THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180187
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940618 LENGTH: Medium
The company confirmed that it is aggressively shutting down offices, but said it's too early to presume that the Norfolk center will close. About 140 operators work at the AT&T facility on Bute Street.
{REST} Last August, AT&T announced a major restructuring of its long-distance phone-service operations. As part of that restructuring, the company said it planned to close 77 of its 138 operator offices and eliminate as many as 4,000 of its 16,500 operator jobs by early 1995. It said improved technology and automation made the cuts possible.
``We are somewhere in the middle of that process,'' said Marvin Wamble, an AT&T spokesman in Washington. Officials of the Communications Workers of America said the company plans to shutter about 40 of the offices this year and dozens more early in 1995.
Michael Upton, president of CWA Local 2202, said company managers have told him AT&T's goal is to shut down the Norfolk center by the end of 1995. Stephanie Pazur, vice president of the same CWA local, said she has been told the closing could occur as early as the first quarter of next year.
Since the average operator in Norfolk has more than 20 years' experience, some have the seniority to transfer to other AT&T facilities and ``bump'' junior operators. But Upton said, ``Not all that many people are able to pick up and move - especially when there's no guarantee that the office they'd transfer to would remain open.''
The next-closest AT&T operator center is in Richmond. But there is a strong chance that it will close in the next few years, said another CWA official who has been closely following the consolidation process. That person declined to be named.
AT&T's Wamble said one reason for so much speculation about operator-center closings is the company's goal of eventually creating about a half-dozen ``megacenters'' for operator functions. He said because of that, many AT&T workers have reasoned that the company's only operators will be in those centers, the closest of which would be in Pittsburgh.
That will not necessarily be the case, Wamble said.
If the AT&T operator center in Norfolk closes, it's not clear what would happen to the building. Wamble declined to speculate.
About 20 other AT&T employees work in the building, as do several dozen employees of Bell Atlantic Corp., the region's dominant local phone company. AT&T owns the building.
The union's Pazur, an operator herself, said employees at the local center are ``distressed - the anticipation, the not knowing, wondering what we are going to do.''
Upton, the union local's president, estimated that the local operators have an average gross pay of about $550 a week. He said all but two or three are women.
They handle a wide range of customer services, including help in completing calling-card calls, international calling assistance and credit for wrong numbers.
{KEYWORDS} AT&T DOWNSIZE
by CNB