mobile USA,” he said.

Inside the May 12 meeting, Kornelia Dubbel pointedly asked Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann, “Will you from this point forward ensure that CWA has access to T-Mobile USA businesses so that they can introduce themselves to the employees?” Dubbel is a member of the T-Mobile supervisory board.

German workers formed a human chain around the meeting venue and released black balloons.

Dubbel suggested that the company consider the fact that T-Mobile workers favor the pending sale because they’d rather work for an employer, AT&T, that respects its workers’ union rights. “The employees and the CWA union both welcome the sale, and they put a great deal of hope in it, in terms of changes to the employees, to union rights, and to labor conditions,” she said. “Do you want to do justice to this and correct your anti-union course?”

CWA President Larry Cohen and many T-Mobile workers on social networking sites thanked the German workers for fighting for them, with the events at the shareholders’ meeting just the latest in ver.di’s show of solidarity.

The day before the meeting, Cohen testified on Capitol Hill in support of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. In addition to expanding high-speed Internet access, creating jobs and providing new benefits for consumers, he said the merger would give T-Mobile workers the long-sought opportunity to join a union.

Workers took snapshots of each other posing with a giant “Solidarity Membership Card.”

But T-Mobile workers shouldn’t have to wait any longer, said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. “T-Mobile employees should not have to wait in hope for over a year for their union rights,” she said of the pending merger. “Deutsche Telekom should do the right thing by its U.S. workforce now.”

Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union said “responsible employers” don’t behave as Deutsche Telekom has. “We expect better from one of the world’s leading telecom companies with solid industrial relations in its home country,” he said.

Find more photos, links to Facebook and Twitter to support T-Mobile workers and much more at the campaign website, www.loweringthebarforus.org