Earlier today reports began to surface stating that AT&T was in the process of closing down a local call center in El Paso, Texas. With the suggestion at the time that this would result in a number of job losses. However, since the initial reports on this came through, AT&T has reached out to provide further clarity on this issue.
AT&T explains that it is not closing the El Paso center as part of a move to outsource call center services to other countries, but instead is simply consolidating some of the customer call center work currently done in El Paso into the company’s other facilities within the U.S. AT&T further explains the purpose of this move is to ‘increase efficiency and better serve its customers’ while also adding that jobs are available to any of the employees who are willing to relocate to one of the other facilities. Those who are willing to move out of state will be eligible for a relocation allowance while those who prefer to stay in El Paso will be given priority consideration for positions within the area, including at other facilities in El Paso. AT&T also adds that it is committed to Texas and maintaining its workforce there, while further noting that the company currently employs more than 35,000 people in Texas, including 3,700 who were hired in 2016, as well as 1,800 who have been hired in 2017, between January and August alone.
On the topic of the dispute with its workers which was also mentioned in the previous article due to the ‘offshoring’ concerns of workers, AT&T explains that of the various number of contracts it holds, only one is currently subject to the negotiations, Mobility Orange. Which AT&T confirms represents about 7-percent of its employees. On that contract, AT&T states that it is confident it will reach an agreement as it has done with 32 previous fair agreements since 2015. While also adding that the company is offering a number of generous terms as part of the deal talks, including “annual wage increases and comprehensive healthcare and retirement benefits.” While lastly adding that AT&T is the only major wireless carrier in the US to have a unionized workforce and provides “more good-paying full-time U.S. union jobs than any company in the country.”