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May 22, 2014

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Working People Don't Need Boehner Trade
COHEN: Worldwide Labor Alliance Must Confront Virulent Anti-
Union Efforts in U.S.
In Berlin: ver.di Members, International Union Activists Protest at
Deutsche Telekom
U.S. Added to Watch List of the World's Worst Labor Violators
Truth to Power: Fired T-Mobile Workers Question CEO About Its
U.S. Labor Practices
CWA Sues Christie on Pension Fund Grab
Movement Building Update
What Happened in the Basement?
CWA Statement on Proposed AT&T Acquisition of DirecTV
Macklemore. Really?
CWA There's An App For That
Working People Don't Need Boehner Trade
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CWA President Larry Cohen talked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership with
MSNBC host Ed Schultz, calling the deal negotiated by and for multinational
corporations "Boehner Trade" that American workers don't need or want.
Watch the video here.
COHEN: Worldwide Labor Alliance Must Confront Virulent Anti-Union Efforts
in U.S.
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CWA President Larry Cohen urged a worldwide conference of trade unionists
in Germany this week to join efforts to revive and sustain the American labor
movement under relentless assault from corporations and reactionary political
forces.
"Without the world's attention to the crisis of labor in the U.S., anti-union
corporate and conservative government policies will be exported," Cohen
warned. "The consequences are dire for the rest of the world."
In a forceful speech this week at the International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC) in Berlin, he recited the now familiar but depressing data on how the
U.S. trade union movement has been brought low from its peak 50 years ago
of 35% private sector coverage to just 6% today. ITUC General Secretary
Sharan Burrow has been a strong ally in the campaign for T-Mobile workers'
rights, including coming to Charleston, S.C., last year to support call center
workers.
"Our political and business leaders have for the most part adopted an
ideology of greed, not partnership," Cohen said. "As a result of these types of
U.S. labor polices, for the last 25 years, income and wealth in the U.S. have
shifted to the wealthiest Americans. While workers' wages have stagnated,
the wealth of the 1% grew. Top executives of large U.S. companies now earn
350 times more than workers."
CWA President Larry Cohen and Josh Coleman, now a TU activist, address
ITUC delegates.
U.S. corporations are exporting this economic model, he continued, including
right now behaving one way in Europe, where governments have strong
policies supporting workers joining unions, but being virulently anti-labor at
home. Multi-national corporations like Deutsche Telekom have been more
than happy to respect workers' rights in their home countries while treating
U.S. workers abominably.
T-Mobile is 67% owned by Deutsche Telekom, the largest shareholder of
which is the Germany government. DT's German workforce has bargaining
rights, and ver.di leader Lothar Schrder is the deputy chairman of the
company's supervisory board, serving along with other worker
representatives. In the U.S., workers who choose to organize are subjected
to repeated captive audience interrogations and harassment.
Meanwhile, corporations continually ply political allies in the U.S. with
campaign cash and push for so-called negotiated trade treaties that put
multinational corporations above national law.
"A global labor movement cannot survive with the elimination of a trade union
movement inside the USA. We will make collective progress or suffer
collective decline," Cohen said.
A positive development has been partnerships like the one formed by CWA
and ver.di, the 2 million member German union that represents telecom
workers at Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile. CWA and ver.di together
created TU, a joint organization to represent U.S. workers at T-Mobile US.
ver.di is pressuring Deutsche Telekom management to take responsibility for
U.S. managers who violate workers' rights by interrogating union activists,
illegally firing and disciplining them and allowing supervisors to lie about the
union.
As part of that effort, Josh Coleman, a Wichita, KS, T-Mobile call center
worker fired last year for organizing his co-workers, also joined the Berlin
meeting. In an earlier trip to Germany last August, Coleman had the surreal
experience of seeing his own face everywhere he turned as German telecom
workers wore T-shirts with the words "Wir sind alles Josh!" or "We are all
Josh."
"Each of us needs to take on this challenge to create conditions where union
representation can be tolerated in the USA, so that the cancer of trade union
elimination is stopped," Cohen said.
Working together, U.S. unions and the AFL-CIO and international allies,
including the ITUC and UNI, are building global partnerships to ensure
workers' rights in the global economy.
In Berlin: ver.di Members, International Union Activists Protest at Deutsche
Telekom
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German giant Deutsche Telekom got a big surprise this week when over a
thousand international trade unionists and activists from the German union
ver.di, employees of DT, rallied outside its Berlin offices to protest the virulent
anti-labor practices of its U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile US.
ver.di members and union activists from around the globe demonstrate
outside Deutsche Telekom in Berlin.
"This is a message of resistance from America," CWA President Larry Cohen
said, in a challenge to DT's Chief Executive Officer Timotheus Hoettges.
"When you attack, we stand up and we fight back."
T-Mobile supervisors have been harassing workers in the United States for
daring to organize their workplaces, including subjecting some, like a group of
Harlem, NY, retail store workers, to repeated captive audience interrogations.
T-Mobile has illegally disciplined and fired other activist workers, including
Josh Coleman, who participated in this week's Berlin rally.
ver.di, the union representing DT's German workers, organized this week's
rally as part of its continuing efforts to pressure DT into stopping T-Mobile's
U.S. labor abuses.
Union activists from dozens of countries join Deutsche Telekom protest.
Below: At the rally, Ado Wilhelm, Lothar Schrder, CWA President Cohen,
Mike Dding, ver.di staff rep, and Josh Coleman.
Cohen said the rally grew out of frustration with DT's stubbornness in
responding to ver.di's efforts to help U.S. workers exercise their rights.
Hundreds of trade unionists from all over the world, attending the weeklong
International Trade Union Confederation conference in Berlin, joined more
than 1,000 ver.di members protesting in support of T-Mobile US workers who
are fighting for their right to form a union.
Messages of solidarity from Arab unions, activists in the Indian trade union
movement, British union leaders, U.S. and European activists and many
others from around the globe lit up Twitter with support for T-Mobile US
workers. Members of the German Parliament also joined the protest, calling
on DT to follow its social compact, which calls for full recognition of workers'
rights to union representation, and stop T-Mobile's abusive labor practices in
the U.S.
Cohen said that T-Mobile US workers will be in this fight "one day longer and
each day stronger."
U.S. Added to Watch List of the World's Worst Labor Violators
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At the International Trade Union Confederation conference in Berlin this
week, the organization's General Secretary Sharan Burrow made an
announcement that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Workers
in the U.S. face systematic violation of their rights by some government
officials and/or corporations that are engaged in serious efforts to threaten
and crush workers' rights, according to the ITUC.
Sharan Burrow (right), general secretary of the ITUC, opens the "global
workers' Parliament."
The United States of America once built a middle class that was the envy of
the world largely on the strength of how many of its people belonged to
unions. The U.S. grew to be the world's leading economy as membership in
unions grew. Now, with systematic abuse of workers' rights and the speed
with which it is eliminating private sector unions, the U.S. will be keeping
different company.
Read the full report here.
"Countries such as Denmark and Uruguay led the way through their strong
labor laws," Burrow said. "A country's level of development proved to be a
poor indicator of whether it respected basic rights to bargain collectively,
strike for decent conditions, or simply join a union at all."
Truth to Power: Fired T-Mobile Workers Question CEO About Its U.S. Labor
Practices
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How is it that Deutsche Telekom manages to ignore criticisms from home and
abroad of subsidiary T-Mobile US for violating the rights of workers, Josh
Coleman wanted to know?
Coleman asked DT's CEO Timotheus Hoettges and the other board members
at the May 15 annual meeting of the Deutsche Telekom board in Cologne
why the corporation is avoiding or ignoring the T-Mobile problem. German
members of parliament have criticized DT for its reluctance to deal with T-
Mobile's anti-labor practices. The German government is a large shareholder
in DT.
"Do you influence the American management in order to stop these anti-
employee practices?" Coleman asked. "I am aware that many organizations,
politicians, customers and investors criticize Deutsche Telekom's behavior
and have addressed this in letters. The allegations are diverse and even
more serious."
Coleman, in his work for T-Mobile's Wichita, KS, call center, won many
awards and was well regarded by supervisors. That is, until they became
aware of his efforts to organize coworkers into a union. Overnight, they
changed their assessment of him, telling him his work no longer measured
up.
"That is a lie," Coleman said.
Kornelia Dubbel spreads the TU message at the ITUC meeting. Dubbel,
along with Josh Coleman, spoke at the Deutsche Telekom annual meeting in
Cologne.
He sought to create a bargaining unit because he felt his coworkers needed a
structure for their future and to protect them against the arbitrary manner in
which they were supervised. T-Mobile instead mounted a campaign of
harassment and intimidation against worker activists. Supervisors held
captive audience interrogations of workers and illegally fired others.
DT's workforce in Germany and the rest of Europe have bargaining rights and
worker representatives serve on corporations' supervisory boards. Kornelia
Dubbel, a ver.di member and member of the T-Mobile supervisory board,
also spoke at the annual meeting. Dubbel has been a strong advocate for the
rights of T-Mobile US workers to have union representation, just as telecom
workers in Germany do.
"Unfortunately, the employees have no voice in the company, no works
council like in Germany, no union," Coleman said. "Deutsche Telekom and
other German companies publicly praise the 'social partnership' practice and
the German system of co-determination. Why do you allow practices that T-
Mobile is fighting and preventing, often coupled with high costs of union
avoidance lawyers?"
CWA Sues Christie on Pension Fund Grab
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CWA and the National Education Association are filing a lawsuit to block NJ
Governor Chris Christie's plan to grab nearly $2.5 billion that should be going
to the state's pension system. Christie wants to use those funds to reduce his
budget's shortfall instead of making the required payment to the pension
system. CWA and NEA are the two biggest unions in the state.
CWAers and union activists meet outside the statehouse in Trenton, N.J.,
ready to lobby elected officials about the damage being done to workers'
pensions.
"Governor Christie is not only breaking his word, but he's also breaking the
law in failing to make these pension payments," said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA
New Jersey Director. "Put aside how Christie's actions are immoral. If the
pension payments are not made, the plan will go bankrupt. Retirees and
active workers will spend their retirement in poverty through no fault of their
own. For these reasons, and more, we are taking the governor to court. And
we will be mobilizing our members and allies in protest of Christie's
outrageous, illegal actions."
In 2011, Christie and some legislators pushed through big cuts in public
workers' pension benefits. Workers' pension contributions were increased,
the retirement age was raised and cost-of-living adjustments were eliminated.
Christie and the lawmakers who supported him claimed that the changes
were necessary to restore the security of the pension system and they also
pledged that the state would begin to make bigger payments each year to the
pension system, to make up for the complete lack of contributions by the
state for most of the past 17 years. Workers continued to make their
contributions.
Now Christie is reneging on the state's obligation and putting public workers'
pensions at risk. The state estimates that it's unfunded pension liability is $52
billion.
Thousands of activists, from CWA, other unions and allies, held a "Lobby
Day" today in Trenton, to focus attention on the governor's power and money
grab.
Movement Building Update
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Maybe the North Carolina legislature is channeling North Korea.
Legislators are trying to stop the message of "Moral Mondays" by passing a
rule that calls for the arrest of anyone who "might pose an imminent threat of
a disturbance," even if that person hasn't done anything. The Legislative
Services Commission, which hasn't changed its rules in 27 years, and in fact
hasn't even met in the last 15 years, decided it had to act to keep Moral
Monday supporters out of the building as the new legislative session was set
to begin.
That means in the state legislative building, where in theory elected officials
are supposed to meet with and serve their constituents, some constituents
aren't welcome. What does the commission consider a disturbance? Any
noise at a level beyond ordinary conversation. And any staff member can
order a constituent to leave, or face arrest. Read more here.
This attack on democracy hasn't discouraged the thousands of activists
committed to "Moral Mondays" and to restoring fairness to North Carolina.
This week, thousands of activists entered the legislative building and
marched in a silent protest, with tape over their mouths.
Moral Monday activists are members of unions, faith groups, the NAACP and
other civil rights organizations, students, community groups and more. They
are protesting the legislature's radical right actions to suppress citizens' rights
to vote, restrict unemployment insurance, attack women's rights and leave
hundreds of thousands of working and poor people without medical
assistance by refusing to expand Medicaid.
Thousands of "Moral Monday" activists carry out their silent protest at the
North Carolina legislative building.
Photo credit: RaleighNewsObserver.com.
What Happened in the Basement?
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When most workers in the U.S. want a union, they face harassment by
supervisors and intimidation by corporate executives. That's standard
operating procedure for companies like T-Mobile US and Verizon Wireless. In
recent campaigns by workers at retail stores in Harlem and Brooklyn, N.Y.,
management went all out to stop workers from making their own choice about
having a union. Both corporations even brought in high level executives,
including T-Mobile US CEO John Legere, who you might think had other work
to do, to intimidate workers about their jobs.
This video offers a good look at what happens in the basement, for too many
U.S. workers.
CWA Statement on Proposed AT&T Acquisition of DirecTV
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CWA issued this comment on the announcement by AT&T that it plans to
acquire DirecTV:
"CWA is optimistic that this deal will improve services and make even
more content available for millions of customers. We also believe that it
will provide better employment opportunities for tens of thousands of
employees at both companies. We look forward to learning more about
the details in the days ahead.
"The industry is constantly transforming itself as wireless, wireline,
cable and satellite converge, and as voice data and video increasingly
demand expanded high speed networks. AT&T's commitment to
provide high speed Internet services to 15 million non-urban locations is
a positive move toward expanding Internet access and availability to
more Americans."
Macklemore. Really?
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United Students Against Sweatshops is pushing rapper Macklemore and
Ryan Lewis to break up with union-busting T-Mobile US CEO John Legere,
and instead stand up for workers at T-Mobile who are been harassed,
disciplined and fired just because they want a union.
USAS launched a "Justice for T-Mobile Workers" campaign last fall, and is
turning up the heat on Macklemore. Read more here.
Check out MacklemoreSucks.com for more info.
CWA There's An App For That
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Have you downloaded the new CWA App?
Four years ago, CWA was the first union, and one of the first progressive
organizations, to create an app. Now, we've taken that app to a new level
with our Movement Builder app. Word is already out, and we've already had
other unions and progressive organizations asking us about it.
You'll want to make sure you're connected. To get the app, text APP to 69866
to get the links to download it from the Apple App Store or the Google Play
store. You can also search for CWA in the App Store.
Once you download the app you need to set up your Profile. This allows you
to RSVP to and check in at events. You'll also be able to send photos from
actions from the app.
This app will enable you to be connected in real time to events and
information that you care about, using the latest technologies available on the
iPhone and Android devices.
CWA
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