Holding Verizon and Big Cable Accountable

The war is not over. There's still one more battle to fight!

At the end of August, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously voted to approve the terms of a deal between Verizon and Big Cable companies, including Time Warner and Comcast, that will give them a virtual monopoly of the nation’s cable and Internet services and eliminate thousands of future jobs if Verizon halts the buildout of its FiOS high-speed network, as expected.

CWA members worked hard to stop the deal, with some successes along the way. In the end, Big Business won this battle.

But the war is not over. We’re still fighting to bridge the digital divide and keep Verizon’s high-speed FiOS network expanding. More FiOS means more good jobs.

We made a difference.

Although our efforts to stop the Verizon/Big Cable deal didn’t succeed, we made a difference by reaching out to, and influencing, a broad group of supporters. In the months leading up to the FCC decision, CWA activists convinced dozens of members of Congress, mayors, attorneys general, and thousands of ordinary citizens to join us in opposing the deal.

Workers rallied at Congressman Steve Israel’s New York offices to make sure he supported our position after he initially refused to sign on. Workers shouted: “Friends don’t let friends lose jobs!” He and other members of Congress ended up declaring strong opposition to the deal.

In Baltimore, union members and concerned allies marched on City Hall with the City Council President to oppose the job-killing Verizon deal. Tony Meeks, from Local 2108, explained the problem:

This company is turning its back on those who need high-speed Internet the most. Baltimore's inner city residents need FiOS, and we need the jobs that come with FiOS expansion.

Our protests even persuaded at least one FCC commissioner. Although she voted in favor of the deal, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn agreed with warnings voiced by CWA about the harm the new monopoly could do to ordinary consumers—especially those in poorer urban areas. Clyburn said:

CWA asserted that Verizon's decision not to build FiOS in certain areas within Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, and Syracuse, does not serve the public interest. According to CWA, at least 20% of the households in these areas where Verizon did not build FiOS were below the poverty line. For these reasons, CWA believes the Commission should adopt a condition requiring some buildout of FiOS in those areas . . .  I believe that the Commission, area governments and private industry must do everything in their power to deploy advanced communications services to low-income communities.

Commissioner Clyburn has promised to work with CWA in the future to try to close the digital divide, so that consumers in poorly served areas get the high-speed connections they need. We’ll hold her to that promise.

We still have a battle to fight: We must keep the pressure on Verizon and its new partners to make sure that they don’t leave poor urban neighborhoods or isolated rural consumers on the wrong side of the digital divide.