More than a hundred St. Louis employees that work for YP Holdings LLC, the company that operates the Yellow Pages, are losing their jobs this year in massive layoffs. Why? Some positions are reportedly being outsourced to India.
"It's terrible," Mike Mehringer, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 6300, tells Daily RFT. "These people are out here losing their jobs...and they have families to take care of."
The company officially filed notice with Missouri this month, and Mehringer says his union is in the process of negotiating with management over the terms of the layoffs.
The employees based out of One AT&T Center in downtown St. Louis have a range of positions from customer service to graphic design for the Yellow Pages and its accompanying website, says Mehringer.
They'll be off the payroll in July, he says.
"They are really good jobs," Mehringer adds. "They had health care, pensions...and the range is pretty wide on the years of experience, some of them up to 28 and 29 years of service."
He says 92 out of 120 local layoffs are individuals who are members of his union.
They are trying to get the best severance packages possible for their members, he adds.
Mehringer argues that this is not in response to a necessary cost-cutting measure, and says that YP corporate officials have told employees that the company is in good financial shape.
"These people are out here losing jobs," he says, adding of YP, "They want to make more money."
Daily RFT reached out to YP officials for comment and will update if we hear back.
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