Telecom News - Through “TU,” CWA, Ver.di, Seek to Organize T-Mobile Workers

This spring, CWA and Germany's largest telecom union, Ver.di, will launch an organization, "TU," to help organize 15,000 workers at T-Mobile, the nation's third largest wireless company behind AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless.

The unique alliance was announced at a global union conference last December that was attended by 200 union leaders from CWA, Ver.di and 63 other countries.

As the union that represents workers at T-Mobile International in Germany, the United Kingdom, and nine other European countries, Ver.di will partner with CWA to help the workers organize. Besides representing workers at the company, Ver.di holds seats on the management supervisory board at Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent company. The corporation, like most in Germany and Europe, respects workers right to organize and does not resort to intimidation, coercion, threats, and other tactics to frighten union supporters.

Workers in Germany and throughout Europe can not envision the open hostility that workers regularly face when trying to organize in the United States. In explaining the union's TU partnership with CWA to members of Ver.di, Ado Wilhelm, a union official who sits on Deutsche Telekom's board, described a situation that is foreign to most workers overseas. "American trade unions are bound by special national laws. They can't just go into companies, affiliate new members and represent the interests of the workers. Companies try to keep unions out by all means," he explained.

Using its influence with Deutsche Telekom, Ver.di will work to help neutralize the anti-union attitudes of the T-Mobile's U.S.-based management. Working with Ver.di, CWA will develop an organization of T-Mobile activists across the country who will network with CWA members at AT&T and Ver.di members in Germany to share information about their jobs and their workplace.

Shortly after TU is formed, CWA and Ver.di will launch a website where workers can network and exchange information without fear. "Working together with union-represented T-Mobile workers in Germany will go a long way to helping break down the wall that the company's U.S. management team has erected between T-Mobile's U.S. and German workforces," said Shawna Knipper, a former T-Mobile worker who is working with CWA to organize her former co-workers.