Kodak, AT&T Dump Thousands More Jobs

Two more blue-chip U.S. companies revealed plans Wednesday toslash thousands of jobs from their payrolls.

By the time Eastman Kodak Co. and AT&T Co. are done with theirlatest cuts, their payrolls will be at least 13,000 workers lighter.

The cutbacks reflect a broader trend among large Americancompanies ranging from General Motors Corp. to Procter & Gamble Co.,which are cutting their work forces to save money. Part of thereason is the anemic economy, which has restrained the ability ofmany corporations to raise prices.

The AT&T program is the second step in consolidating operatorservices, while analysts expect that Kodak must make deeper cuts thanthose announced Wednesday.

Here are the details on the two plans:

AT&T. The telecommunications giant will cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobsand close 40 offices across the country by early 1995. But less thanhalf the affected workers are expected to leave AT&T because theylikely will find other jobs with the company.

AT&T's Rockford office, which now employs 92 operators and fourmanagers, will close as part of the program, a spokesman said. Butthe Naperville office, where 138 operators and seven managers nowwork, may add an unspecified number of jobs, he said.

The company last year began a program to cut one-third of its18,000 operator positions as more of those services become automatedwith voice recognition devices and other equipment. Therestructuring is expected to save the long-distance company more than$200 million annually.

The first cut, announced in March last year and due to befinished by next February, targeted 2,000 operators and 31 offices in21 states.

About 900 operators have left so far but 70 percent of themfound jobs in different parts of the long distance company, aspokesman said. Employees who do not find other AT&T jobs will begiven severance packages.

Kodak. It will cut 10,000 jobs by 1995, freeze research costsand take other austerity steps to help save $2.8 billion.

But analysts who follow the company said the job cuts, whichamount to about 9 percent of Kodak's global work force, must godeeper and happen faster.

The reductions were announced by outgoing Kodak Chairman KayWhitmore, who lost his own job earlier this month, fired by by boardmembers dissatisfied with his efforts to reduce costs.

It is unclear how many Illinois jobs will be lost in therestructuring, local officials said. The company now employs 350workers in Chicago and Oak Brook.