World's Telecom Unions Protest Deutsche Telecom Cuts, Threaten to Pull Investments from Key U.S. Equ

The global union federation Union Network International (UNI) and member unions, including CWA, are threatening to pull all investment from the U.S. private equity group Blackstone, in protest over the outsourcing of thousands of jobs at Deutsche Telecom.

"Many of our organizations are managers of pension schemes and other investments," CWA President Larry Cohen, outgoing UNI Telecom president, and UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings wrote to Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman. "When we are deciding investment options in funds where we are involved, we may well recommend that Blackstone no longer be considered."

Calling current DT plans "drastic and unacceptable," the letter, also signed by 300 delegates attending the second UNI Telecom Global Union World Conference, April 20-21, in Athens, Greece, asked Blackstone to urge DT to enter into meaningful negotiations with the German telecom union, ver.di, to find an alternative.

Since Blackstone purchased 4.5 percent of Deutsche Telekom from the German government a year ago, it has used its influence to persuade the company to replace former CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke with René Oberman as part of a strategy to pump up DT's sagging share price.

Two years ago, Ricke pledged to negotiate a global framework agreement with UNI to ensure labor rights for workers throughout DT companies worldwide, including T-Mobile in the United States. Instead, DT has announced that it is in talks to move a quarter of its 180,000 German employees to subsidiaries that pay about 40 percent less.

The letter pointed out that Lawrence Guffey, head of communications and media for Blackstone, "has been a director or otherwise involved in several restructurings viewed by us as deliberate attempts by Blackstone to profit at direct cost to our members."

In the United States, CWA is working to help 25,000 T-Mobile employees win collective bargaining.

UNI Telecom conference delegates passed additional resolutions to support collective bargaining in Australia, to censure Portugal Telecom for refusing to pay membership fees for employees who signed a collective bargaining contract, and to oppose the Greek government's plan to privatize former publicly owned telephone companies. 

Cohen, who has served as UNI Telecom president for the past six years, stepped down from the post and with his support, delegates elected Shoji Morishima, head of Japan's telecommunications union, NWJ, to succeed him.