Verizon change affects 65 workers

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Sixty-five customer service employees at the Verizon Wireless office in Alexandria will soon be looking for new work.

The company notified employees last week that it would be “transitioning” all of its customer service operations in Alexandria to other Verizon call centers, effective May 1, according to Karen Smith, a company spokesperson contacted by the Echo Press Thursday morning.

The affected employees were encouraged to apply for positions at other Verizon locations and were offered between $10,000 and $15,000 to make the move, Smith said.

Those unable to relocate were given severance packages based on their years of service to the company, Smith said.

The Alexandria building will remain a Verizon Wireless facility and the shift affected the customer service employees only, Smith added.

Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless service in the nation, purchased the Alexandria-based Rural Cellular Corporation for $2.66 billion in cash and assumed debt last August. At the time, the transaction was the sixth largest telecom deal this year in the U.S.

An Echo Press story last August reported that Rural Cellular, which was established in 1990, employed more than 225 people at its Alexandria headquarters on Dakota Street. It did business under the name Unicel.

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