Transatlantic labor union highlights globalization pressures

[FarCenter]

The union representing Germany's largest telecommunications provider plans to join forces with its US counterpart in an unprecedented bid to strengthen American workers' rights.

The move shines a light on the challenges unions face in an increasingly global economy.

The Verdi services union, which represents employees of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, has said it would join forces with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) in a bid to organize workers at T-Mobile USA.

As a result, the German union will represent T-Mobile USA workers while the CWA holds talks with Telekom managers at its Bonn headquarters. The combined union will be known as TUnion.

Up to now, CWA has failed to unionize the Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile USA. The company is the fourth-largest US mobile phone service and has a strong anti-union reputation.

<snip>http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4910176,00.html

[PreacherCasey]

1. Transnational corporations require, at minimum,Transnational Unions. K&R

[pampango]

2. International unions would be effective counterweights to the mobility of capital.

"Speaking at a press conference in Washington, DC, CWA President Larry Cohen said unions need to develop partnerships like this one in order to operate in a global economy dominated by multinational companies. He thought TUnion would give T-Mobile USA employees greater strength to influence the company's labor practices.

"Cohen said he hoped the move would call attention to the "double standard" of how European companies treat their workers at home compared with the employees at their US units. In Germany, labor laws encourage companies to cooperate with unions, and Deutsche Telekom is considered union-friendly. But its US unit has fought hard against union organization since T-Mobile entered the US market nine years ago, Cohen insisted."

"Isabelle Schoemann, a researcher for the European Trade Union Institute, ETUI, explained that labor laws for companies with multiple headquarters are based on national legislation, but that the trend is slowly moving towards companies signing voluntary, binding framework agreements to deal with these discrepancies."

"At the press conference, CWA's Cohen said the US has the lowest union density among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which includes most of the world's top economies."