MCI call center loses 10 jobs

The telecommunications giant is closing two call centers in Maryland and Tennessee.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
NILES -- This time around, the Mahoning Valley 'dodged a bullet.'
WorldCom Inc. cut only 10 positions at its 1,100-worker MCI call center in Niles, that city's largest employer. A company spokesman said those jobs were eliminated Friday.
The nation's No. 2 long-distance carrier began slashing 17,000 jobs worldwide Friday to cut costs after revealing a massive accounting scandal earlier this week.
WorldCom officials said the company's financial reports had disguised $3.8 billion in expenses in what appears to be the nation's largest case of accounting fraud. MCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of WorldCom.
The company eliminated about 150 of its 2,700 jobs in Ohio, most in the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, where WorldCom has some of its Internet operations. About 1,300 jobs were cut in Virginia, 1,000 in Texas, nearly 700 in Maryland and 500 in Colorado.
In other states, the numbers ranged from a few to a few hundred. The cuts account for about 20 percent of the work force of the Jackson, Miss.-based company, which operates in 65 countries.
Centers closed
Tim Guillen, a spokesman at WorldCom's headquarters, said the company closed two other call centers similar to the Niles facility, one in Maryland and one in Tennessee.
He said he did not know how many employees worked at the closed centers, what cities they are in or how the job cut decisions were made.
He said, however, that the decision to reduce the company's work force was made weeks ago and were unrelated to the reported financial mismanagement.
"We dodged a bullet," said Fremont Camerino, longtime president of Niles City Council.
"I feel bad about the unfortunate people who were laid off. Those 10 people certainly will feel the pain, and in this day and age you don't like to see anyone lose their jobs. But I'm elated to hear that the company will continue to do business here in light of the profound condition of the bankruptcy. We're very fortunate."
Niles Councilman Thomas Scarnecchia, D-at large, said he hopes the Niles center is not affected by the company's troubles in the future.
"It's been a very good business for the city and we just hope that it stays," he said. "The city would definitely do anything it could to help."
Russ Meier, director of the Niles center, did not return a call requesting comment, and Niles Mayor Ralph Infante could not be reached.
The Niles call center
Infante has said that the call center, opened in a former Kmart building on Youngstown-Warren Road two years ago, has become the city's largest employer. The Mahoning Valley beat out Pittsburgh in a battle to land the massive, $13 million call center in 1999.
MCI officials said at the time that the region's available work force was a selling point, and state and local leaders also assembled a generous incentive package of tax abatements, tax credits and grants to help pay for training and equipment.
The mayor has said that employees there contribute $350,000 a year in income taxes to the city.
The Niles center has a telemarketing division, where employees place calls all over the country selling MCI's long-distance service and other products, and a customer service division, where employees accept incoming calls from customers seeking assistance with billing and other problems.
Saving money
John Sidgmore, WorldCom president and chief executive, said downsizing the company's work force by 17,000 was expected to save $900 million a year.
He said the company also planned to sell a series of noncore businesses, including the resale of wireless phones, which he said would save $700 million annually.
WorldCom's largest employment base -- about 9,000 -- is in the Washington, D.C., area, where MCI Communications had its headquarters. WorldCom bought MCI in 1998 for $30 billion.
The company also has about 5,000 sales and administration workers in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area.
Sidgmore told shareholders at WorldCom's annual meeting two weeks ago that a significant job reduction would be part of a restructuring plan.
Besides layoffs, he said the reduction would take place through attrition, contractor terminations and discontinued operations such as its wireless resale business.
vinarsky@vindy.com
XInformation from the Associated Press was used in this report.