Sprint and T-Mobile want to merge, reducing the number of nationwide facilities-based wireless providers from 4 to 3, a scenario that multiple economists agree would raise prices for consumers.
In an effort to distract from such a clear threat of higher prices, less innovation, and worse service, Sprint and T-Mobile argue that their merger will create between 9,600 and 24,000 new jobs. In reality, this merger would be a job killing machine, eliminating at least 28,000 American jobs.
That’s 28,000 American families traumatized, 28,000 hard-working people trying to make life better for themselves and their families. It is 28,000 American households ripped apart at the hands of two foreign companies, Sprint (owned by Japan-based Softbank) and T-Mobile (owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom).
According to public filings at the Federal Communications Commission, which along with the Department of Justice is reviewing this transaction, the majority of job losses (about 24,000) will result from closing retail stores. T-Mobile CEO referred to this in his Senate testimony as “rationalizing” retail jobs. Many of these stores serve low-income consumers. This means that job cuts will hit neighborhoods and towns that most need good jobs right now. Even if we just take Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s word for it, the merger will create $43 billion in cost-saving synergies, according to Sprint’s CFO — cost savings that result from eliminating any overlapping functions. When it comes to mergers, “synergy” is French for job cuts.
Just about every member of Congress will have constituents who will be waiting in the unemployment line.
Kansas Senators Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), along with Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-KS) have the most to lose. More than 4,000 of their constituents will be laid off from Sprint headquarters. Sprint alone earned $7.2 billion in profits because of the tax cuts Republicans fought for — is it too much to ask that they keep the jobs in America?
Similarly, just last year, T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter said, "We are not going to be in a cash tax-paying position based upon the current modeling until 2024, very end of 2023." T-Mobile isn't going to pay taxes for the next five years because of a massive job-boosting tax cut Republicans gave them. And yet, now they refuse to live up to their end of the bargain by keeping jobs in America.
If that does not give the Trump Administration pause, government officials should consider that these two foreign companies have long, storied histories of offshoring American jobs, especially call-center customer service positions. In fact, in 2012, T-Mobile laid off 3,300 customer service agents at seven domestic call centers, prompting the Department of Labor to conclude that T-Mobile had not “consolidated” centers like they claimed, but instead had shipped those jobs overseas. T-Mobile and Sprint send thousands and thousands of call center jobs to the Philippines, India, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Canada.
If companies are laying off employees, then they surely are not adding jobs, which impacts the economy twofold.
As a Conservative, I believe we must “put America first.” We must be very cautious if not leery of mergers by foreign entities that seek to boost their economies at the expense of ours. Many foreign companies use our laws to do things they could never get away with in their own countries, often to the detriment of American workers. Preserving America’s workforce is not partisan, it is patriotic.
Our national leaders must step up and give their attention to this merger. They must make sure that the paramount consideration of a merger is the preservation and expansion of American jobs now and in the future. Too many times, jobs and workers get lost in the shuffle.
At a time when America and American jobs should come first, the proposed Sprint/T-Mobile merger is bad news for the American workforce. The Trump Administration cares about domestic job growth and should oppose two foreign companies savaging American jobs.
Bradley Blakeman was a member of President George W. Bush's senior White House staff from 2001 to 2004. He is also a frequent contributor to Fox News and Fox Business Channel. He currently is a Principal with the 1600group.com a consulting company. — Click Here Now.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.