AT&T; Unit to Slash 1,200 Jobs in West : Part of Overall Cut in General Business Systems Division
Employees of AT&T; Information Systems were notified Tuesday that at least 1,200 jobs in Western states will be eliminated as part of a nationwide series of cutbacks in the company’s general business systems division.
Most of the cuts--about 800 jobs--will come in California, with Southern California losing more than 400, the company confirmed. The remaining cuts will be spread throughout the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountains.
AT&T; officials said that, while at least 1,200 jobs had been declared surplus, they were uncertain how many layoffs would result. Some employees will be transferred to new assignments, others will be retrained and some will be offered early retirement incentives, according to Craig Lowder, a company spokesman in Morristown, N.J. He said layoffs will be “a last resort.”
Nearly all of the 1,200 jobs will be trimmed from the company’s general business systems division, which markets computers, telephones and switching equipment to American Telephone & Telegraph’s small-business customers.
Trimming Costs
“We’re just doing what we can to be competitive,” said Tim Alban, an AT&T; spokesman in Los Angeles. “We’re continuing to shed costs wherever we can.”
Tuesday’s notice followed a similar announcement last week that about 1,000 Eastern jobs in the same division would be cut, along with 650 jobs at AT&T; regional repair centers in Florida, Michigan and the state of Washington.
Thousands of AT&T; jobs have been eliminated since the telephone company giant was forced by a federal court to divest its regional phone operating companies 18 months ago. Last summer, for example, AT&T; announced cuts of 11,000 jobs from the technology side of its extensive operation--more than half of them from the marketing group and the rest scattered through technical, administrative and support staffs of the company’s manufacturing and research arms.
According to Lowder, about half of those 11,000 employees were either reassigned or retired.
“No part of AT&T; is immune from our efforts to drive out all unnecessary costs,” Lowder said. “We’re in a process of transition from the old Bell System (monopoly) to a company that faces worldwide, world-class competition.”
The latest job cutbacks stem, in part, from the near-completion of a massive data-processing project. In the aftermath of the court-ordered divestiture, AT&T; has been converting the billing records of 60 million customers with 120 million telephones in what Lowder called “the most massive data transfer in American business history.” As that project winds down, Lowder said, fewer people are needed.
