Shelton: Deutsche Telekom Can Do Better

Above, CWA President Shelton meets with picketing Amazon workers in Germany who have gone on strike this week at six fulfillment centers. Ver.di is demanding a labor agreement for the 10,000 German employees. Read more here.

Delegates at ver.di's annual convention give Shelton a standing ovation.

Speaking in Leipzig, Germany, CWA President Chris Shelton put Deutsche Telekom on notice that workers on both side of the Atlantic are united against the company’s anti-worker tactics in the United States.

Shelton was speaking to 2,000 members and delegates attending the annual convention of ver.di — the world’s largest service sector union representing 2 million German workers. Shelton thanked ver.di union members for their support of T-Mobile US workers in their fight to end the intimidation, harassment and bullying by T-Mobile US management of workers who want a union voice.

“What bothers me most about Deutsche Telekom is that it knows how to treat employees with respect, and it knows that the sky doesn’t fall when you work with the union, because it has worked with ver.di for many decades,” he said. “And that’s why we say, ‘We expect better.’ Deutsche Telekom can do better. Deutsche Telekom has to do better. And I know that with your support, Deutsche Telekom will be better.”

Shelton also met with ver.di chairman Frank Bsirske, who has pledged to support the T-Mobile campaign; Lothar Schroder, head of ver.di’s telecommunications department and vice-chairman of Deutsche Telekom’s Supervisory Board, and Christy Hoffman, deputy general secretary of UNI Global Union.

This week Shelton will meet with German elected officials and visit a picket line at Amazon to talk with striking workers. In Berlin, he’ll meet with members of the Bundestag, the German Parliament. A Bundestag committee is considering our petition calling on the German government to use its shareholder power to press Deutsche Telekom to enforce international labor standards at its locations abroad.

Together, ver.di and CWA members have already collected 45,000 signatures. A committee of German legislators will bring up the petition for consideration again on Nov. 30, so there's still time to gather additional signatures to build our case.

Get more information here.

Mail the petition by Nov. 13, 2015, to this address:

CWA Attn:
Louise Novotny
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001