New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Support For AT&T Disabled Vet Program

This afternoon, Claudia Viek and Shufina English will testify at a PUC hearing on the benefits of AT&T’s grant to our Disabled Vet Program.

Below is the Press Release issued by CAMEO member, National Asian American Coalition.

PUBLIC UTILITIES HEARING ON AT&T/T-MOBILE MERGER

Minority, Business, Church and Consumer Groups Urge a Focus on Job Creation, Small Business Development and Consumer Protections

“Look beyond thyself and examine all the valleys, including Silicon Valley.”
– Yolanda Lewis, Chief Deputy, Black Economic Council

San Francisco, California — On Thursday, July 7th at 6:00 pm, the California Public Utilities Commission will hold the first hearing in the nation on the implications of the $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile merger (California Public Utilities Commission Auditorium, 505 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, California 94102).

Led by Allen Temple Baptist Church, the National Asian American Coalition, the Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles and the Black Economic Council, three dozen community, church and business leaders will testify and urge the California Public Utilities Commission to focus on job creation, small business development and low-income consumer protection issues.

Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., the forty-year Senior Pastor at Allen Temple Baptist Church of Oakland, the leading civil rights church in Northern California, will provide the opening public statement. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. stated, “Most of AT&T’s rivals and potential competitors, such as Google, Apple and Sprint, have philanthropic records that are an embarrassment. While AT&T may have substantial room to improve, it has one of the best philanthropic records in California, particularly among minorities in the inner city.”

Jorge Corralejo, the Chairman of the Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles which serves 500,000 Latino-owned businesses in California, said, “Unless it is demonstrated that AT&T’s competitors can do as well as AT&T in serving small minority-owned businesses, our state’s two million minority-owned businesses might be best served by an AT&T/T-Mobile merger. But, I urge AT&T to make a long-term commitment to being the national leader in small business development and job creation (small businesses account for 60% to 70% of job creation in California).”

Len Canty, the Chair of the Black Economic Council, said, “Our organization has protested Apple and Google’s poor records in employing Blacks (one percent) and doing business with Black and other minority-owned businesses. One percent Black is not a solution when our unemployment rate is at 30%. If AT&T is fully committed to the CPUC’s emphasis on diversity of employment and small business opportunities, the Commission should consider supporting the merger if AT&T commits to being the national leader among its competitors.”

Faith Bautista, the President of the National Asian American Coalition said, “AT&T’s competitors are more than Verizon and Sprint. They include the Silicon Valley giants that ignore us but have the power in the long-run to dominate wireless. The Commission must therefore view the merger in the context of how AT&T performs in serving consumers and low-income communities relative to all of these competitors.”

Background Information, based on California Public Utilities Commission and U.S. Department of Labor data

AT&T has one of the best records of doing business with minority, women and disabled veteran-owned businesses. It is a far better record than at Sprint, Apple or Google. Forty percent of AT&T’s contracts last year in California were awarded to minority, women and disabled veteran-owned businesses. In contrast, Google and Apple awarded an estimated less than ten percent to these groups. Sprint awarded only one percent to Blacks and Hispanics. Verizon awarded zero percent to disabled veteran-owned businesses.