©2011 Galesburg Broadcasting Co.
| CenturyTel Cutting Galesburg Call Center Jobs |
POSTED 10:08 am 11/13/8 Employees at Galesburg's CenturyTel customer call center are among dozens of people who are losing their jobs as the company reduces its workforce in response to heavy competition and declining access lines.
CenturyTel Communications Manager Annamarie Sartor says the company has decided to cut around 80 jobs across 12 of its operating states, as Sartor puts it, "to compete more effectively and due to the continued impact of access line declines."
Sartor says in Illinois, the company is consolidating three customer care centers into one center in Pekin, and in doing so, eliminating around 20 positions. The other customer call centers being affected are in Galesburg and Dixon. Sartor says some of the cuts will take place immediately, while others will happen between now and the end of the year. It's not clear exactly how many Galesburg workers are losing their jobs because Sartor didn't have a breakdown of how many cuts were being made at the Galesburg and Dixon customer call centers.
Employees affected by the cuts will be offered severance packages, according to Sartor, and they can apply for vacant positions within the company---which is based in Monroe, Louisiana and operates in 25 states. Sartor says the company will also provide outplacement counseling and job search assistance for the current or soon-to-be displaced employees. She says where union representation is in place, all contractual processes will be honored.
Sartor says customers should see no impact from the consolidation.
CenturyTel provides communications, high speed internet and entertainment services to rural areas and small to medium sized cities. It owns 55,400 access lines in Illinois, and last year CenturyTel expanded its operations in Illinois, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina when it acquired Madison River Communications.
The transaction involved Gallatin River Communications, which was owned by Madison, and Gallatin is now a CenturyTel company.
(The CenturyTel office in downtown Galesburg will be closed along with a call center in Dixon, and will be consolidated into one office in Pekin. Story by Mike Perry. WGIL News Photo by Will Stevenson.) |
|
| 11 12 08 by Newsroom |
Click here for the WGIL News Archive
Click here for national news
The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.
