Speeches
Speech in front of the Telekom headquarters in Bonn on November 13, 2002 (approx. 6000 participants)
(The spoken word prevails)
Dear colleagues,
For months now, we have been experiencing week after week and day after day how Deutsche Telekom lurches from one negative headline to the next and how the Board of Management, interested parties from politics and business and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board never miss a chance to step on the wrong foot and cause damage to the company.
Damage that the employees then have to pay for by losing their jobs.
What kind of Board of Directors produces well over 60 billion in debt and then acts as if it has come upon them like the weather? What kind of a Board of Directors is it that develops nothing but bizarre visions, whose visions then lead to increasingly strange reorganizations that are now past the sell-by date of a white sausage?
This has nothing to do with responsibility for tens of thousands of jobs - it is the gambling mentality of Monopoly players. They are playing Monopoly with our jobs, but in this game, unfortunately, some playing fields are missing, for example the field "Go to the PRISON - go there directly, don't go via "LOS and don't collect a multi-digit million sum as severance pay.
This must stop immediately. The perfidious regulation by the neoliberal Eurocrats in Brussels and the German politicians chasing after neoliberalism, who are using the regulatory authority to implement their outdated ideas and regulate Telekom to death, must also stop.
Let me be very clear: anyone who believes that the destruction of tens of thousands of well-paid jobs will create anywhere near as many jobs at competing companies has missed the reality of recent years. All that is happening here is a massive redistribution from the bottom to the top. Deutsche Telekom has arrived in ordinary capitalism.
Dear colleagues,
In the area of Germany where my colleagues and I come from, we have jobs in the telecommunications sector with an hourly wage of around 2 to 4 euros - if this is the result of the new era, of globalization, then we trade unionists can confidently do without it.
That is also the reason why we are protesting here today. Because we are tired of always and exclusively taking responsibility for settling the damage caused by highly paid so-called executives.
In the meantime, the damage has become so great that over 50,000 people at Telekom are to lose their jobs. 50,000 colleagues who have worked faithfully and reliably at Deutsche Telekom for years and decades to this day.
50,000 jobs means that around 150,000 people will be affected - that's the population of an entire city. And this will not be the end if we do not take a firm stand. Mr. Chancellor, Mr. Finance Minister, you still represent the largest shareholder, the "BUND" - I ask you, how many "resin papers" do you actually want to have produced to compensate for this number of endangered jobs? I ask them: "Where do you stand on this issue? Do you stand with us or with the global rip-off artists?"
We expressly express our solidarity with our colleagues at "MobilCom", where around 6000 jobs are to fall victim to the same pattern.
Here the Chancellor was ready to intervene in a matter of seconds - well, it was an election campaign - we expect Gerhard Schröder and Hans Eichel to act quickly and consistently, even against the outcry of those association representatives who are already lurking to take Telekom as a tasty morsel.
I say: "Those who believe they can lean back and do nothing with a steady hand should not be surprised if tomorrow the clenched fist of ver.di knocks on their door".
This also applies to the opposition. We no longer want politics and politicians who give the impression that the old farmer's adage - the troughs stay, only the pigs change - applies.
According to everything we know so far, around 22% of jobs in the MVC sector are to be cut in the West, while in the East the average figure is 33 to over 44%. Here I continue to trust the statement made by the Labour Director, Dr. Klinkhammer, at the works council meeting that there will be no special sacrifice in the east. We do not want a special sacrifice in the east We do not want a special sacrifice in the area versus the conurbation. We do not want any further sacrifice of employees at all and we will also make sure that no bean counters from head office end up making up the figures for us.
We are also lamenting the first victim of the planned staff cuts. The suicide of our colleague Michael Ortleb after the clearing procedure makes it clear that no matter how you think about it, the trivializers (including in our ranks) have already begun their work to shift the responsibility for this suicide to others or to the deceased himself. - Ultimately, the fact remains that a person is no longer alive because they could no longer live with the situation that characterized their working relationship. We need to become more aware of the fact that the intended destruction of jobs is not just about money. It is also about people's dignity - it is about the fact that a person who has contributed their skills, knowledge and personality to Deutsche Telekom for many years and decades is simply to be lent out like a thing or, even better, deported, while the people who caused it never have to get to know this feeling.
We have to keep reminding ourselves of the inhumanity of neoliberalism and normal casino capitalism. From now on, this issue must be at the forefront of every works meeting and the management must come under such pressure that they cannot avoid passing this pressure on to the head office. I am sure that a large number of angry voters will also write letters to the main shareholders Gerhard Schröder and Hans Eichel to make them think, because you meet at least twice in life.
Today well over 5000 people have gathered here to protest, that is one tenth of the intended job destruction. If this doesn't stop immediately, the other people affected may be standing outside the door tomorrow to protest.
Dear colleagues, let us not let up in our protest and continue to fight consistently for our endangered jobs.
