Workers Say AT&T Plant Starts Layoffs - Omaha World-Herald (NE) -

April 12, 1985

April 12, 1985 | Omaha World-Herald (NE) | Steve Jordon

business

T he AT &T T echnologies Omaha Works , formerly Western Electric Omaha Works , gave some
employees layoff notices when they reported for work T hursday afternoon, employees said.

A company spokesman had declined to confirm the layoffs and was not available for comment
after the reported notices were issued.

T ypically, no public announcement of a layoff is made until after affected employees from all three
shifts have been informed.

T he number of workers to be laid off is uncertain, although one report put the total at 275. T he
plant employs 4,950 people.

Earlier T hursday, Ken Mass, business manager for Local 1974 of the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, had said the union is working with the company to lessen the effects of a
possible layoff.

Mass said the plant's work force is in "a surplus situation."

"We're trying to deal with that situation in whatever way we can," Mass said. He said early an
retirement proposal is one way to reduce the number of people who might be affected.

T he plant, which produces electrical communications equipment, added nearly 500 employees in
1983 and 850 more in 1984 and currently is at its highest employment since mid - 1974, company
officials had said earlier.

About 150 of the new workers were transferred to Omaha from AT &T plants being closed in
Kearney, New Jersey; Baltimore, Ohio; and Chicago.

CIT AT ION (AGLC ST YLE)

Steve Jordon, World - Herald Staff Writer, 'Workers Say AT &T Plant Starts Layoffs', Omaha World-
Herald (online), 12 Apr 1985 ‹https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?
p=AMNEWS&docref=news/12DB0C1EF338C718›
Copyrig ht (c) 1985 Omaha World Herald