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Technology Stocks : Lucent Technologies (LU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hitesh puri who wrote (10856)	11/2/1999 8:14:00 PM
From: Xpiderman	Respond to of 21876

Lucent To Cut 1,500 U.S. Jobs, Mostly Technicians By Mark Weinraub dailynews.yahoo.com NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news)., the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, Tuesday said it planned to eliminate about 1,500 jobs from its U.S. operations, or about 1 percent of the work force, mainly through voluntary buyouts offered to technicians. Lucent spokesman Bill Price said the company Monday told its employees about the company's plans to trim the work force, which now totals 153,000. Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent, which expects to eliminate 1,200 jobs from the buyouts, asked for volunteers from its staff of 7,000 business phone service technicians to leave the company, Price said. He said more than two-thirds of the technicians were eligible to receive full pension benefits as well as two years pay under the buyout package. He said he was not able to provide the specifics for employees who did not have enough years of service to be eligible for the full package. The company is also cutting 280 jobs by closing two centers that handle billing and ordering services to large customers, Price said in a telephone interview. Employees who work at the centers, which are located in Silver Spring, Md., and Tucson, Ariz., will be offered help in finding other jobs outside of Lucent. They may also apply for other jobs within the company. All of the cuts should be completed by the end of the year, Price said. A spokesman for the Communications Workers of America, which represents most of the workers who stand to lose their jobs, said Lucent's customers could be hurt by the reductions. ''We're certainly not happy about this,'' spokesman Jeff Miller said. ''We think that customer service is definitely going to suffer as a result of this. They are eliminating skilled Lucent technicians and the work will be provided by outside contractors.'' Price said the technician jobs were no longer needed because the company now has systems in place that allow for remote diagnosis of problems as well as repairs. Lucent is also getting out of the business of installing wiring in buildings, he added. The work of the customer service centers will be absorbed by similar centers, Price said. Lucent's shares closed down 15/16 at 63-15/16 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.