NY Times: New York Hotel Phone Operators Try to Put Layoffs on Hold

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/19/nyregion/new-york-hotel-phone-operators-try-to-put-layoffs-on-hold.html

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On “Mad Men,” the telephone operator for the Sterling Cooper advertising firm, Marge, is a vital part of the office. But that was decades ago. Today, the notion of women with headsets perched behind wire-laden switchboards feels as antiquated as the clattering of typewriters.
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Though operators are an endangered lot, they still exist and can be found in some of New York City’s larger hotels. There are 497 hotel telephone operators working in 161 of these establishments, according to the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, the union that represents them. Their numbers have dwindled, but not as dramatically as might be expected. Fifteen years ago, the union counted 571 operators among its members. Union leaders say the ranks of operators have thinned less in New York than in other parts of the country because of union efforts to save their jobs.

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