PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Verizon Communications plans to lay off 350 workers statewide by early next week, said union officials, who blamed the Christmastime cuts on the company’s poor investments in wireless communications and fiber optics.
Vincent Maisano, international vice president of the Communications Workers of America, said the layoffs follow cutbacks of 2,600 jobs in Pennsylvania through early retirement and buyout packages.
“They’re invested in about 20 foreign countries, where they’ve lost billions,” Maisano said. “And now they want the employees to pay the price.”
The layoffs result from Verizon’s losing 20 percent of its telephone business in the past two years, company spokesman Harry Mitchell said. Plans to reduce jobs nationwide by 8,000 positions were announced last summer, he said.
