CWA leads stand against merger

The Communications Workers of America union has filed a petition with the FCC urging it to block WorldCom's proposed $37 billion acquisition of MCI Communications.

The CWA fears that the new MCI/WorldCom will divert investment in the local market in favor of the business market, reducing job growth in the industry by more than 75,000 over the next four years.

Also, the merger would stifle local and long-distance competition and retard the delivery of universal service, the CWA filing states.

"This deal is anti-competitive as defined by the Telecommunications Act and the FCC's public interest guidelines. We believe it also violates federal anti-trust standards, and we'll make that argument to the [federal] Justice Department," said CWA President Morton Bahr.

"WorldCom is not a residential/consumer-focused company," said Fred Voit, senior analyst in consumer communications for The Yankee Group. "We wonder if MCI will continue to put the emphasis it now does on consumers with the new company."

But an MCI spokeswoman said that the MCI/WorldCom merger "is about creating jobs because the merged company will go after the biggest growth markets in the telecommunications industry-for example, the local market and data."

* The CWA

* Bell Atlantic

* BellSouth

* The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson)