WVA Hearings Begin on Verizon-Frontier Deal, 800 Workers Rally in State Capitol

CWA's campaign against Verizon's plan to sell 4.8 million landlines in 14 states to Frontier gained support this week from witnesses who warned the West Virginia Public Service Commission to carefully scrutinize the deal.

Vermont state senator Vince Iluzzi told commissioners that Verizon's 2008 sale of its landlines to FairPoint had been a disaster for telephone service, consumers and workers in New England. "The only jobs they created were for the bankruptcy lawyers in New York City," said Iluzzi. "If you have any lingering doubts, don't hesitate to reject the deal," he told the PUC.

Public safety concerns were raised by Vermont firefighter Matt Vinci, who said 911 systems in Vermont and Maine failed four times after FairPoint acquired the lines. "As first responders in Vermont we were outraged," he said. ARRP's West Virginia state director, Gaylene Miller, warned that "consumers should be assured that this deal does not put customers at risk of rate increases or further deterioration of service quality."

The hearings opened in Charleston two days after a crowd of 800 CWAers, IBEW members and other activists, and elected officials, rallied at the state capitol. "Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont -- they can't repeat that here. Somewhere in this country a line is going to be drawn," said CWA President Larry Cohen. CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins told the group, "jobs will be lost and service will suffer."

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin energized the rally when he showed up and pledged his support for working families and consumers.

If approved, the deal will mean a $600 million tax savings for Verizon, but $3.3 billion in added debt for Frontier, making it very unlikely that Frontier could afford to build out high-speed broadband or provide other advanced telecommunications services. Allies in Congress have introduced legislation to close the "Reverse Morris Trust" tax loophole that permits companies from profiting from these kind of deals.

For more information, visit www.bad4wv.com.

Photo Captions: First photo, WVA Gov. Gov. Joe Manchin, right, joins CWAers, union activists and elected officials at a Charleston rally opposing the Verizon-Frontier deal. With Manchin is CWA District 2 VP Ron Collins. Second photo, CWA Pres. Larry Cohen calls for "no deal" on the Verizon-Frontier sale.