Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410170036
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The union's Local 2201 President Richard C. Verlander Jr. asked Attorney General Jim Gilmore in a letter this week to push for an investigation of Bell Atlantic rates.
``Rates and services need to be closely regulated,'' said Verlander, whose local represents about 2,100 Bell Atlantic workers in the Richmond area. ``The incentive for the company with `incentive regulation' is to cut costs as much as possible. ... The result is a `skeleton crew' work force, poor customer service and lost jobs in the community.''
The State Corporation Commission has experimented with incentive regulation for the state's largest telephone companies since 1989. The commission is expected to act soon on more changes, including proposals to deregulate Bell Atlantic's profits in return for temporary price caps on monopoly services.
Bell Atlantic-Virginia spokesman Paul T. Miller Jr. denied the union's allegations and said the union is trying to ``manipulate public sentiment'' in advance of bargaining next year on a new labor contract.
Gilmore's office has opposed the SCC regulation proposals. He had no comment on the union letter.
Philadelphia-based Bell Atlantic Corp., the parent company of Virginia's largest telephone utility, announced two months ago that it plans to eliminate about 5,600 of its 73,600 jobs over three years.
Miller said Friday the job cuts, announced several months ago, will come at operations in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Washington, D.C. He could not give a breakdown by state or type of job, but said cuts will be across the board over the next 31/2 years as new equipment is phased in.
Miller said job cuts are not imminent. Instead, the company has been hiring workers to fix service problems caused partly by an unexpectedly large response to a pension buyout offer to union-represented workers, he said. He accused the union of attempting to manipulate public sentiment prior to next year's bargaining on a new labor contract.
It is no secret that the company had service problems early in the year because of storms and increased demand. But Miller said the company is hiring and more people will be working at the end of the year than at the start: "We are turning the corner on service."
Staff writer Mag Poff contributed to this story.
by CNB