Perhaps clued in to a possible hurdle in its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc., AT&T Inc. (T) today proudly claimed that “after closing” on the $39 billion deal, the company would bring back 5,000 wireless call center jobs to the United States.
AT&T said the claim followed “detailed analysis focused specifically on identifying opportunities with the T-Mobile merger to bring good-paying wireless call center jobs back to the United States.” AT&T added that the 5,000 positions would offer “the nation’s most highly competitive wages and benefits,” and that it remains the nation’s largest employer of full-time union employees.
In addition to the 5,000 call center positions, a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute on behalf of the Communications Workers of America, which is in favor of the AT&T/T-Mobile USA deal, said that AT&T’s plans for increased network investments could produce up to 96,000 new U.S. jobs.
However, the deal hit a hurdle today as the Department of Justice said it was filing a lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition citing harm it would cause to competition in the domestic wireless space.
The CWA said today that blocking the deal “is simply wrong,” and that T-Mobile USA’s current non-union workers are having their rightly routinely violated.
“The DOJ’s action would put good jobs and workers’ rights at the bottom of the government’s priorities. … Instead of acting to block this merger, our government should be looking to support companies that create, keep and return good jobs to the United States,” the CWA stated.
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