AT&T sheds 1,000 employees after touting GOP tax plan, giving out bonuses

Source: Salon




The telecom titan recently announced $1,000 bonuses for 200,000 U.S. employees, while others were laid off

CHARLIE MAY
12.27.2017•4:33 PM

After announcing that the majority of its United States employees would receive a $1,000 holiday bonus as a result of the new GOP tax plan, AT&T quietly laid off more than 1,000 employees. The telecom giant announced that 200,000 U.S. employees who are union members would receive a special $1,000 bonus and that the company would also reinvest more than $1 billion in its workforce.

"Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world," CEO Randall Stevenson said in a news release last week. "This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs. In fact, we will increase our U.S. investment and pay a special bonus to our U.S. employees."

The statement continued, "Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T* plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees — all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers."

But days prior to the announcement it was reported that AT&T had also quietly laid off 600 employees in Illinois and five other states throughout the Midwest. Further details about the layoffs are not currently clear, but the telecom titan said that layoffs were part of "workforce adjustments" to address it's declining legacy services, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Read more: https://www.salon.com/2017/12/27/att-sheds-1000-employees-after-touting-gop-tax-plan-giving-out-bonuses/