Charter Communications, known locally as
Spectrum, plans to close its downtown Milwaukee residential retention call center and lay off 173 employees who work at the facility at 1320 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
In a federal WARN (Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act) notice posted on Monday, the company states the employees, 148 of them “residential retention reps,” will be let go from the company starting on March 28. The remaining positions being cut are administrative, managerial, and supervisory roles.
Although the residential retention call center in downtown Milwaukee will be the shut down, the entire facility will not be closed, the notice states. Spectrum will continue to house several functions at its downtown Milwaukee facility, including a large Spectrum Enterprise team that specializes in providing connectivity solutions for large business and government clients, and Spectrum Networks, which operates Spectrum News 1, according to Kim Haas, vice president of communications with Charter.
In a statement, Hass said the company is transitioning the work done at the Milwaukee call center to other centers.
“We want to retain the talent and experience of as many of our Milwaukee employees as possible. Employees at the center are eligible to apply for open positions at another customer retention center, or any role with the company for which they are qualified,” Haas said. “Any employee who does not have a new position by the time the center closes will be eligible for comprehensive severance benefits.”
Employees who apply for open positions at other customer retention centers are eligible to receive a relocation benefit if chosen for one of those roles, Haas added, or any role with the company for which they are qualified.
“We currently have a variety of open sales roles in Milwaukee, working directly with residential and small business customers, enterprise clients, in retail sales as well as advertising sales positions. We also have open positions at two customer service call centers in Appleton and Fond du Lac,” she said.
