The multi national communications company negotiates with the German union for workplace conditions with union representation a key part of the company culture, but the management does not allow the same practices in the USA.

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation said Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Oberman and the German Government must listen to the voice of workers, and they have a responsibility to fix the abuses in their company. “There are companies respected in Europe, behaving badly right here in the US. German people need to know what is happening to workers in the USA.  They would be appalled to think the company they are so proud of, that bears the German name, could be treating workers to fear and intimidation.”

“We’re saying to T-Mobile, we expect better of you. Workers rights don’t stop at the German border, they’re for all people,” said Sharan Burrow.

“Workers doing the same job for the same company deserve to be treated the same. Why do one set of workers in the US face threats and intimidation for wanting to be represented by a union, while others in Germany get a seat at the management table,” said Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America.

Brutal local management methods in the US have included having workers being forced to wear a dunce cap to humiliate them when performance measures slipped. Workers spoke about the culture of fear and pressure every day to keep responses to customer calls under 360 seconds, despite it being a call-centre to speak to customers.  Felicia Smalls a call-centre worker in Charleston told the panel “I want to keep my job, and make it better.” Management of the multinational prevents workers from acting together to improve working conditions and keep jobs in the US.

Tomas Lenki, a ver.di union member from Deutsche Telekom in Berlin, said, “We have gathered numerous stories of attacks on workers’ rights and passed them on to our board of Human Resources. We’ve been told they are isolated cases and the behavior has stopped. What we have seen in first hand conversations in Charleston this week is in stark contrast to what Deutsche Telekom has told us. We feel betrayed and lied to from board of Deutsche Telekom. They may tell you we are not unionised but we tell you 2 million ver.di members have your back.”

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said “T-Mobile workers have spoken in Charleston. They are not prepared to be treated as second class citizens in the Deutsche Telekom global network. Deutsche Telekom must take responsibility and change its behavior. UNI and the global trade union movement demand Deutsche Telekom act now.”

The global panel of political, religious and labour leaders included James Clyburn, Member of US Congress; Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America; Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, ITUC, and Reverend John Paul Brown. The global campaign ‘We expect better’ in 2013 will include more worker exchanges between Germany and the US and political pressure on Deutsche Telekom’s largest shareholder the Germany Government in an important election year.

The Affordable Care Act was a significant undertaking.  The Obama administration worked to bring together all the parties in our current system: consumers, insurers, providers, health care facilities, and employers.  Congress held lengthy debates and difficult votes.  The Affordable Care Act is an important first step toward true health care reform.

Yet again, the House Republicans are playing politics instead of building a strong, secure America. In another blatant example of political theater, the House Republicans refused to pass a routine measure to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), forcing lay-offs of thousands of FAA and construction workers, with tens of thousands more jobs at risk.

Republican members of Congress need to stop playing ideological games and get down to the serious business of creating jobs, instead of laying off FAA aviation experts and tens of thousands of construction workers, who are already experiencing close to 20 percent unemployment rates nationally. Adding insult to injury, just as the government reaches its debt limit, this disruption of the FAA means that aviation taxes – totaling up to $200 million a week – that normally fund our aviation infrastructure may instead end up in the airlines’ pockets.

The House Republicans are undertaking this extraordinary disruption of the operations of the FAA for one reason – to play to a political ideology focused on scapegoating workers. Instead of laying off the people responsible for safe, secure aviation, our elected leaders ought to be building a high wage, high skill economy where our middle class is strong and America thrives.

Of course, no corporate shilling news report is complete without a quote from the shilling clown himself, Vivek Wadhwa.  This "news story" does not disappoint. Anyone familiar with Wadhwa knows that he cannot intelligently participate in a debate with anyone who disagrees with him.  He typically breaks down into yelling over his opponent and accusing them and anyone else who disagrees with him as being xenophobes.

Even if this Indian company was started here in the U.S., what are the chances that it would hire any of the unemployed American tech workers? It would likely hire other foreign tech workers on Visas, or outsource much of the work to India with little benefit to the U.S. or the American worker.

The real reason the Koch Brothers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Indian outsourcing/offshoring companies, and many other corporate entities want to eliminate caps on these Visas cannot be stated any better than the last paragraph of an article in the Deccan Chronicle.  The article is titled "Rising US visa rejections take toll on Indian IT cos" and it explains that an increase in the L-1/H-1B Visa rejection rate from four percent to eight percent is putting a crimp on profits for Indian outsourcing/offshoring companies.  The last paragraph reads:

"Stricter visa norms could also force Indian IT firms to start local hiring at a faster pace than what they are doing at present. This could also end up pushing costs because the average age of IT workers in the US tends to be higher — which also means higher salaries."

In other words, it’s all about cheap wages and age discrimination.  Heaven forbid we hire any IT worker over 40 and pay them enough so that they can keep making their mortgage payments and feed their family.

Conversation: OUTSOURCING
Subject: OUTSOURCING

Dear Senator,

I am incensed that large American Corporations are shipping our jobs overseas — eg India. When we have a 10% unemployment rate these companies should not be getting tax breaks. They should be getting tax penalties. H1B1 visas should be frozen or reduced.

If you want a non humorous look at the situation watch the show ‘Outsourced’ on NBC. Go to NBC.com, search on “Outsourced” and watch the pilot. I love the Indian people, but they are being used and the American people are being abused.

If outsourcing is an honorable thing to do, why is it that these outsourced call centers pretend to be in the United States, using US names, and lying as to where they are actually operating from? If it were an honest, honorable thing to do would this be going on, the lying and deception? Why are the Indian people being ‘forced’ to adopt our names and hide their culture?

Microsoft advertised during this show as they are one of the worst offenders — not a surprise.

However, three members of our congressional delegation have decided that the money they get from the telecom industry… Verizon, ATT and Comcast (Xfinity)… means more to them than our ability to compete in the digitized world, and each has signed an industry letter, being circulated by Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas),   addressed to the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski.  Phone and cable lobbyists are making the rounds on Capitol Hill, urging elected representatives to sign on to this letter to undermine the FCC’s authority to protect an open internet and foster universal access.

Doc Hastings, Rick Larsen and David Reichert do not care if Verizon, ATT and Comcast (Xfinity) practice internet throttling.  Throttling lets carriers slow or block internet traffic.

Why would the major carriers want to control internet traffic by slowing it down or blocking it on occasion?  They’re excessively cheap. The original internet (Telenet’s public data network) was built to tolerate peak loads with the same level of service it normally provided.  Since the cable and telephone companies bought up the original network providers, a race to the bottom has begun in terms of quality of service.

The bigger question here is why would these three side with the industry (corporations) instead of the rest of us?

Money.  They each receive campaign contributions from the industry.  Well, so what?  We know that Hastings and Reichert are corporate shills (republicans), but is Rick Larsen on our side?  He was endorsed by the WSLC at the COPE convention last May.  Maybe he really means it when he says that taking campaign contributions from powerful corporations doesn’t influence his votes.

Baloney!  He wants our contributions; endorsement and support, but still will sign a letter in direct contradiction of one of labors top legislative priorities.

Well, I want to see and hear Rick stand up before the WSLC and delegates from all affiliated unions next August to explain his real stand on net neutrality.  And, he might as well repeat his stance on all of labor’s issues here at home and at the federal level.

This is a perfect example of why labor, both locally and nationally, is turning it’s back on politics as usual, especially from democrats.

You can call, fax or email our representatives to let them know what you think:

Doc Hastings                email

Washington, D.C. Office:

1203 Longworth House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-4704
Phone: (202) 225-5816
Fax: (202) 225-3251

Pasco Office:

2715 St. Andrew’s Loop, Suite D
Pasco, Washington 99301-3386
Phone: (509) 543-9396
Fax: (509) 545-1972

David Reichert              email

Washington, D.C. Office:

1730 Longworth House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-4708
Phone: (202) 225-7761
Fax: (202) 225-4282

Mercer Island Office:

2737 78th Avenue, SE, Suite 202
Mercer Island, Washington 98040
Phone: (206) 275-3438
Fax: (206) 275-3437

Rick Larsen                            email

Mercer Island Office:
2737 78th Avenue, SE, Suite 202
Mercer Island, Washington 98040
Phone: (206) 275-3438
Fax: (206) 275-3437

Washington, D.C. Office:

108 Cannon House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-4702
Phone: (202) 225-2605
Fax: (202) 225-4420

Everett Office:
2930 Wetmore Avenue, Suite 9F
Everett, Washington 98201
Phone: (425) 252-3188
Fax: (425) 252-6606

Bellingham Office:
119 North Commercial Street, Suite 1350
Bellingham, Washington 98225
Phone: (360) 733-4500
Fax: (360) 733-5144