Unions Help SBC Rip Off Illinois

  • Chicago Tribune (registration required): Sweeping SBC rate law signed. A sweeping measure giving telecom titan SBC Communications Inc. greater control over the local phone market powered past consumer concerns and into law Friday, clearing the General Assembly and winning Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s signature in a matter of hours. The bill nearly doubles the rate SBC can charge phone competitors such as AT&T and MCI to lease its lines. Critics complained that forcing up wholesale rates would translate into higher phone bills for consumers and businesses–and possibly drive SBC’s competitors for local service out of the market.

  • This is how it’s going to work. SBC will get its workers, most of whom are in unions, to lobby for crushing competition as a job-preservation measure.

    Never mind the jobs that will be lost among competitors. Never mind the economic loss resulting from vastly higher prices for basic telecommunications services.

    And never mind the control SBC and its friends in the cable industry will exert over communications services in general in coming years.

    The Democrats in the Illinois legislature should be ashamed for their overwhelming support of a single company’s monopolistic ambitions. But doing the right thing for constituents means little when powerful unions and corporations join forces to rip off the people.

    What a scam.

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