On September 21, 15 Members of the California Democratic Congressional Delegation sent a letter to Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann urging him to “take action and implement a policy of fair and equitable labor relations between T-Mobile and their employees, one similar to the policy in Germany.” The Members of Congress express their concern about the double standard in labor relations that T-Mobile is perpetuating by denying American workers the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Check out why Love is in the air at T-Mobile, why managemet seems to be too scared to talk to elected officials, why T-Mobile doesn’t want their employees to exercise their right to freedom of speech and much more in our latest news update about our campaign for respect at T-Mobile USA.

(Editors Note: This is a re-post of the diary I posted last Labor Day. Reading it over it still all applies. Happy Labor Day)

Today is Labor Day. Hopefully you will be taking some time off and either are reading this after taking a break from yard work or better on Tuesday. Labor Day has always had a special place in my life. I am the Grandson and Nephew and Cousin of several life long UAW workers. Growing up in Michigan this is not an uncommon experience, but living here in the West, I find it stunning how people view unions and the Labor movement in general. Today I would like to take a little time and give a bit of tribute to the Union members in my family.

Grandpa Mike was a lot of things; he was an Irish immigrant, he was an alcoholic, he was the father of 13 children, Mom being the oldest. He worked in the Ford factories most of his adult life. He was a line worker when the work on the line was much harder, more physical and dirtier than it is today. He was a member of the UAW because he understood the power of the worker could only be exercised when it was exercised collectively. Being an UAW member meant he could have a chance to give his huge family a shot at a better life. I won’t sugar coat it, having 13 kids meant there was not a lot to go around in his family, but without bargaining power of the Union, it would have been far, far less. Grandpa Mike died 24 years ago. To this day the pension the Union negotiated for him helps to support Herself (that’s what we call the Matriarch of our sprawling Irish family). He gave a life of work to Ford Motor Company and for it his wife was taken care of when he died.

In a report released today, Human Rights Watch issued a scathing indictment of Deutsche Telekom’s union intolerance practices in the United States.

Last week T-Mobile released a new Social Networking Policy that was leaked to us. This policy basically prohibits T-Mobile employees from talking about about their work and the real T-Mobile on Facebook, Twitter, JobVent or www.TUworkers.org without revealing their identiy.

It has been quite a busy time in our campaign to help T-Mobile workers to get a voice at work. Our dear friends Ado Wilhelm and Kornelia Dubbel from the German union ver.di spent 10 days in the U.S. meeting with T-Mobile workers, visiting a T-Mobile call center, addressing the CWA convention and planning the next stages of our campaign.

Unionized bank workers from Brazil, England, Chile, Germany, and Uruguay are encouraging American workers to undertake an unprecedented campaign against a common enemy: Grupo Santander,

A new study about Internet regulation and job losses is part of a desperate strategy to spread fear and obscure the facts about Nat Neutrality, and pave the way for carrier control over online content.

This week’s news and updates from the campaign for justice at T-Mobile. Find out more about how family un-friendly T-Mobile is, how Catherine Zeta-Jones is stealing all your network and how you can take your cell phone complaints to the tippety-T-op.

On July 1st, Republican Members of Congress sent a letter to Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann broaching the issue of union avoidance at the company’s U.S. subsidiary T-Mobile USA.