AT&T; to Trim 6,000 Jobs Over Two Years

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. plans to cut about 6,000 jobs in two years from its Network Operations Group and expects to reduce employment elsewhere in the company as well, a spokesman said Thursday.

The cuts in the Network Operations Group, which runs the long-distance network, will amount to about 8% of the unit’s 74,000 employees, spokesman Burke Stinson said.

He said the total cuts could exceed 6,000. The company will try to achieve as many of the cuts as possible through voluntary retirements, resignations and reassignments to other parts of the company, but will not rule out layoffs, Stinson said.

“Virtually every organization in AT&T; has the marching orders to reduce the number of jobs not related to sales. This is the most specific and is the earliest,” he said.

AT&T;’s total employment has risen by about 12,000 this year to about 315,000 after having dropped steadily since the 1984 divestiture of the local operating companies. The increase has alarmed Chairman Robert E. Allen, who announced in July the first companywide hiring freeze since the Bell System breakup.

Some of the people being cut from Network Operations will be among the 3,000 people who AT&T; is reassigning from staff jobs in various parts of the company to jobs in sales, marketing and customer support, Stinson said.

Network Operations does not include operators. Most of the jobs are for supervisors and managers of the long-distance network, and Stinson said the computerization of the network has reduced the need for staff.