Put Broadband, Employment, Financial Conditions on Altice/Cablevision, CWA Says
Altice's buying Cablevision will result in more corporate debt and numerous staff cuts and thus "fewer financial and human resources to invest in the network and provide quality service to customers," the Communication Workers of America told FCC staff in…
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a meeting. In an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 15-257 on the meeting between CWA representatives and Media Bureau, Office of General Counsel and Wireline Bureau staff, CWA said the proposed deal "will result in significant public interest harm with few, if any, offsetting public interest benefits." Citing a Moody's analysis, CWA said about half of the $900 million in synergies Altice expects to see from the deal will come from annual reductions in the first two to three years, and cuts of that size "cannot be made without impacting service." Barring blocking the transaction, the FCC should impose public interest-protecting conditions, CWA said. Those commitments should include broadband expansion, service quality, capital and operating expenses, employment stability or growth, and "reasonable limits on 'upstreaming of dividends' to parent Altice," the union said. It also said the agency should seek details from Altice about such issues as its broadband deployment plans and timetables through 2017, capital structure and financing, Cablevision's five-year financial forecast, expected synergies, employment impacts and retail service quality. Altice didn't comment.