In a company-wide e-mail, BellSouth said it will cut between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs within the nine-state region it serves, blaming a weak economy, tougher competition, and regulatory pressures. The plan includes reducing the number of call centers from 10 to 4, leaving only centers in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, and Pensacola open. Tony Dorado, president of Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 3122 in Miami, says the company’s aim is to eliminate well-paid workers who have some seniority but are not ready for retirement.

"The company is using 9/11 as an excuse when they’re actually reporting profits," says Teri Sands, who has 22 years with the company. "They want to lay off employees while the CEO got a 43 million dollar bonus."

"They want to replace the most senior workers,", says Fran Thomas who has worked in customer service for 30 years. "They say they want to close our department for restructuring but they really want to hire new people so they can pay them less. My only choices are to take the buyout package or transfer to another state."

Several sales representatives described the new quarterly evaluation process instituted by the company in February. "If you don’t sell enough and the monthly fees for advertising in the Yellow Pages go unpaid, you lose your job. Ten people have already lost their jobs and after this quarter there will be 10 more," stated Gloria Mayshack, a sales rep with 22 years experience. Over the last month, workers have held a rally in front of BellSouth Yellow Pages every Friday to protest this speed up.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the union has charged that the company will close the collection center in Miami and force collection representatives who speak only English to choose between transferring to the Jacksonville call center, moving to another job within BellSouth, or quitting with no severance package.

Workers at the rally had different responses to the company plan. Rebecca Coile, who has 32 years with the company, said, BellSouth is "using the bilingual issue as a way to divide us. When a customer calls, they could be talking to someone in Miami or Minneapolis. It depends on the call volume. They don’t have to have only bilingual workers in Miami. They just want to get rid of us and hire people they can pay less to."

"I have 22 years of service," said Jose Perez. "They don’t fire you but they say your choice is to move to Birmingham, Alabama. Well, I have my family here. They aren’t only firing English speakers. They fired 51 in the bilingual unit of the Yellow Pages. This is about the company trying to break our union."

Mary Ann Schmidt also contributed to this article.  
 
 
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