Labor & Employment Law

West Virginia Workers: Verizon-Frontier Deal Would Be a Disaster

By James Parks

Nearly 200 workers from West Virginia, including members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the West Virginia AFL-CIO and community supporters rallied this afternoon at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, D.C., to protest the sale of landlines in their state, which they say would be disastrous.

Verizon is selling its landlines in West Virginia and 13 other states to Frontier Communications, a small Connecticut-based rural phone company. The sale would put $3.3 billion into Verizon’s coffers, along with a $600 million tax break, and leave Frontier buried in debt.

Less than three years after Verizon’s sale of its New England landlines to FairPoint Communications, FairPoint has filed for bankruptcy. Now, workers face cutbacks and job losses and customers complain about deteriorating service and the lack of high-speed broadband and other new technologies. Hawaiian Telecom also filed for bankruptcy after Verizon used the same tax loophole to dump its landlines in Hawaii.

If the Verizon-Frontier deal is approved, Frontier would be saddled with some $3.3 billion in debt while consumers and workers in the 14 states would be in the same dire situation as those in New England and Hawaii.

As CWA Vice President Ron Collins told the crowd:

This deal will pad the pockets of Wall Street executives while only deepening the digital divide.

Following the rally, CWA President Larry Cohen met with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. Collins and a group of CWA members met with the chief of staff for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and other commission officials. During the meetings, Elaine Harris, a CWA representative, delivered petitions signed by more than 5,000 West Virginia citizens and letters from 71 West Virginia state legislators and 18 county commissions opposing the deal.

If approved, the proposed deal also would seriously hinder the FCC’s new National Broadband Plan. 

The FCC’s five commissioners can deny the deal if a majority determines that it isn’t in the public interest. In March, an administrative law judge recommended that the Illinois Commerce Commission reject the Verizon-Frontier application. Similarly, the West Virginia Public Service Commission staff and the state’s consumer advocate strongly oppose the deal.

The FCC is expected to take up the case after the states have concluded their reviews.

To learn more about why citizens are mobilizing to stop the Verizon sale to Frontier, click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 01, 2010 (boomark / email).