* CWA, Ver.di form new 'TUnion' for T-Mobile USA workers
* Ver.di to represent US workers, CWA to top Telekom execs
* CWA plans expanded push for dialogue with T-Mobile USA
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - U.S. and German union
leaders on Wednesday announced a trans-Atlantic alliance aimed
at persuading Germany's giant Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) to
allow collective bargaining at its subsidiary, T-Mobile USA.
Under the agreement, which U.S. labor officials called
unprecedented, German trade union Ver.di will represent
T-Mobile USA workers and the Communications Workers of America
in talks with Deutsche Telekom managers in Bonn.
CWA, which has been unable to establish representation at
T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. mobile phone service, said it
would also launch a new effort to organize workers and open a
dialogue with the subsidiary's managers.
CWA President Larry Cohen said the alliance would create a
new labor organization called TUnion that would seek to end
what he called a "double standard" between Deutsche Telekom's
healthy labor relations in Europe and anti-labor practices in
the United States.
The U.S. union accuses T-Mobile USA of subjecting union
supporters on its payroll to illegal surveillance and
intimidation.
Representatives of T-Mobile USA had no immediate comment.
"We expect Deutsche Telekom to operate far above the
minimum in the United States," Cohen told reporters.
"We're really here to say to multinational companies, in
this case Deutsche Telekom, we're tired of the face of
cooperation in Germany ... and then the stick in the United
States, the club of intolerance."
(Reporting by David Morgan, editing by Matthew Lewis)
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