Williams to Cut 500 Jobs

TULSA, Okla., July 2 -- Williams Communications Group will cut its 4500-member workforce by as much as 10 percent. Howard Janzen, the company's CEO, said the exact number of layoffs would be determined after completion of a department-by-department analysis. Janzen said that fewer than 500 employees would be cut in what he described as a routine effort to trim business expenses instead of an across-the-board layoff.
Williams operates a 33,000-mile fiber optic network that carries video, voice and data for telephone companies, television networks and Internet providers. The company employs 3200 people in Tulsa, but Janzen said the company did not know how many jobs would be lost locally. Last fall, the company had more than 400 unfilled openings in Tulsa and was struggling to attract qualified job applicants. Instead, it added workers at facilities in Houston, Denver and St. Louis.