T-Mobile CEO John Legere is pushing back on claims that its proposed merger with Sprint will result in job cuts.
In a blog post Thursday (April 4), Legere tried to put to rest what he called "REALLY creative claims."
Among those making such claims is the Communications Workers of America. In testimony earlier this month at a House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on the merger, CWA president Chris Shelton said the deal would "kill American jobs, lower wages, and raise prices to enrich two foreign companies, Deutsche Telekom from Germany and SoftBank from Japan."
A month before, CWA had told a House Communications Subcommittee hearing audience that the deal would cost 30,000 jobs.
Legere begged to differ, big time. "[I]t’s unfortunate that those dedicated to protecting the status quo think it is okay to mislead and scare people into thinking that their made-up “numbers” about jobs at the New T-Mobile are accurate," he said. He accused "opposition-funded economists of "practically pulling numbers out of thin air."
Legere referenced the Judiciary hearing, where he also testified, pointing out he had sworn to tell the truth,and that is what he was doing in saying "the new TV-Mobile will CREATE JOBS."
He said the merger will create 5,600 more customer care jobs by 2021 and another 7,500 more by 2024 than the companies would have had separately, plus another 5,000 new retail jobs. He also reiterated his pledge to offer jobs to all the current retail store employees of both companies.
T-Mobile and Sprint have been billing the deal as the fastest route to a 5G network buildout, so Legere added in some big jobs numbers at the end. "Accenture recently estimated that the deployment of 5G would stimulate $275 billion in investment and result in $500 billion in economic growth… and up to 3 million new jobs!," he said, putting the figure in bold in addition to adding the exclamation point.
He called those big numbers, but real numbers, and cautioned his readers not to be fooled by those "throwing out made-up math and unfounded conspiracy theories."
The FCC and Department of Justice are currently vetting the deal. The FCC is in day 122 of its review.
