$4.8 Million Earmarked To Help Laid-Off Gte Workers

The U.S. Labor Department is providing up to $4.8 million to assist 6,000 GTE Telephone Operations employees being laid off in 21 states, Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said.

Initially, $240,254 will be awarded to help GTE analyze the affected workers’ needs and develop site-specific plans, Reich said in a prepared statement sent Friday.

The layoffs at 110 work sites are the result of GTE’s decision to restructure its work force to keep pace with technological innovations, marketplace changes and increased competition from deregulation, the company said.

About 45 employees at GTE’s Moscow, Idaho, operations center lost their jobs earlier this year. GTE has no telephone operations offices in the Spokane area, said Bob Wayt, public affairs manager for GTE Northwest in Beaverton, Ore.

No other changes are planned for the North Idaho operations, which employ about 100 people, he said.

“Our goal is to help these employees make a quick and smooth transition to other employment opportunities,” J. Randall MacDonald, senior vice president-human resources of Stamford, Conn.-based GTE Corp., said in the statement.

The request for assistance came from the Common Interest Forum, a joint effort of GTE, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Affected workers are from 21 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

GTE’s telephone operations are based in Irving, Texas.