Comcast

==Background==
* Comcast is owned by the billionaire Roberts family of Philadelphia.
* Comcast is the largest provider of cable TV service in the country. Comcast provides service to 23.4 million homes or about 40% of all those who have cable. 
==Details==
Comcast has raised cable rates by 8% in hundreds of communities while it refuses to increase workers wages even half that amount. Comcast systematically denies workers the right to organize unions, distributing videos and literature that contain untruthful information about unions during organizing drives and supporting discipline and firing of workers who are involved in organizing. When workers do organize unions, Comcast delays the bargaining of first contracts and has even refused to honor existing bargaining agreements and legal obligations to negotiate changes in wages or working conditions. Meanwhile, Comcast pays its top executives exorbitant bonuses and stock options and guarantees their employment security in written contracts.
==Insights==
===Rates===
====Comcast unveils higher rates after FCC eases rules, December 23, 2006====
: By Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
Just days after federal regulators softened rules making it easier for Verizon Communications Inc. and other phone companies to go head-to-head with cable firms for a place in America's living rooms, Comcast said the average local monthly bill will rise 2.7 percent.
Comcast said yesterday it was raising the monthly rate for its cable TV service beginning Feb. 1 but that other services, such as high-speed Internet and landline phone service, would remain as is. Spokeswoman Jody W. Doherty couldn't say exactly how much Comcast cable rates would rise because the prices vary based on level of service.
The going rate in the city of Pittsburgh for Comcast's standard cable package with up to 70 channels is currently $49.02 but will jump to $51.34 -- a 4.7 percent increase -- in February, she said. The price "adjustments reflect the increased value of our services," Ms. Doherty said, as well as the more than $200 million Comcast has spent improving service offerings.
She added that Philadelphia-based Comcast is hiring more than 150 call center and field service representatives across the region "to meet increased demand for their products."
In a split 3-2 vote Wednesday, the five-member Federal Communications Commission voted to support new rules that would prevent municipalities from "unreasonably refusing" to award franchise agreements to cable providers. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the change was needed because "competition is desperately needed in the video market."
==Links==
* Broadband
* Cable TV
* Verizon
===Video===
Comcast got props in Pittsburgh City Council for the employee work party, Comcast Cares, in April 2009.
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category:company