If American Prospect’s new Special Report on labor is any indication, T-Mobile workers are at the cutting edge of global unionism.
In the December issue’s section on "Labor’s New Globalism," three articles discuss the campaign for a global framework agreement at Deutsche Telekom, the German company that owns T-Mobile USA.
If American Prospect’s new Special Report on labor is any indication, T-Mobile workers are at the cutting edge of global unionism.
In the December issue’s section on "Labor’s New Globalism," three articles discuss the campaign for a global framework agreement at Deutsche Telekom, the German company that owns T-Mobile USA.
In the lead article, Louis Uchittelle notes that CWA’s partnership with the German union ver.di has been a vital aspect of the global effort. Because ver.di has significant representation on the Deutsche Telekom’s board, their cross-border cooperation gives American T-Mobile employees a seat at the table that they would not otherwise have. The important task for the Germans, Uchitelle points out, is to make sure that the country’s union members know what it’s like to work for T-Mobile USA. The picture he paints is grim and typical of the company’s American operations: "Neutrality is clearly not in evidence at the T-Mobile call center in Springfield, Missouri, where 300 people, mostly women, earn $9 to $10 an hour for a 40-hour work week, with infrequent raises."
In his article "Can the Workers of the World Unite?" Harold Meyerson answers this age-old question with optimism. Why? Because of global union initiatives like TU, the international union for T-Mobile workers that is the product of CWA’s partnership with ver.di. Meyerson predicts that "the number of genuinely multinational unions like TU (uniting the German and American employees of T-Mobile) or the Steelworkers' proposed union with the British union UNITE is likely to grow."
In "Slumming in America," Lance Compa draws attention to the double standard that Deutsche Telekom has for workers in Germany—who are unionized—and in the United States—who are not. Deutsche Telekom has signed on to the UN Global Compact, which emphasizes the right to form a union, but it has not behaved accordingly. Compa draws attention to the Human Rights Watch Report that was issued this fall on T-Mobile and other European companies with a double standard for American workers.
Deutsche Telekom needs to end the double standard, and T-Mobile needs to show its workers some respect. It’s time DT signed a global agreement that will allow all of its employees the right to a voice in the workplace.