When the Republican Party threw all governance aside in order to work voraciously to give out enormous tax giveaways to the wealthiest individuals and corporations, it was with the bogus promise that these cuts would grow the economy. Right away, it became clear that companies—which historically do not grow in relation to their tax breaks—would not continue to expand their businesses. Even more importantly, the businesses that maybe needed some money, like AT&T, to support their terrible business acquisitions would not even use the money to shore up the existing infrastructure they were running.
AT&T reportedly saved $42 billion as a result of the GOP tax breaks but have still been shedding jobs at a breakneck pace, while framing the planned layoff of thousands of employees in more pleasant terms, like “headcount rationalization.” The COVID-19 pandemic has hastened AT&T’s “rationalization” efforts. According to ArsTechnica, this will mean at least 3,400 union jobs and an untold many more nonunion jobs.
A union press release from Tuesday said that “AT&T has informed the Communications Workers of America of its plans to cut over 3,400 technician and clerical jobs across the country over the next few weeks. In addition, the company plans to permanently shutter over 250 AT&T Mobility and Cricket Wireless stores, impacting 1,300 retail jobs.”
Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Chris Shelton wondered about AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s comments to the press, which described the economic problems faced during this pandemic as a war. Stephen was quoted as saying: “Everybody needs to step up and do their part, in terms of how we help the general population and the general public." Shelton wondered how that sentiment lined up with cutting thousands of people’s jobs, livelihoods, and health insurance: “If we are in a war to keep our economy going during this crisis, why is AT&T dismissing the troops?” According to the CWA, the vast majority of layoffs will be of technicians whose job it is to “maintain and upgrade the copper and fiber networks that deliver phone and broadband service” in almost half the country.
The 3,400 jobs that the union is losing is only one part of the story. ArsTechnica reports that AT&T told them that while they would not give an exact number, they were going to cut “even more non-union jobs than union jobs.” But AT&T wants everyone to know that the majority of these non-payroll, contracted workforce cuts will be to jobs outside of the United States. How many of these workers will be “eligible” to receive the promise of “6 months company-provided healthcare coverage” remains to be seen.
This comes alongside rumors and speculation that the telecom giant is looking into selling its billion-dollar gaming division. It comes a little over two months after the company announced it had secured a new $5.5 billion loan while pushing the optimistic and exciting news that its new HBO MAX streaming service would be debuting soon—at the highest cost per month of any streaming service. At the time, Forbes noted that the announcement of the new loan coupled with the signal that layoffs were coming helped to boost the telecom’s stock prices by 3% that day.
