T-Mobile and MetroPCS admit merger will lead to job loss

Mar 5, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC – In a filing on Monday with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Communications Workers of America (CWA) said solid evidence provided by T-Mobile to the FCC show that – absent conditions – the merged T-Mobile-MetroPCS will cut a significant number of jobs in the United States, despite claims to the contrary from T-Mobile and MetroPCS.

After the FCC forced T-Mobile and MetroPCS to substantiate their initial claims of job growth, the companies admitted there will actually be “job reductions.” According to the CWA filing, the companies now attempt to characterize those jobs losses as a “relatively small number.” CWA pointed out, through document after document, why the Applicant’s characterizations just are not true. The synergies touted by T-Mobile and MetroPCS are indeed euphemisms for firing workers, and CWA believes the numbers reflected in those documents are significant, not “small.”

“The CWA filing indicates that before making a decision on the merger, it is critical that the FCC understand the specific job impacts of the ‘synergies,’” said CWA Telecommunications Policy Director Debbie Goldman. “The FCC should add conditions to any deal that would keep the ‘synergies’ from evolving into a fancy word for ‘firings,' as is now the case.”

Last Friday, in a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Julius Genachowski, 62 members of Congress told the FCC that the proposed joining of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS should include specific commitments to preserve and grow jobs here in the United States.

The congressional letter built on comments filed previously by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and a wide range of national public service organizations that include the NAACP, AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Sierra Club, National Consumers League, Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Community Change, Jobs with Justice and USAction.

State and local officials – including mayors in Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia – also previously filed letters with the FCC urging substantive commitments to protect existing jobs, as well as expand opportunities in the United States.

If approved, the transaction would combine T-Mobile, with 30,000 employees and 33.2 million customers with MetroPCS, which directly employs 3,700 to service about 9.3 million customers.

The ex parte filing can be found at http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022127468http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022127468

To read the release online, click here.

T-Mobile and MetroPCS admit merger will lead to job loss (CWA news release, Mar. 5, 2013)