AT&T; Plans to Cut 8,500 Jobs During 1990

Escalating its long-running battle to trim costs, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. said Monday that it will cut about 8,500 positions in 1990, adding to about 25,000 eliminated in 1989.

The company has already cut overall employment from 374,000 at the time of the breakup of the Bell System in 1984 to 298,000 at the end of September.

AT&T; said some of the cutbacks were made possible by new digital telephone equipment that eliminates some work.

AT&T; spokesman Walter Murphy said some of the job cuts will come through an early retirement plan. About 12,000 of 34,000 employees eligible have accepted a special pension option to the plan announced in October, and more may sign up before year-end, he said.

The special pension plan departures could reduce the company’s work force to about 286,000 by the end of the year, although Gray said its purchase of the British firm Istel adds 1,800.

“This is a continuing process at AT&T;,” Murphy said. He said 2,000 workers had accepted an earlier pension offer, 6,000 left by attrition, and 5,000 operator positions were eliminated.

The reduction in operator posts is part of the job cuts announced in December, 1988, when AT&T; took a $6.72-billion writedown for network improvements and said it would cut 10,000 Network Services jobs.