WARREN Sprint to lay off 63 and cut call center

Laid-off employees will be offered early retirement or can bid on other positions.
VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
WARREN -- Citing an economic downturn that is forcing it to lay off workers nationwide, Sprint said it is eliminating its Warren call center and laying off 63 employees there.
Chriss Harris, a Sprint spokeswoman, said the telephone company is laying off 6,000 employees and 1,500 independent contractors as part of the belt-tightening effort.
Laid-off workers will be offered early retirement options or the opportunity to bid on other positions in the company. Sprint managers notified the employees of the company's plans Thursday.
The Warren call center on South Park Avenue will close permanently Jan. 18.
Prior warning: Center employees have known since November, 1998, that their jobs would not last indefinitely, Harris said.
The center, which had 102 employees at that time, was named an "attrition center," she said, meaning positions would be eliminated gradually as employees retired or quit and no new-hires would be added. It is one of six attrition centers across the country to be closed.
Harris said the Warren area is a "huge" market for Sprint, and customers will not notice any change in their service because of the layoffs. The call center serves Sprint customers in Florida.
Sprint employs about 200 in the Warren area, she said, and about 140 -- marketing, customer service technicians, repair technicians and management -- will remain after the cutback.
The Kansas City-based company also announced this week it will scrap its bundled voice and high-speed Internet access service -- known as ION -- and stop expansion of its fixed wireless division.
Cause of restructuring: Ron LeMay, president and chief operating officer, said changes in customer preference, competition and a sluggish economy caused the restructuring and would translate into lower earnings in the near future.
"We can't passively wait for the economy to rebound," LeMay said. "We must get our cost structure in line with present economic realities."