Europe's largest telecommunications company has angered union officials with plans to "streamline" its workforce to cut labor costs and increase profitability. German firm Deutsche Telekom AG has been besieged in recent years with intensified domestic competition and falling prices, and last month issued a plan to cut wages and layoff as many as 8,000 workers. Complicating matters is the fact that one fourth of the company's 236,000 workers are German civil servants with strong job guarantees, and an ownership structure that places one third of the company's shares in the hands of the German government. German union Ver.di pledged to fight job cuts tooth and nail, and to keep telecom wages where they are.
See "Deutsche Telekom, Union Clash", Mike Esterl, The Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2008