A History of TU

  • 2008: April
    • CWA and ver.di join together to create the transnational union TU. Workers who choose a union at T-Mobile USA will belong to TU. Ver.di will sit at the bargaining table during contract negotiations.
    • CWA President Larry Cohen: “This new union sends a message to T-Mobile management in the U.S. that workers at Deutsche Telekom and at other T-Mobile operations who have bargaining rights will fight hard to protect them and to support their U.S. counterparts who also want the right to collective bargaining.”
    • Ver.di Executive Board Member Lothar Schröder: “We believe that through this new union, we will contribute to working conditions for workers in both countries.
    • Management must get used to the idea that we are representing the interests not only of German workers but of American workers as well. This is the right response to globalization.”
  • 2009: November
    • Ver.di officials and Deutsche Telekom employees visit the U.S. in November and meet with T-Mobile workers. They visit a call center in Richmond, Virginia, and are kicked off the property and threatened with arrest.
  • 2009: December
    • American Rights at Work (ARAW) publishes Lowering the Bar or Setting the Standard? Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. Labor Practices in December.
  • 2010: April
    • Press conference in Bonn, Germany. CWA, ver.di, UNI, and author John Logan announce the publication of the ARAW report in German. Press is widespread and favorable.
  • 2010: May
    • T-Mobile USA workers attend Deutsche Telekom Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Cologne, Germany.
    • T-Mobile USA workers meet with Klaus Barthel, SPD member of the Bundestag
  • 2010: July
    • Ver.di leaders Ado Wilhelm and Kornelia Dubbel visit with tech workers in New York and call center workers in Fort Lauderdale. Both address CWA Convention in Washington, D.C.
  • 2010: September
    • Human Rights Watch releases a report, A Strange Case: Violations of Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States by European Multinational Corporations (author: Lance Compa), which skewers Deutsche Telekom for its union intolerance in the United States
    • 2,000 Deutsche Telekom workers show solidarity with T-Mobile USA workers in all-worker meeting in Bochum, Germany
  • 2010: October
    • Ver.di leaders Ado Wilhelm and Kornelia Dubbel address CWA Customer Service Professionals Conference; they discuss both TU solidarity and ver.di quality seal program
    • Adopt a T-Mobile Call Center launched
  • 2010: October-November
    • UNI Global Union, Call Centre Action Month highlights lack of organizing rights at Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile USA
    • UNI receives thousands of postcards on behalf of T-Mobile USA customer service workers. Postcards will be forwarded to Deutsche Telekom.
    • UNI galvanizes support for T-Mobile USA workers from unions in Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Sweden, Switzerland , and the United States
  • 2010: November
    • At UNI Global Union World Congress in Nagasaki, Japan, 1,500 delegates condemn Deutsche Telekom double standard and express solidarity with T-Mobile workers
  • 2011: February
    • International Trade Union Confederation launches worldwide campaign at Deutsche Telekom
  • 2011: May
    • Ver.di stages rally at DT Annual meeting, “mourns” the situation in the U.S.
    • Workers file election petitions in Connecticut, Long Island, and Upstate New York
  • 2011: July
    • Technicians vote for union in Connecticut despite company campaign against union
  • 2011: August
    • Upstate New York technicians withdraw election petition due to company actions
  • 2011: December
    • Technicians in Long Island, New York lose elections after intense company union avoidance campaign
  • 2012: February
    • 13 ver.di leaders meet with T-Mobile workers in Washington, DC; Nashville, TN; and Frisco, TX
PDF - 95.1 kb
A History of TU (PDF)