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CWA Raises Issues Over Sprint Local Phone Spinoff
Striking CWA Sprint locals in Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana continued to report strong labor and community support for their fight against huge concession demands this week. Meanwhile, CWA is raising concerns with state regulators over Sprint-Nextel's plan to spin off all of its local telephone operations next year, creating a new stand-alone company saddled with over $7 billion in debt.
"Sprint Nextel is setting up the new local telephone company for failure," said Jimmy Gurganus, CWA vice president for Telecommunications. "We are very concerned over whether there will even be a viable local phone company in a couple of years after a spinoff," he said.
Among questions and concerns are both the amount of debt to be shifted to the new local company and terms for repayment of the debt, as well as the terms of no-bid sales agreements to be imposed on the local phone company for exclusively selling and bundling Sprint wireless and long distance service. Sprint also appears to have no business plan for the as-yet unnamed new local company, according to CWA analysts.
Fourteen state regulatory commissions must approve the proposed spinoff. CWA so far has been granted standing to intervene in regulatory hearings in Missouri and Pennsylvania and has filed motions to intervene in others states. The spinoff plan also faces future scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission.
CWA's message to the public is that Sprint is abandoning rural America, turning its back on both workers and customers as it sheds the local companies that it has milked for years as cash cows to build its wireless business and acquire Nextel. Lack of investment in the local companies has led to a decline in the quality of Sprint service everywhere.
This week CWA launched a campaign to urge customers who use Sprint wireless and long distance services to switch to Cingular Wireless and AT&T. The AFL-CIO will be promoting the campaign to union families in all the strike states through activities of central labor councils as well as electronic communications with union members.
The strike, which began Oct. 10, involves about 1,000 Sprint workers who are battling demands to eliminate caps on health care premiums, slash disability benefits, cut seniority protections, eliminate overtime pay on Sundays, reduce 401(k) contributions, and other concessions.
CWA is still bargaining with Sprint, and facing the same takeback demands, in Butler, Pa., where the contract covering 42 workers represented by Local 13000 expires Oct. 31.
For more information and updates on the strike, go to www.cwa-telecom.org and click on the Unity@Sprint icon.
"Sprint Nextel is setting up the new local telephone company for failure," said Jimmy Gurganus, CWA vice president for Telecommunications. "We are very concerned over whether there will even be a viable local phone company in a couple of years after a spinoff," he said.
Among questions and concerns are both the amount of debt to be shifted to the new local company and terms for repayment of the debt, as well as the terms of no-bid sales agreements to be imposed on the local phone company for exclusively selling and bundling Sprint wireless and long distance service. Sprint also appears to have no business plan for the as-yet unnamed new local company, according to CWA analysts.
Fourteen state regulatory commissions must approve the proposed spinoff. CWA so far has been granted standing to intervene in regulatory hearings in Missouri and Pennsylvania and has filed motions to intervene in others states. The spinoff plan also faces future scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission.
CWA's message to the public is that Sprint is abandoning rural America, turning its back on both workers and customers as it sheds the local companies that it has milked for years as cash cows to build its wireless business and acquire Nextel. Lack of investment in the local companies has led to a decline in the quality of Sprint service everywhere.
This week CWA launched a campaign to urge customers who use Sprint wireless and long distance services to switch to Cingular Wireless and AT&T. The AFL-CIO will be promoting the campaign to union families in all the strike states through activities of central labor councils as well as electronic communications with union members.
The strike, which began Oct. 10, involves about 1,000 Sprint workers who are battling demands to eliminate caps on health care premiums, slash disability benefits, cut seniority protections, eliminate overtime pay on Sundays, reduce 401(k) contributions, and other concessions.
CWA is still bargaining with Sprint, and facing the same takeback demands, in Butler, Pa., where the contract covering 42 workers represented by Local 13000 expires Oct. 31.
For more information and updates on the strike, go to www.cwa-telecom.org and click on the Unity@Sprint icon.