Frontier Communications Corp.’s largest union called for the struggling telecom company to adopt a restructuring plan that would free up funds for operations by converting most of its unsecured debt into stock, Bloomberg News reported. The Communication Workers of America, which has about 8,500 Frontier employees across 18 states, said 80 percent of the company’s nearly $12 billion of unsecured debt should be swapped for equity. Such a restructuring would produce “billions of dollars” to fund improvements that the company desperately needs to make in its phone and broadband network, according to CWA analyst Randy Barber. The union understands an equitization of that size has been under discussion with creditors, Barber said. Converting the unsecured debt to shares would mean overwhelming dilution for current shareholders of Frontier, whose market value has shrunk to about $63 million. Frontier has already asked creditors to help craft a restructuring that would likely include filing for bankruptcy by the middle of next month, Bloomberg previously reported.
