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CWA Cites Offshoring as AT&T Cuts 450 CWA Jobs
AT&T continues to show its disregard for workers and customers by cutting jobs and closing customer service centers, said Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies.
The company's announcement on Sept. 13 that it was closing the customer service center in Charleston, W.Va., eliminating nearly 300 jobs, came just a year after company shut down its operator center, putting 100 people out of work, said CWA Representative Elaine Harris.
AT&T also announced it was cutting 130 jobs in Fairhaven, Mass., and closing centers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, affecting more than 50 jobs in each location.
CWA President Morton Bahr thanked Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller for speaking out against the West Virginia closing. He reminded the senators that "two years ago, AT&T put our members in Charleston in a head-to-head competition with a call center in Bangalore, India. It is no surprise that we could not compete when measured against the total cost of doing business in India as against Charleston." AT&T has since opened another call center in Nederland, India, he told the senators.
AT&T's announcement in July that it was abandoning the residential consumer market was another in a long line of missteps the company has made, Maly said.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pointed out that because of Bush administration policies, "too many workers are still getting pink slips, like the workers at the AT&T customer service center in Charleston." Bush has chosen "to embrace outsourcing instead of closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs out of America."
In Charleston, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards met with Gail Parker and Doug Harris, members of CWA Local 2001, just after the shutdown was announced, along with other area workers who have lost their jobs. This week alone, another 1,600 jobs in the region have been eliminated, Harris said.
Edwards again outlined the Democratic team's plan to keep good jobs in the U.S., by ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs offshore, encouraging investment in U.S. communities through tax incentives and providing better assistance to workers who've lost their jobs because of offshoring.
The company's announcement on Sept. 13 that it was closing the customer service center in Charleston, W.Va., eliminating nearly 300 jobs, came just a year after company shut down its operator center, putting 100 people out of work, said CWA Representative Elaine Harris.
AT&T also announced it was cutting 130 jobs in Fairhaven, Mass., and closing centers in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, affecting more than 50 jobs in each location.
CWA President Morton Bahr thanked Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller for speaking out against the West Virginia closing. He reminded the senators that "two years ago, AT&T put our members in Charleston in a head-to-head competition with a call center in Bangalore, India. It is no surprise that we could not compete when measured against the total cost of doing business in India as against Charleston." AT&T has since opened another call center in Nederland, India, he told the senators.
AT&T's announcement in July that it was abandoning the residential consumer market was another in a long line of missteps the company has made, Maly said.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pointed out that because of Bush administration policies, "too many workers are still getting pink slips, like the workers at the AT&T customer service center in Charleston." Bush has chosen "to embrace outsourcing instead of closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs out of America."
In Charleston, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards met with Gail Parker and Doug Harris, members of CWA Local 2001, just after the shutdown was announced, along with other area workers who have lost their jobs. This week alone, another 1,600 jobs in the region have been eliminated, Harris said.
Edwards again outlined the Democratic team's plan to keep good jobs in the U.S., by ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs offshore, encouraging investment in U.S. communities through tax incentives and providing better assistance to workers who've lost their jobs because of offshoring.