AT&T to Slash Another 110 Workers in Grand Rapids, Michigan

The telecommunications giant, AT&T, announced another round of job cuts in line with its plan of slashing over 1,600 staff across the company’s mid-west offices. AT&T revealed that the company will slash about 110 workers at its Grand Rapids, Michigan headquarters by mid-April. The company spokesperson attributed the cuts to the continuous decline of land-line subscribers over the past years plus the technological advancement in the telecommunication industry. The spokesperson added that its land-line business is now only 25% over the last three years. AT&T used to have 100% of the local wireline business about 10 years ago.

Ryan Letts, Union President, explained that the cuts are concentrated on a single work group at the corner of Michael and 36th of the AT&T headquarters. “There’s also individuals in I&R, installation and repair, our construction department, which maintains and builds the infrastructure, and then there’s also people that work in central offices.”

Pam Beach, the President of the Communication Workers of America Local 434, which represents about 550 employees at AT&T, expressed her sentiments over the layoff. “It’s not easy. Those are not numbers over there in that building to me. Those are my friends, my peers, they’re human beings, and they’re not numbers.” Beach said that she was surprised to learn about the slated layoffs because things seemed to be fine at AT&T. “I don’t see a diminishing of work. I’m sure that’s what the company would say to you is that work volume’s decreased.” Beach is one of the employees included in the impending job cut. She currently works as a service representative at AT&T.