Stay tuned: Council to considerable purchase by Mediacom

On June 11, City Council will consider a resolution to allow AT&T Broadband to sell its local cable television franchise to Mediacom Communication Corp. for $175 million. But the labor issue between non-union Media-com and the Communication Workers of America remains unresolved.

If the sale is approved, then Middletown, N.Y.-based Media-com will more than double its customer base from about 718,000 to 1.52 million, according to Larry Welbern, who was chairman of the city's Cable Television Advisory Commission, which recommended the sale after its final meeting May 22. That makes Mediacom the eighth-largest cable company in the United States. It caters mainly to non-metropolitan areas.

But the fate of 62 union employees, who had signed a contract with AT&T just before the sale to Mediacom was announced, is up in the air. Mediacom representatives were not available for comment at press time.

Bill Wildoner, Communication Workers of America union representative, who spoke at the commission hearing, said, "We're really concerned about what's going to happen to those folks."

He said the union asked the cable company "to do the right thing" and honor the contract it took nine months to negotiate with AT&T, but at this point it hasn't. Wildoner said he has had no contact from Mediacom since the advisory commission meeting, nor has the union's international office, which has been researching how Mediacom treats its employees. Mediacom hasn't returned multiple telephone calls from international, Wildoner said.

"We were just asking (Media-com) to voluntarily take the contract so we have jobs and protection for the employees we represent," Wildoner said. "We're not asking too much ... in this day and age where companies buy companies and they just trash them for the almighty dollar." He said he is concerned that AT&T didn't stay, nor did TCI, Mediacom's predecessors.

Mediacom has 2,300 employees, and not one of them is union, Welbern said. With the purchase of AT&T it will have 6,500 employees.

Since the contract with AT&T was agreed to this spring, the agreement already has been attacked. "There appears to be a concerted effort on someone's part which is unclear at this time to try to get rid of the union," Wildoner said. One employee attempted to decertify the union, but failed. Another legal battle is brewing over a contract clause that requires non-union employees to pay dues to the union because they benefit from the union-negotiated contract, Wildoner said.

"We're talking about hometown jobs for your folks, where their kids go to school with your kids, and you go to church where they go to church. (Union workers) make pretty good wages and that money goes back to the local economy, the school district," he said.

The advisory commission heard testimony about the union issue, among other things. Members worked about 40 hours to make a decision, fielding in-person input from citizens at public hearing, Welbern said.

"We collected hundreds of e-mails, telephone calls and letters ... we listened and read and studied and wrote the opinion based on that." The commission also held two discussion sessions before agreeing to recommend the sale.

"The union had requested that the franchise transfer be tied to (keeping the contract). Legally, as a governing body, the ... commission couldn't do that," Welbern said. But one commission member on his own, John W. Ford, requested that council require that "Mediacom accept the contract ... in good faith, in order to avoid any labor disputes that could hinder cable services to subscribers."

But Welbern said that's an "issue between Mediacom and the union."

Marilyn Day, the city's contract administrator, has prepared the commission's positive recommendation in a document to be presented to council members June 11. Within the two-page document, the commission addressed three chief concerns.

One concern is that the city receive a sort of "most favored nation" status within Mediacom, Welbern said. That will place it "in the top tier as far as quality" over the rest of the franchises that Mediacom owns and will ensure "we don't have an antiquated system ... that (our services are as) technically proficient as the majority of the cable franchises."

AT&T never intended to keep the Springfield franchise when it acquired TCI, its predecessor, Welbern said. So, it didn't improve the system or continue to expand services.

The franchise agreement with the city requires that if 7.5 homes are within a quarter mile of service lines, then the service has to be extended, Welbern said. AT&T didn't do that because it quit spending money once it decided to sell.

AT&T always intended to sell off the smaller markets of TCI, like Springfield, he said, but not so Mediacom. Springfield is its second largest market. Welbern added that he believes the company will catch up with the build-out requirement of the franchise to add more customers, a second specific recommendation of the commission.

Restrictions

Besides, Mediacom has "a lot of restrictions as to how they have to operate the system." Cable is regulated by the Federal Communication Commission. Within its jurisdiction are basic cable rates, but not other rates, such as charges for HBO or digital. The basic cable rate is $8.14, according to Welbern's last bill, he said.

The FCC also can't regulate programming, nor can any other governmental body.

The third recommendation from the commission is that the company not reduce the general level, mix and quality of customer or field service for 24 months after ownership is transferred.

When AT&T purchased TCI, the recommendation from the advisory commission was 15 pages long, Welbern recalled, the product of about 60 hours of work by the commission.

Shorter recommendation

The present recommendation is "shorter because there are not as many problems that existed in the transfer from AT&T to Mediacom that existed from TCI to AT&T.

Welbern said he believes that Mediacom has plans to make the system more efficient by consolidating all the broadcast equipment here and sending out signals to other towns through fiber optics. Now, each town such as Willard, Mount Vernon or Carl Junction has its own signal and modulating equipment which requires technical maintenance. Centralizing the equipment in Springfield is a cost saver, Welbern said.