AFL-CIO asks Sen Franken to reconsider opposition to AT&T/T-Mobile deal

The Minnesota AFL-CIO asked Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to reconsider his opposition to AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA arguing that T-Mobile is a dying company that its current owner, Deutsche Telekom, wants to sell. The group claimed AT&T is more friendly to unions than the other potential buyer, Sprint.

Sprint's "anti-labor, outsourcing and offshoring actions are infamous," wrote Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson and Steve Hunter, the group's secretary-treasurer.

AT&T has the largest full-time unionized workforce in the country. "Through this merger, more than 20,000 T-Mobile employees will have the opportunity to choose whether to have a voice in the workplace through union representation and a chance for the improved job security, collective bargaining and workplace protections that representation brings," the labor group wrote. The letter also pointed to the potential job boost from $8 billion in infrastructure investments that AT&T has promised to make if the merger is approved.