Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Justice Dept. Approves SBC-Ameritech Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice has given the go-ahead to the merger of SBC Communications and Ameritech.
CWA President Morton Bahr applauded the action and called on the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators to move forward on approval, because of the substantial benefits the merger will bring to workers and consumers. The merger still must be approved by the FCC and public commissions of Illinois and Ohio.
The merger will enable SBC to move into 30 new national markets and will create some 8,000 quality, good-wage jobs, Bahr noted. It will bring customers added choice and access to information technology and will spur continued competition among providers, he added. CWA represents about 76,000 SBC employees and another 30,000 at Ameritech.
Bahr strongly challenged statements by anonymous FCC sources that the agency might delay or derail the SBC-Ameritech and GTE-Bell Atlantic mergers by imposing additional conditions on the deals that would make it very difficult to win approval.
"Instead of blocking these transactions, regulators should be expediting these mergers which will create quality, high-tech jobs for workers and will bring expanded benefits of information technology - local and long distance service, wireless, data services and Internet access - to consumers," he declared.
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has called on FCC chairman William E. Kennard to move forward on approval of both mergers; the SBC-Ameritech merger also has won the support of shareholders of both companies, European regulators, industry analysts and others.
Telecom is a huge, growing industry, one that will reach a worth of $1.8 trillion by 2002. Regional U.S. telecom companies like Ameritech, SBC, Bell Atlantic and GTE must be able to expand beyond their traditional areas to be able to compete with national and global providers like AT&T and MCI-WorldCom, Bahr pointed out.
"But it seems that mergers involving local telecom companies - including those that have resulted in new jobs - are facing much tougher scrutiny by regulators than some other deals, such as the MCI-WorldCom merger which so far has resulted in 3,500 layoffs and less choice for customers in local service," Bahr said.
This issue is the focus of an analysis just completed by CWA which indicates that local telecom companies face inequitable treatment that is at odds with the goals of telecommunications reform.
The report, "Telecommunications Merger Policy: The Double Standard Hurts Workers and Consumers," states that this biased treatment is based on an outdated view of the telecom industry, one that fails to take into account the changes in the industry brought about by new technology and 1996 telecommunications reform.
Among the report's findings:
Currently, regional telephone companies face handicaps and hurdles that other carriers don't. For example, new, unregulated companies and other long distance carriers can offer consumers a full range of services - local, long distance, data, wireless and more - while the Bell regional companies face intense regulatory barriers to entering the long distance market.
onal telecom companies must provide universal service. CWA believes that this policy must be expanded to include advanced telecom services. But to achieve this, regional telecom companies must be able to grow and to retain high-revenue business customers that help support the costs of universal service.
CWA President Morton Bahr applauded the action and called on the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators to move forward on approval, because of the substantial benefits the merger will bring to workers and consumers. The merger still must be approved by the FCC and public commissions of Illinois and Ohio.
The merger will enable SBC to move into 30 new national markets and will create some 8,000 quality, good-wage jobs, Bahr noted. It will bring customers added choice and access to information technology and will spur continued competition among providers, he added. CWA represents about 76,000 SBC employees and another 30,000 at Ameritech.
Bahr strongly challenged statements by anonymous FCC sources that the agency might delay or derail the SBC-Ameritech and GTE-Bell Atlantic mergers by imposing additional conditions on the deals that would make it very difficult to win approval.
"Instead of blocking these transactions, regulators should be expediting these mergers which will create quality, high-tech jobs for workers and will bring expanded benefits of information technology - local and long distance service, wireless, data services and Internet access - to consumers," he declared.
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has called on FCC chairman William E. Kennard to move forward on approval of both mergers; the SBC-Ameritech merger also has won the support of shareholders of both companies, European regulators, industry analysts and others.
Telecom is a huge, growing industry, one that will reach a worth of $1.8 trillion by 2002. Regional U.S. telecom companies like Ameritech, SBC, Bell Atlantic and GTE must be able to expand beyond their traditional areas to be able to compete with national and global providers like AT&T and MCI-WorldCom, Bahr pointed out.
"But it seems that mergers involving local telecom companies - including those that have resulted in new jobs - are facing much tougher scrutiny by regulators than some other deals, such as the MCI-WorldCom merger which so far has resulted in 3,500 layoffs and less choice for customers in local service," Bahr said.
This issue is the focus of an analysis just completed by CWA which indicates that local telecom companies face inequitable treatment that is at odds with the goals of telecommunications reform.
The report, "Telecommunications Merger Policy: The Double Standard Hurts Workers and Consumers," states that this biased treatment is based on an outdated view of the telecom industry, one that fails to take into account the changes in the industry brought about by new technology and 1996 telecommunications reform.
Among the report's findings: