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Report: AT&T to cut jobs in West Michigan

AT&T says fewer people are using land lines these days.
flickr - photodu.de
AT&T says fewer people are using land lines these days.

The Grand Rapids Press reports that AT&T plans to cut 110 union jobs in West Michigan. The paper reports:

The West Michigan job losses are part of a total of 371 jobs being eliminated by the telecommunications giant in Michigan, said Ryan Letts, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 4034.

Letts is quoted as saying they saw the job cuts coming because the telecommunications industry is changing:

"There is the traditional landlines being used less by consumers, that's hurt. Also, some of the technologies, like with the company placing fiber optics and going to an infrastructure that requires less upkeep and maintenance."

An AT&T spokesman told WOOD-TV that "AT&T has lost more than 25% of its wired consumer access lines in the last three years."

Mark Brush was the station's Digital Media Director. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. He was 49 years old.