AT&T's WarnerMedia/Discovery Deal Needs More Scrutiny

AT&T announced a plan this week to spin off its WarnerMedia division and combine it into a new company with Discovery. CWA is concerned about the impact of this plan on media workers' jobs and wages and is calling for greater scrutiny from regulators.

Three years ago, CWA supported AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner after assurances that workers at the new company would be able to join a union without interference from management and engage in collective bargaining.

AT&T did not keep its promise to the workers. Instead of honoring CWA's long standing voluntary union recognition agreement, the company launched a court battle to dodge its contractual commitments to respect workers' organizing rights.

Now, AT&T is touting the $3 billion in "synergies" that the merger will create between Warner Media and Discovery. Synergies are almost always another way of saying job cuts, and in the absence of union representation and collective bargaining agreements, consolidation is likely to result in lower wages across the industry as workers have fewer options for employment.

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