Layoffs Imminent at AT&T in Light of Time-Warner Merger
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Incoming reports have brought attention to the fact that employees under the telecom mogul AT&T will be subjected to layoffs. The number of employees being dismissed hasn’t been specified, but there’s clearly a lot of uncertainty in the offices. A memo procured by news outlet Vice reveals that at the internal level, managers are currently being briefed on how to address the subject to soften the blow as much as possible.
The primary goal behind the layoffs is to consolidate the operations in several states across 10 major hubs. The areas of concern have been revealed to be New York, New Jersey, Washington state, California, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Illinois, and Texas. However, it’s presently unknown which positions are compromised under this plan.
These layoffs come in the wake of AT&T finalising its merger with Time-Warner, a deal valued at $85 billion. Such a course of action isn’t unheard of, as most mergers and acquisitions usually involve measures to reduce costs and eliminate redundancies. An AT&T spokesperson has also confirmed that these layoffs are part of a drive to prioritise new technologies over its legacy services.
AT&T did issue a statement where it attempted to alleviate some of the tension on the subject. It expressed its commitment to hiring based on the needs of its expansion plans. It further added that in the previous year, it hired 20,000 new employees, while it hired 17,000 new employees the year prior to that. It shared that it tries to lessen the impact on its employees in cases where adjustment becomes necessary.
However, the telecom firm doesn’t have a good track record with protecting the interests of its employees. For example, 10,700 union jobs were dismissed in the last year as shared by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). Even back in 2011, 44 call centres were shut down and those jobs were sent overseas to reduce costs.
At present, it remains to be seen how this will pan out for AT&T and its employees. The stock market doesn’t indicate much trouble, as shares for the company for 2019 have risen by as much as 9 percent.
While the situation doesn’t seem so grave at the moment, if matters continue to grow worse, there is a possibility that the CWA labor union will get involved, which could prove problematic for AT&T.