Verizon cuts cap a bleak week for jobs in region

By Jaedda Armstrong

About 100 employees of Verizon Communications in Hampton Roads could lose their jobs as part of the company's plans to cut 8,000 workers by the end of January, a union representative said.

Word of the looming Verizon cutbacks caps a tough week for job losses in Hampton Roads. This week, Alcoa Howmet laid off 250 at its Hampton gas turbine plant; U.S. Foodservice Inc. said it will close its Virginia Beach warehouse that employs 206; and Advanced Services Inc., a unit of General Electric Co., said it will shut its Norfolk call center next year, eliminating 185 jobs.

Communication Workers of America, the union that represents Verizon workers, said the company plans to cut more than 1,000 jobs in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Union spokeswoman Gail Evans said the cuts target employees hired after August 2003 and could include about 100 Hampton Roads workers.

Harry Mitchell, a Verizon spokesman, confirmed that the company announced a surplus of positions in its mid-Atlantic area, but he could not confirm a local number.

The surplus doesn't mean that layoffs are coming, he added.

"As we adjust our force, layoffs are an absolute last resort," Mitchell said in an e-mail.

First, the company will eliminate contract workers and offer severance packages, he said. Any needed layoffs would not occur until 2010.

In July, the company announced it would reduce its work force of employees and contractors by the end of 2009. Among those who stand to lose their jobs are field technicians, office staff and other hourly workers.

Verizon called the cuts necessary to adjust for a decline in the number of residential access lines as competition increases and more customers switch to using cell phones alone.

"Verizon is abandoning the very employees who provide the quality service that makes Verizon so profitable," said Ron Collins, the union's vice president for the mid-Atlantic region, in a release.

The job cuts will anger customers, Evans said, because they will have to wait longer for service installations and repairs.

Jaedda Armstrong, (757) 222-5846, jaedda.armstrong@pilotonline.com