Verizon plans to cut payroll by 10,000 jobs

Herald Staff and Associated Press

EVERETT — For the second year in a row, telecom provider Verizon Communications Inc. is cutting its employment rolls — eliminating the budgetary equivalent of 10,000 jobs.

The effects in Everett, where the company’s Northwest operations are based, will be felt, but shouldn’t be severe, said Melissa Barran, local spokeswoman.

"We don’t want to overreact to the 10,000 number," Barran said. "Just as in the past, there will continue to be retirements and a lot of that will be absorbed through normal reductions."

Barran noted that the company has some 247,000 employees.

She said no one region will bear the brunt of the cutbacks, but rather the company will continue to do such things as cut overtime and subcontractor use as well as lay off workers in areas that are being pared back due to business slowdowns.

"The story is pretty much an ongoing story as far as managing our business going forward," she said. "We’ll be balancing our employees with the amount of business we have.

"This is an ongoing effort, particularly post-merger as the synergy of the two companies come together."

Verizon was created from the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE.

The job cuts were announced Monday by Verizon co-chief executive Ivan Seidenberg at a meeting in Orlando, Fla.

Last year, Verizon made a similar announcement but ended up shrinking its number of employees by 16,000. Most of the jobs reduced came through attrition. A voluntary buyout in December accounted for 7,000 of those jobs, Varettoni said.

Just 10 percent to 20 percent of jobs cut last year — 1,600 to 3,200 — were layoffs, he added.

Verizon also cut costs last year by eliminating overtime and contract employees who handled everything from food preparation to security, Varettoni said.

Verizon will look to trim those expenses again this year. But Varettoni acknowledged that much of the excesses in those areas — especially overtime — had already been done away with.

This year’s job cuts will focus on Verizon’s "low-growth" businesses — chiefly local telephone service — and not its fast-growing areas like long distance, digital subscriber lines (DSL), and long distance phone service, Varettoni said.

"Traditional telephone usage has been affected by the slowing of the economy and by substitution," Varettoni said. "People are using wireless or DSL service, when in the past they would have bought a second phone line."

No specific locations or facilities are being targeted, he said.

Verizon’s stock closed Monday down 66 cents to $47.93 on the New York Stock Exchange.