SBC closing some Michigan call centers

No link, since this is direct from my mother-in-law who works there. It hasn't hit the news yet, but they told everyone that the Saginaw and Kalamazoo call centers will be closing November 19.

I know SBC as Seattle's Best Coffee but that doesn't sound like who you're talking about.

They and Verizon own the state.

It doesn't stand for anything, according to my husband who worked there and got out this summer. All the Bell companies (Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, etc) were incorporated into it.

But some of the Baby bells were not incorporated in it. The Bell out here (Pacific?) became something else and is now Qwest.

It's one of the surviving "Baby Bells" and (afaik) the largest as reconsolidation of local telephone service companies has proceeded since the Bell break-up. They now call themselves "SBC Communications" and are attempting a merger with AT&T. (Holy history, Batman!) The former Southwest Bell is now an operating subsidiary of SBC. SBC has never really homogenized its operations and is stll composed of its constituent (gobbled up) parts: Southwest Bell, PacBell, Ameritech, SNET, Nevada Bell, Prodigy, Cingular(60%), etc.

SBC is a "new breed" oligopoly, a kind of conglomeration of disparate parts and fiefdoms all under the financial and marketing hat of people who don't give a flying fuck about field operations other than cost. The communications workers in SBC are among the most jerked-around in the country. The 'management principle' (if there is one) is one of buy, rape as long as possible, and discard - the ethical equivalent of cancer.

just what we need, more jobs leaving the state

It's only starting in Michigan.

In the Saginaw area where I am, SBC is (was) one of the very few places where you could make more than $10 an hour. GM/Delphi is the other. Things aren't looking good for this area. :(

and it was all downhill from there.

Nobody was coming into work, they would call in sick to go to church, people we baptizing each other in the water cooler, some people were even washing feet in the break room.

Eventually they had to close the place due to rampant religious fundamentalism.

But you might want to refer people to the other thread so people know what you're talking about.

in Bangladesh

I spent most of the day talking to Dell yesterday.. I spoke with "Lydia, Alberto, Jake, Steven, Susan, Maria, and Hubert".

Those are good jobs, and K'Zoo needs every one of them. Do you think this has something to do with the strike last year? I know it got bad in K'Zoo.

My husband was still working there then and, having experienced many layoffs, he saw the signs even before the strike. SBC seemed pretty gung-ho on outsourcing - the tech support for their DSL was already in India, and some executives said off the record that they expected the same for all of the SBC call-center employees within 5 years.

Got my cell phone number changed to my home phone number, then got the cord cut from AT&T/SBC/Ameritech. I guess it's my fault, but I was spending $40 a month for a phone I wasn't using.