AT&T, a leader in telecommunication services in the US, announced a plan to eliminate around 41 jobs in its Connecticut headquarters due the continuous decline of landline subscribers in the area. The layoffs will be concentrated on the company’s network services division. The telecommunication giant guaranteed that the impacted staff will be entitled to receive severance packages. Some of those affected workers will be offered other positions within the company.

Marty Richter, AT&T spokesman, explained that the company’s landline business has been deteriorating over the past years so the job cut is necessary. “AT&T has gone from having 100% of the local wireline business in Connecticut 10 years ago to less than 45% today, and we continue to lose about 10,000 access lines in the state every month — many of them to non-union companies” Richter revealed that other businesses of AT&T are doing well. So while the company is cutting jobs in its weak areas, it is also adding more jobs elsewhere. “We need to reconfigure our work force to where the work is. Our wireless and U-verse businesses are doing well. We are currently hiring nearly 50 wireless retail sales and service positions in Connecticut — and about 40 U-verse technicians.”

Bill Henderson, President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1298 and the representative of the AT&T workers, expressed his dismay over the slated layoff. Henderson believed that the cuts are fueled by AT&T’s goal of earning more money. “AT&T made $13 billion last year after taxes and paid their chief executive $20 million, not including the perks.” Henderson added that the company has been downsizing its workforce over the past years that may result in the decline of quality of service to its customers. “”They haven’t even finished that layoff and they’re announcing another. They should be leading the bandwagon and keeping jobs here. You can’t provide service without people. In the last six years they’ve cut 3,000 jobs.”