Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The Saginaw Valley appears to have dodged a big layoff bullet fired by SBC Communications Inc. earlier this month.

On the day after the election, the San Antonio-based telecommunications giant announced it would eliminate 10,000 jobs nationwide, or about 6 percent of its workforce. SBC said as many as 1,000 workers in Michigan would get pink slips by the end of 2005. SBC employs more than 1,200 in the Saginaw Valley, a substantial number in downtown Saginaw and Saginaw Township.

The nation’s second-largest phone company said it expects to close a field office downtown with 23 support workers in 2006. Most of the Michigan job losses will fall on workers in Southfield and Detroit, SBC said, but unionized workers at those locations could transfer to Saginaw jobs.

SBC blamed the state’s regulatory environment for the cuts, but it goes beyond that. The wireless phone revolution and new, more efficient network technologies are cutting the need for workers. Nationally, SBC has cut about 7,000 jobs in the past year.

The company was allowed to start offering long-distance service in Michigan last year. The Michigan Public Service Commission also approved an increase in the wholesale price SBC can charge competitors to use its network -- although it was less than SBC requested.

The telecommunications industry is in transition. Regions that lure high-tech workers -- places with a high quality of life -- and invest in education will benefit from the move to wireless and broadband Internet service.

Dodging the job-loss bullet long-term requires the Saginaw Valley to adapt

to those changes, not cling to the old economy.