The announcement over the weekend that AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA could benefit both consumers and employees. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the deal offers tens of thousands of T-Mobile USA employees the opportunity to benefit from the pro-worker policies of AT&T, the only unionized U.S. wireless company. Some 42,000 AT&T mobility employees are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Trumka adds:

For T-Mobile USA workers who want a voice in their workplace, this acquisition can provide a fresh start with T-Mobile management.

Members of CWA joined with their colleagues at ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union in 2009 to create TU—a global union for T-Mobile workers. CWA President Larry Cohen says of all the possible partners for T-Mobile, AT&T will mean better employment security, a management record of full neutrality toward union membership and a bargaining voice.

Read Trumka’s statement here and Cohen’s statement here.

The acquisition also promises sorely needed increased broadband speed in the United States, particularly in rural communities, Cohen said. For more than a decade, the United States has continued to drop behind nearly every other developed nation on broadband speed. Nearly half (49 percent) of U.S. residents have Internet connection speeds that do not meet the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) minimum broadband standards and, more important, the United States overall ranks in the bottom half of the world in broadband speed.

The “2010 Report of Internet Speeds in All 50 States,” released by CWA, found there are wide areas of the nation, both rural and urban, that do not have any broadband access at all. We even trail countries like Romania in broadband speed.