CWA: Comcast-NBC Merger Bad for Workers and Consumers

by James Parks, Jun 21, 2010

Members of NABET-CWA picket outside the NBC network-owned station in Washington, D.C., during “Meet the Press” last month.

The proposed merger between cable TV giant Comcast and NBC-Universal (NBCU) would lead to job cuts, reduce competition in the cable industry and restrict consumer access to online video content, a senior leader of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) told lawmakers.

On top of all that, Comcast has a long record of violating workers’ rights, CWA Vice President James Weitkamp told a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. After its last big merger, with AT&T Broadband in 2002, Comcast immediately set about crushing AT&T’s unions, he said. Comcast also pays its workers about a third less in wages and benefits than unionized telecom companies.

At the same time, members of the  National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA (NABET-CWA) are still trying to negotiate a fair contract with NBC. The current deal expired in April 2009.

(You can take action now. The Federal Communications Commission is accepting public comment on the merger, and CWA has a simple tool to let you speak out. Click here and take a few minutes to stand up for workers and consumers now.)

In his testimony, Weitkamp stressed that the public must be protected from the significant harms created by a merger of such unprecedented scale. He told the panel:

The Comcast/NBCU merger is not in the public interest. Federal regulators cannot endorse this merger without carefully considering the significant impact the merging companies will have on video competition, choice and jobs.

Weitkamp noted there is already a lack of competition in the online video market and cable rates have grown three times the rate of inflation. He warned that under the proposed merger, Comcast could bundle unpopular cable channels with popular ones, forcing customers to pay for channels they do not want.

The Internet allows consumers access to the video content of their choice, unmediated by the pre-packaged bundles of the cable company. A combined Comcast-NBCU could limit consumers’ online access to NBC content, or it could charge consumers higher prices to access that content unless they are cable subscribers. This is the ‘TV Everywhere’ model that Comcast and NBC have already begun to deploy, which forces Internet customers to buy cable packages in order to see content online.

Further, a Comcast-NBCU combination will result in the loss of good jobs and lower workplace standards for those who still have jobs after a merger, Weitkamp said. The merged company would add an additional $8 billion to the current debt load, giving the new company the choice of cutting jobs and/or raising cable prices.

As Weitkamp said:

Either way, consumers and workers lose.

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