GTE Consolidation Will Cut 7,000 Jobs by 1992, Firm Says
GTE Corp. said Wednesday that it will cut 7,000 jobs by 1992 as part of the company’s previously announced plans to overhaul its telephone operations and make them more competitive.
The number of jobs to be eliminated at Thousand Oaks-based GTE California has not been determined, officials said.
“These reductions are expected to generate substantial annual cost savings, which will be reflected over time in rate reductions to GTE customers and in improved earnings for GTE stockholders,” James L. (Rocky) Johnson, GTE chairman and chief executive, said in a prepared statement.
The workers who will be affected by the cutbacks are in administrative, engineering and other staff jobs that have no direct contact with customers. Of the 85,000 employees at GTE’s telephone companies, about 28,000 are in such staff positions. GTE, which has telecommunications, lighting and precision materials operations, employs 161,000 worldwide.
GTE in March announced that it will consolidate its seven local telephone companies into four regional offices and a new central headquarters. Thousand Oaks has been selected as the headquarters for GTE West, which will serve California, Hawaii and the Northwest.
The central headquarters has not been named, but speculation has centered on the Dallas area. GTE said Wednesday that it hopes to make an announcement by mid-December.
GTE has already offered early retirement to some workers and anticipates that as many as 2,000 may select that option, the company said. The other job cuts will come through attrition, transfers and layoffs, but the number in each category isn’t known, spokeswoman Carol Barns said from GTE corporate headquarters in Stamford, Conn.
GTE said it has also maintained a “virtual hiring freeze” for most of this year and expects that a number of vacant positions “simply will go unfilled.”
In addition to attrition, some employees will be transferred to other GTE businesses, said Kent B. Foster, group vice president of GTE’s telephone operations. “Some layoffs are inevitable, however, and will be used only as a last resort. The majority of these will come from our management ranks and will occur over time as we transition to the new organization.”
22,000 in California
While GTE California’s Thousand Oaks office will gain workers who will be transferred from other states, some of its existing staff positions will be cut.
GTE California employs 22,000 people, of which 5,325 are in staff positions. In Thousand Oaks, 2,450 employees are in staff positions.
GTE employees, who asked not to be identified, said the company has not told workers the total number of job cuts planned but has already started setting targets for some departments.
One employee said he and others have been offered jobs in other states but have not been told the salaries. They are being asked to make a decision almost immediately.
“Morale is down,” he said. “It’s hard to work this way.”
But another said that employees generally support the consolidation, at least in theory, because it will make GTE a stronger company in an increasingly competitive environment. The company should come up with more definite statistics on job reductions, at least for internal use, by next month, the employee said.
GTE Chairman Johnson said additional reductions unrelated to the restructuring will occur during the next five years because of changes brought about by new technology.
