Labor now supports media merger, Net dereg (fwd)

budge budge at el-pleasant.org
Tue Jun 18 06:50:21 PDT 2002


On Sat, 15 Jun 2002 at 7:40am Nathan Newman wrote:


> What ignorant uninformed peanut gallery analysis.
>
> Given that CWA changed its position,. have you even
> thought that maybe CWA extracted pro-worker concessions
> based on their previous campaign against the merger?

Just as long as you acknowledge that this is in CWA members' and Management's interests, not that it is in any way a victory for progressives or consumers. This of a kind with Teamsters and AIM endorsing ANWR drilling and Star Wars 'development'.


> As for Breaux-Nickles, current law encourages non-union
> ISPs to take union jobs away from union Bell companies,
> while putting no interconnection burdens on largel
> non-union cable companies in the broadband sector.

Hah, hah -- yer a funny guy! The RBOC's have been driving the CLEC's to bankruptcy with their monopolistic, foot dragging on opening up their networks.


> Lots of non-union Internet companies oppose Breaux-Nickles and oppose the
> CWA-AT&T merger, so it's just bullshit to play an inter-capital battle as
> some white hat fight. CWA is fighting for the right of workers to unionize
> without union busting terrorism, and they have been very skilled in using
> merger fights and regulatory review to extract concessions for workers and
> to expand unions into the high-tech sector of cable broadband and wireless
> telephones.
>
> This is one of the only unions that has made headway into the expanding
> unionization into the technology sector and you sit pissing on them?

Look: I am not one of these libertarian droolers saying Gov Bad! Unions Bad!, and I actually hold a warm spot in my heart for the CWA (my godmother was a shop steward and was one of the organizers that brought the union into the Bell company she worked for.) Unlike the claims of some of the said droolers, I've had very good experience working with the Union technicians at SBC. They are usually better trained and better informed than their non-union couterparts in my experience.

But the RBOC's have been godawfully anti-competitive and have been fucking consumers over. The CWA probably did what was best for their membership, but it is not in the best interests of consumers or and sort of 'progressive' agenda.

-- no Onan

Undefeated, everybody goes home



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