INSULTS AND EMBARASSMENT FOR AMERICAN LABOR

"European companies with high employment standards at home view the U.S. workplace as an off-shore source of cheap labor."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and German labor leaders announced a transatlantic alliance on Wednesday aimed at persuading Germany's giant Deutsche Telekom AG 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 U.S. subsidiary's managers. Of the other three top U.S. mobile phone services -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel Corp -- only No. 2-ranked AT&T has a significant union presence, with about 40,000 CWA members on its payroll.

The new alliance comes at a time when the U.S. labor movement hopes Democrats in the White House and Congress can help stem decades of eroding union influence that accelerated sharply under former Republican President George W. Bush. Labor leaders complain that U.S. labor rights are among the weakest in the industrialized world and charge that European companies with high employment standards at home view the U.S. workplace as an off-shore source of cheap labor.

"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," said CWA President Larry Cohen, who expects other cross-border deals as trade unions try to enhance their influence in the global economy.

Under the agreement, Ver.di will use its seats on Deutsche Telekom's supervisory board to press German managers to accept union representation at T-Mobile USA and then coordinate any bargaining that follows. A unionized T-Mobile USA workforce could add substantially to Ver.di's clout. The U.S. subsidiary accounts for nearly 25 percent of Deutsche Telekom's annual revenues and Wilhelm said T-Mobile's business helped maintain the parent company's stability during the economic downturn.