AT&T to Bring Back Customer Support Staff

AT&T will bring back 2,000 in-house technical support jobs that had been handled by outsourcing providers.

Half had been located in the United States, while the other half had been handled offshore, a company spokesman said. He declined to name the outsourcing providers.

The workers support DSL customers who install their own service and have questions about it, according to the company.

The telecom carrier, based in San Antonio, Texas, said the workers will be back on its payroll by 2008, although a company spokesman said AT&T does not know yet where the workers will be located.

“This is one more example of how were working together with our union to add jobs in growing parts of our company,” said Bill Blase, executive vice president for labor relations at AT&T, in a statement.

“Were pleased that the Communications Workers of America has recognized the mutual importance of creating these jobs with competitive wages and benefits that enhance the companys ability to compete while creating good jobs,” Blase said.

All non-management AT&T employees, about 100,000, are represented by the union.

The company spokesman declined to say whether the union had made concessions, but did say, “This is a competitive wage and benefit package.”

The deal with the CWA is the second the company and the union have reached in recent months, AT&T said.

Previously the company and the union agreed on a contract covering premises technicians that perform installation work at customer homes for AT&Ts U-verse video service.

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