U S West Operators Turn Down Wage Plan

U S West operators in Spokane have rejected a plan that could enhance job security in exchange for a rollback in wages, a union official said Tuesday.

May Boehnke, executive vice president of the Communications Workers of America Local 7818, said workers at all 13 U S West offices where traditional operator services are provided have voted down the proposal.

She said the company could announce the closure of as many as three of those offices by the end of the year.

U S West spokeswoman Lynn Espinoza said officials want to cut costs, not jobs.

“We haven’t made any decisions about which call centers may be closed, or when,” she said.

The company informed the union last month that calls into its centers had declined as competitors gained more of the business.

Espinoza said U S West estimated 500 million calls had been captured by other providers over the past seven years.

In response, she said union leaders agreed to let the 2,000 operators who might be affected decide whether to set aside terms of the contract negotiated just last fall after a 15-day strike and work instead under a separate pact that covers agents who provide operator services to other phone companies.

“That would have meant lower wages and questions about pension and retirement,” Boehnke said. “We’d rather stay with what we know.”

The agent contract expires in August.

About 110 operators work in Spokane, another 50 in Seattle. Boehnke said the two Washington centers are linked with centers in Salem, Ore., and Salt Lake City.

Only Salt Lake City operates around the clock, seven days a week, she said.

Incoming calls are distributed randomly into the centers.

Asked how busy the Spokane center is, Boehnke said U S West has not offered severance in the last few years to any employees considered surplus.

There are no agent operators in Spokane, she said.

The proposal does not affect other U S West workers in Spokane.