News

Attorneys general file suit to block T-Mobile-Sprint merger

21 Jun, 2019

New York Attorney General Letitia James and a group of attorneys general from nine states and the District of Columbia issued an antitrust complaint this week to block the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger, with James calling it "exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent." This is a critical step towards stopping these two corporate giants from gaining excessive market power at the expense of workers, customers, and communities.

CWA has been a leading opponent of the deal and has kept concerns about job loss and lower wages in the wireless industry at the center of the discussion.

CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor joined James for the announcement of the antitrust action. The merger "would mean less demand for the labor of wireless workers, driving down wages and benefits across the industry," Trainor said. "T-Mobile and Sprint also have a long history of interfering with their workers' freedom to join a union. Without collective bargaining, T-Mobile and Sprint workers have virtually no capacity to protect themselves from the negative impact of this merger."

Analysis from CWA has shown that the merger would mean 30,000 lost jobs across the country, higher prices for consumers, and would not improve rural broadband coverage. CWA has launched a website with information about the effects of the merger, including detailed state-by-state information about job loss.