Business leaders from around the country recognize the important role unions can play in restoring balance to our faltering economy. These employers, investors, and academics see unions as a way to achieve long-term economic growth and stability.
The failure of U.S.
labor law to protect America’s
workers from pervasive unionbusting is well-documented. Yet little attention
has been paid to the practice of foreign companies operating in cooperation
with their employees in their home countries, where labor laws are stronger,
while failing to respect the rights of their workers in the United States. The same company,
under two different systems of law, results in two very different situations
for workers.
In a
new report, the American Rights at Work Education Fund exposes a systematic
campaign to prevent employees from forming a union
by T-Mobile USA and its parent company, German telecommunications giant Deutsche
Telekom (DT). The report, "Lowering the Bar or Setting the Standard? Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. Labor Practices," presents overwhelming evidence that DT is guilty of
operating by a double standard: The company respects workers’ rights in Germany, where it cooperates closely with
unions, but mistreats workers in the United States and interferes with
their right to organize.
When unscrupulous employers fail to uphold labor standards for certain groups of workers, like undocumented immigrants, all U.S. workers suffer the consequences. By driving down labor standards to the lowest common denominator, it becomes harder to enforce laws and standards even for native-born workers.
In this report we focus on the balance between the DOL's need to protect workers' rights and ICE's mandate to enforce immigration laws. We examine how ICE's failure to fully participate in this balancing act has contributed to the creation of perverse incentives against complying with fair wage and hour laws, OSHA requirements, and labor laws that protect collective bargaining rights.
This report includes several case studies that illuminate the multiple ways ICE and the DOL could partner with each other and with other agencies to raise the floor on core labor standards.
In the American Rights at Work Education Fund's fifth annual Labor Day List,
we recognize successful partnerships between employers and their
employees’ labor unions that are working well in an uncertain global
economy. Employers showcased in this year's report walk the walk when it comes
to respecting their own workers’ rights, and now they are going a step
further by standing up on behalf of all U.S. workers. Every business
profiled in this year's report has spoken out on the need for
meaningful labor law reform. By supporting the Employee Free Choice
Act, legislation making it easier for workers to choose to form a
union, a new generation of visionary employers is laying the foundation
for the financial well-being of workers and businesses alike.
Unions have a long history of leadership on designing and promoting
innovative and effective job training and apprenticeship programs that
benefit workers, businesses, and local communities. Now more than ever
this country needs workers to have a voice at the table to ensure that
the challenges of a new economy are met with fair and effective
policies.
American Rights at Work is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively with employers.
Publications 
Deutsche Telekom's U.S. Labor Practices
