CWA's Weitkamp: Workers, Consumers Lose in Proposed Comcast-NBCU Merger

The proposed Comcast-NBCU merger would lead to job cuts, aggravate the already anti-competitive behavior of the cable industry and restrict consumer access to the online video content of their choice, CWA District 9 Vice President James Weitkamp told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee at a field hearing Monday in Los Angeles.

Weitkamp said the merger "is not in the public interest" and will have a huge impact on video competition, choice and jobs. He said the two companies already have begun to deploy a "TV Everywhere" model that forces people to buy cable packages in order to see content online.

By reducing competition and increasing the companies' debt by $8 billion, Weitkamp said the merger would force Comcast/NBCU to cut jobs and/or raise prices that have already grown three times faster than inflation. "Either way, consumers and workers lose," he said.

CWA is also greatly concerned about Comcast's long anti-union track record, illegally blocking organizing drives and refusing to bargain fair contracts even after workers have voted multiple times for representation. After Comcast acquired AT&T Broadband in 2002, for example, it refused to reach an agreement on a first contract with 16 of the organized bargaining units it bought from AT&T Broadband, including those in Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento and Los Angeles, Calif.

"Comcast wages and benefits trail those at unionized telecom companies by about one-third," Weitkamp said. "This has a considerable impact on minority workers, who comprise about one-third of the workforce in this sector."

Weitkamp's comments echoed testimony by CWA President Larry Cohen earlier this year before the full House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill.