for government affairs vonya mccann and the president of the communications workers of america, larry cohen. >> host: and this week on "the communicators," we have two guests to talk about the proposed at&t/t-mobile merger. vonya mccann, she is our first guest. ms. mccann, why did sprint file its own lawsuit against the merger even after doj filed its suit? >> guest: thank you. um, the department of justice, um, has, is very capable, and we have every confidence that they will prevail in court. but sprint has said from the very outset that this transaction would harm consumers and competition, and we filed suit to contribute our expertise and our resources to prove that the transaction is illegal. >> host: also joining us here on "the communicators" this week is juliana gruenwald of "the national journal." >> host: so your decision to file the lawsuit, does that reflect any concerns with the justice lawsuit? >> guest: oh, no. as i said, the doj, if you take a look at their complaint, they have a very strong case, and we have full confidence in its ability to prevail. >> host: now, you menti

for government affairs, vonya mccann, and the president of the communications workers of america, larry cohen. >> this week on "the communicators," we have to guest to talk about the proposed at&t/t-mobile merger. vonya mccann is our first guest. widespread file its own lawsuit against the merger, even after doj filed its suit? >> thank you. the departed justice -- the department of justice is very capable, and we have every confidence that they will prevail in court. but sprint has said from the very outset that this transaction would harm consumers and competition, and we filed suit to contribute our expertise and resources to prove that the transaction was illegal. >> also joining us this week is juliani grunwald of "the national journal." >> if you take a look at the doj's complaint, they have a very strong case, and we have full confidence in its ability to prevail. >> you mentioned some of the concerns that you and other critics of the deal have raised about it, citing competition, also raising the prices, impact on innovation. what impact would it physically have on sprint, on your com

. >> so, larry cohen how would a merger benefit consumers? wouldn't competition beat listened? >> yeah, number one this is the fcc job as you put and we support the merger with conditions to the question. with conditions. so, in terms of the consumers, number one, is the bill act to america which the president talked of it in the state of the union which the fcc had in their broadband plan. the main way you're going to get high-speed internet which is 10 megahertz downstream or more that's the way we would call high-speed, right now you get 1 megahertz, wider line or wireless, but the only we were going to get it is wireless, building out other countries are. in this country nobody is building out why airline and so at&t was prepared as a condition in writing not some kind of promise to say we will reach and again with the fcc 97, 98% of all households with ten meg service downstream with and i think by 2014 it might be 2015 with consumers the people in rural america those that live on wall street and have 99 choices and the trees is right now are like west virginia the broadba

and it's bads for mens generally. >> larry cohen, gigi -- >> every single union supports this merger,es most environmental and civil rights groups. >> well, i respectfully disagree with you, larry. >> you're trying to say you have a consumer argument, but that's a single minded argumentp. don't say you love unions and then at every turn -- >> the justice department -- >> at every turn you go against union workers. at every turn. >> we will have more coverage of this obviously. >> every turn, gigi. >> obviously this affects millions of americans. thank you for joining us tonight. obviously a very hot issue. >>> tea partiers want nothing to do with mitt romney and sarah palin wants nothing to do with christine o'donnell. the latest drama in the tea party world is next. george pataki takes a page out of the giuliani playbook. he thinks he has a monopoly on september 11th. pataki said the obama administration doesn't understand 9/11? he's going to the zone, stay with us. [ ticking ] [ grunts ] we are! got it. [ male announcer ] don't be the last to know. get it faster with 4g. it's the ne

let's bring in the president of the communication workers of america, larry cohen.good to have you with us. >> great to be here. >> let's be very clear on the trade agreements. in totality, where is organized labor on the trade agreements sitting on the table right now? >> in totality, we don't like them. i mean, to compete in the global economy, we do need some industrial policy, need to put american jobs first. as the president told us tonight. and we wouldn't start with those trade agreements, those are bush trade agreements. but i think the president tonight as you said hit it out of the park. he focused on jobs. that's what american workers, whether union members or not, want to hear, and he talked about construction jobs, he talked about infrastructure, including high speed broadband and most importantly as you said, he talked about bringing back collective bargaining rights. we have been in a race, we need to turn it around. he said i'm there with you. i think for us it's about movement building. we have to take what he said, as you just played it a minute ag

let's bring in the president of the communication workers of america, larry cohen.ave you with us. >> great to be here. >> let's be very clear on the trade agreements. in totality, where is organized labor on the trade agreements sitting on the table right now? >> in totality, we don't like them. i mean, to compete in the global economy, we do need some industrial policy, need to put american jobs first. as the president told us tonight. and we wouldn't start with those trade agreements, those are bush trade agreements. but i think the president tonight as you said hit it out of the park. he focused on jobs. that's what american workers, whether union members or not, want to hear, and he talked about construction jobs, he talked about infrastructure, including high speed broadband and most importantly as you said, he talked about bringing back collective bargaining rights. we have been in a race, we need to turn it around. he said i'm there with you. i think for us it's about movement building. we have to take what he said, as you just played it a minute ago, and we

larry cohen, the president of the union, confronted the previous president of columbia a year or twogo around a continuing violation of workers rights in colombia. and again i think the lesson of that model program is its bottom up, it's worker to worker. its rank-and-file. we are not rely on national endowment money to finance this partnership. i will say that the solitary center has been very helpful throughout the 10 years that we and kerry was one of the staffers who helped get it off the ground. >> ten cents per member per year. that's really bottom up. >> not a lot of money but it's not a mandatory assessment. a local have to care enough about this program, has to of had some members who have met, courageous colombian trade union. joint work of fighting free trade agreement, fighting his dread plan colombia like a wars in iraq and afghanistan drained billions of dollars, tax dollars out of this country that could go much more profitably to filling some of these real and imagined budget deficits we are so much about in wisconsin, ohio, indiana and so on down the line. >> thanks.

islamic this is the communicators and larry cohen of the communication workers of america is the president and has been our second guest today. we will continue to follow this issue on the communicators. c-span.org/communicators is our web site. mr. cohen, ms gruenwald come thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> former senate majority leader tom daschle and former white house chief of staff andrew card talked about u.s. trade and investment policy. both are co-chairs on the task force of the council of foreign relations on trade and investment. the task force recently released report on u.s. trade and investment policy which called for enforcement of u.s. trade laws. this is about an hour. >> good morning. while we are getting settled think you all for being here on a chilly monday morning. i'm the director of the council's task force for them and it's my pleasure to welcome you here to this special event to release the report of the independent task force on u.s. trade and investment policy. the task force is chaired by andrew carter and thomas daschle and is directed by the two senior fe

. >> host: this is "the communicators," and larry cohen of the communication workers of america has been our second guest today. we will continue to follow this issue on "the communicators." c-span.org/communicators is our web site. mr. cohen, ms. grunewald, thank you very much. >> guest: thank you. .. >> one of the best of speakers at this time in the first politician to campaign from the backs of railroad cars and automobiles, ran for president three times and lost by the changed political history. he's one of the 14 men featured in c-span's new weekly series, the contenders. life from fairview, friday at eight eastern. learn more about the series in our upcoming programs at c-span.org/thecontenders. >> palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas and as he will submit an application for full u.n. membership. for palestinian statehood. home in his address to the u.n. general assembly meeting later this week. in a speech to palestinian leaders, he talked about his people's right to statehood and the failure of negotiations with israel. the u.s. has said it will veto the palestinian res

larry. >>> no stopping it, more prisoners are heading to your local county jail and san francisco wants to make sure it's ready. this afternoon, supervisor scott weiner and malia cohen along with the district attorney introduced a watchdog commission to develop sentencing strategies and prioritize public safety in the city. san francisco is preparing for a state law which goes into effect this saturday moving more low-level offenders to the county jails to ease overcrowding. >>> still ahead, here it comes, the iphone 5, we think. apple getting ready to launch its newest gadget. we'll show you one company that can't wait for you to get one. >>> also coming up, b.a.r.t. leaders on the hot seat in sacramento. the tough questions they faced today. re erhueil w ndredsleco sp, u aig vreil wher hundreds are saying their final good-byes to the nursing student. g let's ring you up. mary? what are you doing here? it's meg i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon