AT&T lays off 12,000

AT&T joined the long list of companies laying off workers, announcing on Thursday that it would eliminate 12,000 jobs, or roughly 4 percent of its workforce.

The company cited economic pressures and a changing business mix as the reasons behind the cuts.

AT&T also said it plans to reduce its 2009 capital expenditures from 2008 levels. The company said it would issue more specific financial guidance in January, when it announces its fourth-quarter results.

It did say, however, that as a result of the layoffs, it would take a charge of approximately $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to pay severance to affected employees.

The cuts will begin in December and continue throughout 2009, AT&T said in a release.

The company said it is continuing to add positions in wireless, video, and broadband units to meet customer demand.

[MadLyb]

Merry Christmas from Corporate America.

I know times are tough, and businesses have to make some hard decisions, but make a harder one and absorb 3 weeks of payroll, and announce after the holidays, so that these folks can actually enjoy the season without having this hanging over their heads.

[shimanorules]

I hear that.

[attsurvivor]

Well, I am pretty sure the ones slated for December are those who received a 60-day notice on October 30. They must be off the books by Dec 31, and since there are almost no jobs available to employees...many will not succeed in finding another job within the company. As for 2009, AT&T managers must FIRST fulfill the duties of the union employees, who will most assuredly strike...all signs point to it and it's a well known tactic. You don't want to reduce the force just yet. I think the next round of layoffs, mentioned here for 2009, will be AFTER June 2009. My gut tells me this.
I also think there may be another 4%, probably more, come 3Q09. AT&T is moving in a strategic direction of merging all under one...One AT&T, so Mobility (wireless) will be the kingpin. That will be blamed on the economy as well, to take the focus off the corportion, and appear to be an economic driven plan. It's not, don't be fooled. It is shareowner driven, and since the stock has been flat (for the most part) and wireline is going to continue to decline (simply part of the technology transition), the only way the company can see to drive the stock value is to reduce expense....employees. A LOT of this expense is really because of bad decisions, but it should be noted that chasing technology can end up wasteful as well. By the time you can successfully test/implement changes...too late. You are now behind the times.

[sparrowhyperion]

The only ones who truly profit from large corporations are the suits who own and run them. These suits seem to consider their workers disposable and replaceable assets which can be tossed to the wolves just so they can make that extra 0.11 percent of extra profit.

[SookieNow]

I would prefer it this way. Too m any people spend too much money on X-mas as it is. Then in January they get a huge credit card bill.....then they find out they're being laid off. That's when you see all kinds of crazy stuff in the news (ie. suicides, shootings at work etc). I would rather know now.

[gopnick]

Merry freakin' Christmas, boys & girls.

I understand why these cuts may be necessary, but I still wish they'd just shift all these workers into support and make their product support a lot better.

[Bill_I]

Amen !

[paulsecic]

U-verse needs lots of support on their TV service. I'm dumping it.

[rnawky]

Why do people still say AT&T. It was changed to at&t a long time ago.

[minonda]

Please.

[losingmyjob]

AT&T is correct. at&t is the graphic logo. I'm an employee (I'll find out tomorrow for how long) and we were told officially that whenever the company is referred to by name in print that AT&T is used.

[Bill_I]

I have Verizon fiber service, it cost a bundle to rewire the area and it works great. How can ATT match that investment by a big layoff? They are two laps behind and the tires are bald. Plus their cell phone service is terrible, sounds like you are underwater, assuming the call is still connected....

[Perry_Clease]

About 15 years ago both Pacific Bell, now AT&T (at&t if your prefer) and Time-Warner Cable TV brought fiber optic to the houses in our San Diego Neighborhood. Nothing was done with the cables, no service using them, nothing, we are still on the old telephone and cable TV wiring. It was a big project, they wired a lot of neighborhoods in San Diego. I once asked a telephone repairman about it and he said that when SBC took over Pacific Bell that were not interested in taking the project further, he didn't know the status of the Time-Warner project.

[shimanorules]

That sucks!

[smallvoice]

Where are all the money that at & t snatched from customers and from their workers?

I would advise them to keep their employees. These employees have their families.
There must be a way to cut costs, such as reduce executive pay, or reduce advertising.
These are the people who need help, and not the CEO's, because the CEO's have enough funds to cover them.
Where has gone that humility of mind that America once had?
Where has gone that bowels of mercies that America once had?
Where has gone that real daily life "In God We Trust" which American people lived.
Maybe we should have had "In God We Trust and Obey."

[thattheh]

What they need to do is layoff the indian contractors so americans employees can continue to work. Unfortunately what's going to happen is they're going to layoff americans and hire indian contractors. How the h@#$ are we suppose to get tax dollars when company's are shipping jobs overseas.

[Mrgoodwrench520]

They already have brought back 5,000 jobs from India per our 2004 contract but unfortunately they have gone to right to work for less states

[globalist_agenda]

Preety simple to figure out who they will lay off.

1) Dead wood
2) Old people
3) People at the upper end of their salary range

[Mrgoodwrench520]

This may be true for non-Bargained for employees but for those of us that have Union protection it will be "Last Hired First Fired"

[ROB-RICO]

So, AT&T is laying off 12,000; various 'merged,' "bailedout" banks are laying off tens of thousands; factories closing; shopping centers going empty.

2.5 million homes in the process of foreclosure..... millions more when the wholesale closing down of the rest of the economy kicks in, and Bernanke and Paulson want to take "some kind of action" to stem the number of foreclosures? Hmmmmm.

Well, they'll probably cut the mortgage interest rates a half point -that'll help those pennyless out-of-work chumps standing in breadlines. Hooray! Geniuses to the rescue!

Don't these people have cranial proctologists available to extract their heads????

[whoperson]

The corporate suits have been enriching themselves while providing a lousy product, marginal at best customer service, while trying to make up for it by spending lots on glamourous advertising campaigns. If AT&T had bothered to invest more in their human capital, and marketed their products more honestly, they wouldn't be in this position. Right now, I am particularly annoyed with AT&T because they talked me into a their U-Verse service and it turns out that the sales rep basically lied to me and it is way more expensive than they said. When ordering service from AT&T, you can't find out how much it will cost you until after you get your first bill. I would switch to the Cable company, except my friends say they are even worse. I'm feeling like this economic downturn is in large part because most American businesses have become fundamentally dishonest. We need more government oversight of businesses so they stop walking all over consumers.

[NoVista]

As an ex-employe of aT&t (heh, by choice) I can say, this does not surprise me. I even imagine the deal was worked, hand in glove, with the CWA. A pox on both their houses.

Sacking 12,000 even as they plan to add positions in other areas, suggests they have no re-training plans for existing workers -- and as others suggest, hire cheaper contractors.

But I could save them even more money: outsource the management to India!

[old3eyes]

Wonder how many companies with all these layoffs expect anyone to be able to pay for thir products. No jobs no money.. and so the spiral will go. Only the greedy stockmarket willl be chearing ovwer 12000 layoffs..

[McPlot]

Yeh, but I bet the CEO and the rest of the board will still get their multi-million dollar bonus checks.

[khm95841]

How un-American can they get?! Now we know what the 'A' in AT&T really stands for...
Confused? Think of a synonym for the anal orifice! In addition, I sincerely believe that
ANY COMPANY THAT "OUT-SOURCES" JOBS FROM THE USA SEEKS TO UNDERMINE
THE ECONOMY OF THE USA; AND, THEREFORE, SHOULD BE CONSIDERED TRAITOROUS...without exception.

[kbspeed99]

I am an AT&T field technician and it is disgusting what the company is doing to us. I believe this will make more sense to everyone when you read this. We were suckered into giving up jobs like locating cables and burying service drops (cables that service homes and businesses) to contractors. In turn we were told by our union that the company would guarantee us the "jobs of the future"...U-verse. The problem with that is they pay the U-verse techs half of what the original field techs make. Their idea is to threaten layoffs and then offer U-verse jobs to those that are now surplus technicians. Everyone is wondering why U-verse is not working like it should...well they hired kids off the streets, pay them Comcast wages and sent them into America's homes. AT&T has made a huge mistake. A tech like myself that makes a descent wage, is heavily trained and experienced in building and maintaining the outside network may be out of a job soon or be in some lower end job that isn't going to do the network or U-verse any good. Trust me when I say that the new AT&T wants to be like Comcast and pay low wages which brings in a lower quality of service. When they talk about how there is line loss meaning dial tone service are they forgetting about highspeed internet that runs over the same cables as well a U-verse. If they cut us who's going to maintain the services...in 2008 we had forced overtime in multiple instances because of flooding. Who is going to do that work when your service is out! Good luck Comcast...Im mean AT&T...oops!

[bknowledge]

The problem is that as consumers we stop demanding quality service for our money. Just give us the new shiny thing and we forget about the rest, we settle. This is why I just call up T-mobile and had them remove Asurion insurance, which took one call & less than 5mins. I'm not going to pay you to kick me in the a**.

[khm95841]

How UN-American and ANTI-American can Corporate America get!? Now we know what
the 'A' in AT&T really stands for! Confused? Just think of a synonym for the anal orifice.
In addition, ANY COMPANY THAT OUT-SOURCES JOBS FROM THE USA UNDERMINES
THE ECONOMY OF THE USA; IN TURN, UNDERMINING THE SECURITY OF THE USA!!!
This is tantamount to CORPORATE TERRORISM, and TREASON given the present state
of the American Economy! When will the drugged, hypnotized, and CREDIT-ENSLAVED Americans rise out of their torpor and demand that their government make the practice of
OUT-SOURCING JOBS ILLEGAL???!

[madmongol]

The layoffs are indeed a sad sign of the times. I do wonder however how many of these layoffs are factored into actual layoffs versus AT&T moving the positions to their outsourcing partners? It would be sad indeed if this 12000 figure did not account for these other positions. That would mean that a lot more layoffs are on the horizon.

[daviddohoney]

At AT&T one of the most arrogant, greedy and deceitful companies in business, no surprise, except that they haven't gone into the sub prime banking business.