Kanawha Commission Not Taking Sides in Verizon-Frontier Deal

(Charleston) The Kanawha County Commission is not taking sides when it comes to the pending sale of Verizon's West Virginia assets to Frontier Communications. The Communication Workers of America wanted commissioners to approve a resolution at Thursday's commission meeting denouncing the merger.

"What if the whole deal comes down to they actually show up, take the place over, and we in local government have sent the message, 'We're sorry you're here,'? We don't want to do that, do we? They may be signing the pay checks pretty soon," said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper.

Under the deal, Verizon will sell its landlines to Frontier for $8.6 billion. Frontier would then become the largest telecommunications company in the Mountain State serving over 750,000 customers. The CWA says Frontier is not financially able to handle the additional load.

"We're not opposed to Verizon selling if they want to sell. What we're opposed to is who they sell to, the buyer. We want to make sure they're financially viable because as you said, Mr. President, there are people that they're livelihoods are at stake," CWA District 2 Vice-President Ron Collins told Commissioner Carper.

However, Frontier's Eastern Vice-President Ken Arndt argued that this deal would not harm workers. He says they are one of the reasons for pursuing the deal.

"We believe that our greatest asset in a competitive environment, when people are competing for our business, is our employees," Arndt said. "We believe the fact that we are local, that we are your neighbors, it gives us a distinctive advantage against competition that is not local, that is not union."

Commissioners also said they were willing to help the union and Frontier work out their differences in mediation if necessary.

The CWA is taking its resolution to county commissions across the state for approval. So far, only Wirt County has approved the union resolution.