Progressive family feud over union support of AT&T/T-MOBILE

Progressive opponents of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger can't understand why their lefty brethren at the Communications Workers of America are supporting a corporate marriage that, in their view, would make an anti-labor company even stronger.

For instance, AT&T was, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, one of the top donors to the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), who successfully stripped public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights earlier this year. And the Baby Bell lead the charge on a telecom deregulation bill in Wisconsin that the union opposed. "It's a terrible long-term political play. You're making a company stronger that's going to turn around and invest its money to destroy unions," said Gigi Sohn, president of the public interest group Public Knowledge, which opposes the merger. But CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson said AT&T doesn't "work to destroy unions." She acknowledged however that, like many corporations, the company's politics trend conservative.