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CWA Fights Power Grab for Disney by Union Foe Comcast
Comcast Communications' initial $54 billion bid to buy the Walt Disney Co. was rejected by Disney's board of directors but that hasn't thwarted the union-busting cable giant.
Comcast is still aggressively going after Disney for its valuable programming and content, which includes ABC, ESPN, other cable channels, and extensive movie and video production.
CWA is fighting Comcast's power grab, raising critical issues on Capitol Hill and with regulators, joining with consumer groups that object to Comcast's existing monopoly power, alerting the public to the company's abuses and warning shareholders about bad corporate governance policies.
In a joint letter to members of Congress, CWA President Morton Bahr and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers President Ed Hill outlined why Comcast's proposed takeover of Disney is a bad idea.
They cited Comcast's "horrendous record of abusing employees, gouging customers and bullying communities where it operates" and said "Comcast is one of the most aggressively anti-union companies in America," detailing the cable giant's campaigns to decertify workers at AT&T Broadband units that it purchased in 2002.
Both unions have battled Comcast's anti-union attitude for years, and NABET-CWA's 2,500 members at Disney's ABC television network want no part of a merged media behemoth led by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, they wrote.
Comcast's monopoly control over a third of the nation's home cable boxes has allowed it to drive up costs every year by four times the rate of inflation. And when communities stand up to Comcast and demand higher quality service, or fine the company for failing to meet electrical code standards, Comcast lawyers have filed lawsuits against cities such as San Jose and Modesto, Calif.
"Considering Comcast's track record of abuse and contempt for regulation, a mega-merger of Comcast and Disney offers a nightmare specter of raw, unrestrained media power," Bahr and Hill wrote.
Message to Shareholders
Outside the Disney annual meeting in Philadelphia, CWA members, led by District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano, leafleted shareholders about Comcast's bad corporate governance practices.
They told shareholders that Disney's valuable image and reputation could be harmed by a Comcast takeover, since Comcast is known for "rejecting corporate democracy, ignoring community standards on cable and electrical safety issues, violating customers' privacy and trampling on the First Amendment rights of employees."
Despite Comcast's efforts to exclude it, a proposal on corporate governance, brought by the CWA pension fund, will be included in the shareholder proxy at the Comcast annual meeting in May.
The CWA pension fund has called for an end to the undemocratic voting structure at Comcast, which permits CEO Brian Roberts and his family to control 33 percent of the voting power, despite owning less than 1 percent of the market value of Comcast. This policy diminishes the voting power of public shareholders, who have provided the majority of the company's equity capital, and is contrary to the one share-one vote principle endorsed by most institutional investors.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka also raised corporate governance concerns with C. Michael Armstrong, chairman of the Comcast board, telling him that CEO Roberts' position as chair of the governance and directors nominating committee "is incompatible with current corporate governance standards." Trumka called on the Comcast board of directors "to take the necessary steps to amend Comcast's charter" and implement the needed reforms.
Key members of Congress have already expressed concern about the mega-merger.
The deal "may well pose a risk to competition in the marketplace of ideas and diversity of news, information and entertainment available to the American public," said Senators Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), the leaders of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on anti-trust, in a joint statement.
Comcast is still aggressively going after Disney for its valuable programming and content, which includes ABC, ESPN, other cable channels, and extensive movie and video production.
CWA is fighting Comcast's power grab, raising critical issues on Capitol Hill and with regulators, joining with consumer groups that object to Comcast's existing monopoly power, alerting the public to the company's abuses and warning shareholders about bad corporate governance policies.
In a joint letter to members of Congress, CWA President Morton Bahr and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers President Ed Hill outlined why Comcast's proposed takeover of Disney is a bad idea.
They cited Comcast's "horrendous record of abusing employees, gouging customers and bullying communities where it operates" and said "Comcast is one of the most aggressively anti-union companies in America," detailing the cable giant's campaigns to decertify workers at AT&T Broadband units that it purchased in 2002.
Both unions have battled Comcast's anti-union attitude for years, and NABET-CWA's 2,500 members at Disney's ABC television network want no part of a merged media behemoth led by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, they wrote.
Comcast's monopoly control over a third of the nation's home cable boxes has allowed it to drive up costs every year by four times the rate of inflation. And when communities stand up to Comcast and demand higher quality service, or fine the company for failing to meet electrical code standards, Comcast lawyers have filed lawsuits against cities such as San Jose and Modesto, Calif.
"Considering Comcast's track record of abuse and contempt for regulation, a mega-merger of Comcast and Disney offers a nightmare specter of raw, unrestrained media power," Bahr and Hill wrote.
Message to Shareholders
Outside the Disney annual meeting in Philadelphia, CWA members, led by District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano, leafleted shareholders about Comcast's bad corporate governance practices.
They told shareholders that Disney's valuable image and reputation could be harmed by a Comcast takeover, since Comcast is known for "rejecting corporate democracy, ignoring community standards on cable and electrical safety issues, violating customers' privacy and trampling on the First Amendment rights of employees."
Despite Comcast's efforts to exclude it, a proposal on corporate governance, brought by the CWA pension fund, will be included in the shareholder proxy at the Comcast annual meeting in May.
The CWA pension fund has called for an end to the undemocratic voting structure at Comcast, which permits CEO Brian Roberts and his family to control 33 percent of the voting power, despite owning less than 1 percent of the market value of Comcast. This policy diminishes the voting power of public shareholders, who have provided the majority of the company's equity capital, and is contrary to the one share-one vote principle endorsed by most institutional investors.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka also raised corporate governance concerns with C. Michael Armstrong, chairman of the Comcast board, telling him that CEO Roberts' position as chair of the governance and directors nominating committee "is incompatible with current corporate governance standards." Trumka called on the Comcast board of directors "to take the necessary steps to amend Comcast's charter" and implement the needed reforms.
Key members of Congress have already expressed concern about the mega-merger.
The deal "may well pose a risk to competition in the marketplace of ideas and diversity of news, information and entertainment available to the American public," said Senators Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), the leaders of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on anti-trust, in a joint statement.