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CWA Urges FCC to Reject DISH Network-DIRECTV Merger

Washington, D.C. -- CWA President Morton Bahr called on the Federal Communications Commission to reject the proposed merger of EchoStar’s DISH Network and Hughes Network Systems’ DIRECTV, citing the harm to consumers and workers that would result if the $26 billion merger is approved.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, Bahr wrote that “consumers will be denied choices” if the merger is permitted to go through. Under this proposal, rural areas without cable television will have just one choice for video programming – a single satellite provider -- while consumers in other households will have just two choices, the cable monopoly or the satellite monopoly, CWA has pointed out.

Bahr also reminded Powell of EchoStar’s union busting record, stressing that the company has demonstrated “that it will stop at nothing, including breaking the law, to make sure its employees are not able to exercise their legal right to form a union.”

EchoStar’s Dish Network has been cited by the National Labor Relations Board for multiple labor law violations against workers from New York to California who sought to exercise their legal rights to join a union.

The AFL-CIO has placed EchoStar Communications on its boycott list, with labor organizations and workers urged to not buy its services until the company ends its unionbusting, Bahr told Powell.

“If EchoStar/DISH merged with DIRECTV, consumers will be denied choices and our ability to encourage good labor relations is diminished,” Bahr said.

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