**********
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. said Friday it would eliminate 4,000 jobs and close 8% of company-owned retail stores amid the loss of more key customers to rivals.
***********
Both of these are huge employers on the PanHandle.
This is an ugly ploy all the telephone related companies do every four years. I've seen it over and over and over. AT&T is the worse abuser of this practice.
They scare employees that they are going to get laid off, then they offer an early retirement package. They will pay a compensation (usually one years salary), if the employees retire before they are qualified for 100% of their retirement pay. Usually, when they pull this, there are a lot of people at the 80% level and they don't want to lose the benefits they have, so they panic. What's worse is if they are union employees, the union contributes to the panic.
The get scared into accepting less and the telephone companies all come out on top. Think about how much money is not paid to retirees over a life time if they agree to retire when they only qualify for 80%. Millions.
Greedy companies... That is all this is.