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AT&T Announces More Job Cuts in Customer Service
AT&T continues to show its disregard for workers and customers by cutting jobs and closing customer service centers, CWA leaders say.
The company's Sept. 13 announcement that it is closing the customer service center in Charleston, W.Va., eliminating nearly 300 jobs, came just a year after the company shut down its operator center there, putting 100 people out of work, CWA Representative Elaine Harris said.
AT&T also indicated it will cut 130 jobs in Fairhaven, Mass., and close centers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, affecting
more than 50 jobs in each location.
Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, said the closures and AT&T's announcement in July that it will abandon the residential consumer market are part "of a long line of missteps the company has made."
CWA President Morton Bahr thanked West Virginia Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller for speaking out against the shutdown in their state, reminding them what American workers are up against.
"Two years ago, AT&T put our members in Charleston in a head to head competition with a call center in Bangalore, India. It is no surprise that we could not compete when measured against the total cost of doing business in India as against Charleston," Bahr said, adding that AT&T has since opened another call center in India.
Just after the Charleston closure was announced, Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards met with Gail Parker and Doug Harris, members of CWA Local 2001, along with other area workers who have lost their jobs. This week alone, another 1,600 jobs in the region have been eliminated, Harris said.
Speaking with the workers in Parkersburg, W. Va., Edwards outlined the Democratic team's plan to keep good jobs in the United States by ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs offshore, encouraging investment in U.S. communities through tax incentives and providing better assistance to workers who have lost their jobs because of offshoring.
The company's Sept. 13 announcement that it is closing the customer service center in Charleston, W.Va., eliminating nearly 300 jobs, came just a year after the company shut down its operator center there, putting 100 people out of work, CWA Representative Elaine Harris said.
AT&T also indicated it will cut 130 jobs in Fairhaven, Mass., and close centers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, affecting
more than 50 jobs in each location.
Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies, said the closures and AT&T's announcement in July that it will abandon the residential consumer market are part "of a long line of missteps the company has made."
CWA President Morton Bahr thanked West Virginia Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller for speaking out against the shutdown in their state, reminding them what American workers are up against.
"Two years ago, AT&T put our members in Charleston in a head to head competition with a call center in Bangalore, India. It is no surprise that we could not compete when measured against the total cost of doing business in India as against Charleston," Bahr said, adding that AT&T has since opened another call center in India.
Just after the Charleston closure was announced, Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards met with Gail Parker and Doug Harris, members of CWA Local 2001, along with other area workers who have lost their jobs. This week alone, another 1,600 jobs in the region have been eliminated, Harris said.
Speaking with the workers in Parkersburg, W. Va., Edwards outlined the Democratic team's plan to keep good jobs in the United States by ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs offshore, encouraging investment in U.S. communities through tax incentives and providing better assistance to workers who have lost their jobs because of offshoring.