CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It remains to be seen how many workers with Frontier Communications will accept a voluntary severance package with the company. Saturday is the deadline set by Frontier for employees in the Bluefield, Wheeling, and Ashburn, Va. locations to decide if they would be willing to voluntarily leave.
“People that want to leave and are personally in a way they can go ahead and leave, they can take that offer,” said Elaine Harris, President of Communications Workers of America Local 300 in Charleston. “It’s voluntary and it’s an enhanced offer to leave the company.”
It’s not known how many might take the offer.
“We haven’t gotten final numbers yet,” said Harris. “It usually goes down to the wire and people are having to make personal choices if it’s something they can do.”
The company indicated those who didn’t take the buyout may face layoffs, in fact when the original announcement was made plans were in the works to close the Bluefield operation down. That changed in the past week according to Harris.
“The company went down and made that announcement to the employees,” she said. “Bluefield Center will remain open.”
Harris said the CWA bargaining unit continues to work with the company to find ways to avoid any layoffs through ongoing contract negotiations.