Ver.di, T-Mobile USA Workers Document Campaign of Fear

German and US workers came together for a week of discussion and action to help T-Mobile USA workers gain CWA representation.

Read blogs and highlights of the trip by T-Mobile workers at http://weworkbettertogether.org/.

A delegation of 12 leaders from ver.di, the union that represents T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom workers in Germany, plus Klaus Barthel, a Social Democratic Party member of Germany's Parliament, met with T-Mobile workers actively working for a union voice.

T-Mobile USA customer service reps from Oakland, Maine and Frisco, Tex., joined techs from Connecticut and Long Island, N.Y., in telling their stories about T-Mobile USA management's campaign of fear and harassment wherever workers want a union. Ado Wilhelm, ver.di's T-Mobile expert, said the German group was there to get firsthand experience about the situation at T-Mobile USA, to talk to American employees and to document DT's double standard.

Barthel, who also traveled with the group to Tennessee said, "when we hear that T-Mobile USA workers who take a union leaflet are kept under surveillance by security guards and reported to management, or that management holds meetings and excludes union supporters to personally attack them, or that workers must talk about the benefits of a union in secret, it is unbelievable that a German company is permitting this treatment."

In Nashville, Tenn. and Frisco, Texas, the group leafletted outside a T-Mobile store and call center, held a public news conference and met with T-Mobile USA and AT&T Mobility workers. Workers at AT&T Mobility can freely choose union representation; management has committed to remaining neutral in union representation campaigns.

Back in Washington, D.C., the German activists will meet with representatives at the German Embassy. Earlier in the week, a briefing for Capitol Hill staff also was held.