Union Thinks AT&T/T-Mobile

　　
　　Associated PressThe phones at the Communications Workers of America headquarters were ringing early today after the union’s boss, Larry Cohen, appeared to veer off-script when discussing AT&T Inc.’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA.
The labor union has been a staunch supporter of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion deal, which the Justice Department is seeking to block on antitrust grounds.
But, on Sunday, Bloomberg referred to a story from a German magazine, Focus, in which Mr. Cohen was quoted as saying that AT&T had scant chance of prevailing in court.
According to the Bloomberg report, Mr. Cohen told Focus the deal is:
Unlikely to receive U.S. court approval at a February hearing.
While U.S. federal courts have in the past overruled the Justice Department, the chances it will happen this time are about 20 percent, Cohen said, according to the German magazine.
The union has been a major champion of the deal and a key plank in AT&T’s case that the merger will create a large number of jobs. (Mergers usually result in the elimination of jobs as companies do away with redundant offices.) So the union’s apparent loss of heart seemed like another big blow for AT&T’s deal. But CWA and AT&T swung into action to undo any damage.
Mr. Cohen gave Bloomberg what a union spokeswoman says was a clarification of his comments. Bloomberg published a second story, in which Mr. Cohen gave the deal rather better odds of surviving: