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Belden Sale Deals Fatal Blow to Former AT&T Plant
More than 700 CWA members in the Phoenix area have joined the ranks of the unemployed, some of them with more than 30 years of service to their former AT&T cable plant, bought by Belden Communications in 1999.
"They're a cut-and-run organization, a scavenger," said Ellen Rojas, president of CWA Local 7060, who had been a plant employee since 1979. Like most of the 740 other CWA members in production and maintenance, along with about 200 managers, she clocked her last day June 11.
Whether the jobs are going to other plants in the United States, overseas or are being replaced at all isn't entirely clear, although CWA continues to investigate it.
CWA Representative Lawrence Sandoval said right now the closure appears to be less about outsourcing and more a case of "corporate greed," with the company deciding the plant wasn't making enough money.
Since June, perhaps 100 people have remained at the plant temporarily, dismantling machinery and shipping out leftover reels. Another company, Superior Communications, bought $50 million worth of inventory and equipment, headed to parts unknown. Rojas said other machinery might be going to Belden plants in Holland.
In March, a month after Belden said it was looking for a buyer, the union's executive board was called to a meeting offsite and told the plant was closing. In hindsight, Rojas said it shouldn't have come as a surprise, having heard that Belden had bought a plant in Canada, shut it down and sold it off.
But the fact was, the longtime workers were stunned. "Everyone was shocked, absolutely," she said. "I have guys who worked there since 1968, and guys who transferred from other locations shut down by AT&T - Baltimore, Buffalo. Some of these people have been in the Bell System for over 40 years."
A lot of members were simply in denial right up until the end, she said. Their jobs paid good wages, from an average of $16 an hour for most employees up to $24 an hour for skilled craft workers. Most workers got a severance of $5,000, slightly less for those who hadn't been there as long.
Sandoval said the state's Department of Economic Security came in to talk about re-training, and "really jumped to the task of helping workers." But realistically, he said Arizona has recently suffered a number of large layoffs, making the market especially tight.
Rojas said the idea of re-training and starting a new job is especially daunting to people who'd been at the plant for decades but aren't old enough to retire. "If you've always been working making telephone cable, what experience do you have doing anything else?" she said.
"They're a cut-and-run organization, a scavenger," said Ellen Rojas, president of CWA Local 7060, who had been a plant employee since 1979. Like most of the 740 other CWA members in production and maintenance, along with about 200 managers, she clocked her last day June 11.
Whether the jobs are going to other plants in the United States, overseas or are being replaced at all isn't entirely clear, although CWA continues to investigate it.
CWA Representative Lawrence Sandoval said right now the closure appears to be less about outsourcing and more a case of "corporate greed," with the company deciding the plant wasn't making enough money.
Since June, perhaps 100 people have remained at the plant temporarily, dismantling machinery and shipping out leftover reels. Another company, Superior Communications, bought $50 million worth of inventory and equipment, headed to parts unknown. Rojas said other machinery might be going to Belden plants in Holland.
In March, a month after Belden said it was looking for a buyer, the union's executive board was called to a meeting offsite and told the plant was closing. In hindsight, Rojas said it shouldn't have come as a surprise, having heard that Belden had bought a plant in Canada, shut it down and sold it off.
But the fact was, the longtime workers were stunned. "Everyone was shocked, absolutely," she said. "I have guys who worked there since 1968, and guys who transferred from other locations shut down by AT&T - Baltimore, Buffalo. Some of these people have been in the Bell System for over 40 years."
A lot of members were simply in denial right up until the end, she said. Their jobs paid good wages, from an average of $16 an hour for most employees up to $24 an hour for skilled craft workers. Most workers got a severance of $5,000, slightly less for those who hadn't been there as long.
Sandoval said the state's Department of Economic Security came in to talk about re-training, and "really jumped to the task of helping workers." But realistically, he said Arizona has recently suffered a number of large layoffs, making the market especially tight.
Rojas said the idea of re-training and starting a new job is especially daunting to people who'd been at the plant for decades but aren't old enough to retire. "If you've always been working making telephone cable, what experience do you have doing anything else?" she said.