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.

Unions are "tired of two faces"

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.

"We're tired of the two faces," he said. He compared the "smiling face" that the company showed its work force in Germany with what he decsribed as a "club of intolerance" that beats down workers in the USA.

Cohen said T-Mobile treated its workers in a way that would be "completely unacceptable elsewhere in Europe." Weak American labor laws allow the company to create a "climate of fear," he said: employees are regularly warned against engaging in union activities; there are no measures protecting job security and no rights to collective bargaining.

Introducing Worker X

To illustrate the point, the CWA news conference on Tuessday featured a T-Mobile USA employee who spoke to reporters wearing a fake beard and mustache, sunglasses and a baseball cap. Calling himself "worker X," he whispered his answers so his voice couldn't be recognized by any superiors who might hear him.

"Worker X" said he feared retribution from T-Mobile for speaking out in support of unionizing; adding that the company monitors the actions of union supporters and often fires them.

Ado Wilhelm, a Verdi spokesman who is also on the supervisory board of T-Mobile in Germany accused T-Mobile USA of "hampering and threatening" workers who wanted to unionize.

In an interview with the AFP news service, Wilhelm said he hoped the new TUnion would "change the behavior of Deutsche Telekom."

Telekom rejects accusations

Telekom spokesman Christian Schwolow rejected the criticism. "We adhere to all standards," he told AFP news service in Germany, adding that the company respects the wish of its employees around the world to organize "in accordance with national laws."

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.

Change in some sectors

Currently, the metalwork and energy sectors are furthest along, but it is possible that other sectors - like telecommunications - could follow, she explained.

"Right now, (Spanish multinational telecoms operator) Telefonica has signed such an agreement," she said. But the progress of these accords depends on the level of "social dialog" that exists within an industry, she added.

Meanwhile, Peter Dobrow, a spokesman for T-Mobile in the US, argued that the company's workers have consistently turned down opportunities to unionize because they don't see the need. He said employee surveys show that more than 70 percent of the company's 40,000 workers are "very satisfied" with their jobs.

"Despite the Communication Workers of America's periodic organizing efforts for more than nine years, no group of T-Mobile employees has ever chosen to be represented by a union," Dobrow told AP news service.

"While our company is always striving to find ways to improve, year after year, employees continue to view T-Mobile as a good place to work where they have no need for, or interest in, a union."

CWA represents about 700,000 communications workers across the US. It is trying to make more headway into the growing wireless sector, and currently has about 42,000 members in AT&T Mobility. But it has struggled to penetrate other wireless carriers.

According to a report on the Web site of the AFL-CIO, which cites a study by Adrienne Eaton of Rutgers University in the US, T-Mobile "routinely uses illegal or unethical practices to thwart workers' desires for a union, including mandatory anti-union meetings, and one-on-one meetings between workers and supervisors.

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.

jen/AP/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Sam Edmonds