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European Unions Join in Blasting Sprint-MCI WorldCom Merger
Union delegates representing 7.5 million telecommunications and information technology workers in the United States and European Union countries have taken a strong message to members of the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium: The European Commission must block the proposed $130 billion merger of Sprint and MCI WorldCom.
It was the first time organized labor on both sides of the Atlantic has lobbied against a merger on an international level.
Meanwhile, at home, the proposed deal took broadsides from CWA members at Sprint and MCI WorldCom special meetings where shareholders voted on the merger, and from the Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank that released a detailed study showing the merger “would greatly stunt competition and be detrimental to consumers.”
Trans-Atlantic Solidarity
Forty officials from unions comprising the telecommunications and IT sector of Union Network International — including three from CWA — gave a detailed presentation and visited with 25 members of the European Union Parliament on April 19 and 20.
“Unions from every country in Europe are with us on this, dealing with two anti-union American companies that want to monopolize the Internet,” said CWA President Morton Bahr, who heads UNI’s worldwide telecom sector.
“This is a great example of international trade unionism,” said Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. “This is the real answer to multinational corporations that ignore the public interest and workers’ rights. Together, we can make a difference.”
Representing CWA were Eduardo Diaz, international affairs director and administrative assistant to Cohen; Sumanta Ray, research economist; and Rocky Barnes, president of Local 3680, which represents 650 Sprint workers in North Carolina.
“When I began working for Sprint, it was a local telephone company that cared about its customers,” Barnes told members of Parliament. “That has changed. Sprint has transformed itself into a global corporation, with a focus on long distance, wireless and Internet services. It has taken an aggressive stance against the union and a low-wage approach toward its employees.
“Sprint does not care about its eight million local customers,” Barnes continued, “and is not investing in the plant and operations that serve the customers where my members work. These customers are paying more but getting less.”
European unionists presented their own views on why the merger should not take place.
“This is an attempt to hijack the Internet from its basic, historic purpose,” said Simon Petch, representing CONNECT, one of two United Kingdom telecom unions in attendance. “If you were to reinvent the Internet, would you start with a monopoly?” he asked.
Jeannie Drake and Billy McClory, also from the UK, on behalf of the Communication Workers Union, spoke out against the merger, as did Statis Anestis of the Federation of Workers in Greek Telecommunications and Manuel da Silva of the Portuguese Telecomunications union.
“It is clear that this merger will give Sprint-MCI WorldCom a dominant position in the European and world Internet backbone market that is not acceptable and should be rejected by the Commission,” said Mel Read, a United Kingdom member of Parliament. Read chairs a delegation of Parliament that will visit the United States and meet with members of Congress in June.
On the Home Front
In Kansas City, Mo., members of area Locals 6327 and 6372 leafleted outside a special meeting of Sprint shareholders, held for the sole purpose of voting on the merger.
Members of Locals 6372 and 6174 paraded into the meeting, where John Howard, assistant to CWA’s Telecommunications Vice President T.O. Moses, gave voice to the union’s objections to the merger based upon excessive concentration of Internet backbone ownership and reduced quality of service for Sprint’s telecom customers.
“This concern stems primarily from the fact that the merger is not about building local service quality, but about capturing a bigger piece of the Internet and long distance markets,” Howard stressed. “We do not believe this makes sense when consumers are screaming for high quality service.”
The same day, in Clinton, Miss., where MCI WorldCom shareholders met to vote on the merger, Kim Kennedy, president CWA Local 3511, distributed copies of investment analyst Scott Cleland’s report predicting the Department of Justice will block the merger because it fails most commonly accepted antitrust tests.
It was the first time organized labor on both sides of the Atlantic has lobbied against a merger on an international level.
Meanwhile, at home, the proposed deal took broadsides from CWA members at Sprint and MCI WorldCom special meetings where shareholders voted on the merger, and from the Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank that released a detailed study showing the merger “would greatly stunt competition and be detrimental to consumers.”
Trans-Atlantic Solidarity
Forty officials from unions comprising the telecommunications and IT sector of Union Network International — including three from CWA — gave a detailed presentation and visited with 25 members of the European Union Parliament on April 19 and 20.
“Unions from every country in Europe are with us on this, dealing with two anti-union American companies that want to monopolize the Internet,” said CWA President Morton Bahr, who heads UNI’s worldwide telecom sector.
“This is a great example of international trade unionism,” said Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. “This is the real answer to multinational corporations that ignore the public interest and workers’ rights. Together, we can make a difference.”
Representing CWA were Eduardo Diaz, international affairs director and administrative assistant to Cohen; Sumanta Ray, research economist; and Rocky Barnes, president of Local 3680, which represents 650 Sprint workers in North Carolina.
“When I began working for Sprint, it was a local telephone company that cared about its customers,” Barnes told members of Parliament. “That has changed. Sprint has transformed itself into a global corporation, with a focus on long distance, wireless and Internet services. It has taken an aggressive stance against the union and a low-wage approach toward its employees.
“Sprint does not care about its eight million local customers,” Barnes continued, “and is not investing in the plant and operations that serve the customers where my members work. These customers are paying more but getting less.”
European unionists presented their own views on why the merger should not take place.
“This is an attempt to hijack the Internet from its basic, historic purpose,” said Simon Petch, representing CONNECT, one of two United Kingdom telecom unions in attendance. “If you were to reinvent the Internet, would you start with a monopoly?” he asked.
Jeannie Drake and Billy McClory, also from the UK, on behalf of the Communication Workers Union, spoke out against the merger, as did Statis Anestis of the Federation of Workers in Greek Telecommunications and Manuel da Silva of the Portuguese Telecomunications union.
“It is clear that this merger will give Sprint-MCI WorldCom a dominant position in the European and world Internet backbone market that is not acceptable and should be rejected by the Commission,” said Mel Read, a United Kingdom member of Parliament. Read chairs a delegation of Parliament that will visit the United States and meet with members of Congress in June.
On the Home Front
In Kansas City, Mo., members of area Locals 6327 and 6372 leafleted outside a special meeting of Sprint shareholders, held for the sole purpose of voting on the merger.
Members of Locals 6372 and 6174 paraded into the meeting, where John Howard, assistant to CWA’s Telecommunications Vice President T.O. Moses, gave voice to the union’s objections to the merger based upon excessive concentration of Internet backbone ownership and reduced quality of service for Sprint’s telecom customers.
“This concern stems primarily from the fact that the merger is not about building local service quality, but about capturing a bigger piece of the Internet and long distance markets,” Howard stressed. “We do not believe this makes sense when consumers are screaming for high quality service.”
The same day, in Clinton, Miss., where MCI WorldCom shareholders met to vote on the merger, Kim Kennedy, president CWA Local 3511, distributed copies of investment analyst Scott Cleland’s report predicting the Department of Justice will block the merger because it fails most commonly accepted antitrust tests.