Ameritech assailed // Unions hit layoffs at annual meeting

Angry union members jeered and booed Ameritech Corp. executivesduring the annual meeting Wednesday, one day after the companyannounced it will cut 5,000 jobs.

"We could have timed it better," Chairman Richard Notebaert saidof the layoff news.

The company has no money problems: Notebaert said Ameritech willgain $1 billion after taxes from the sale of its stake in NewZealand's Telecom Corp. Ameritech has also signed a potentiallylucrative deal to handle some telephone traffic with France Telecom.Dozens of Ameritech workers represented by the InternationalBrotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers ofAmerica joined other shareholders at the annual meeting, held at theArt Institute.The unions will begin contract talks with Ameritech thissummer. They resent what they say are efforts by the company toprevent them from organizing workers at businesses recently acquiredby Ameritech.Notebaert attempted a conciliatory tone through the meeting."In a world of technology, people do make the difference," hesaid, quoting Ameritech's advertising theme.But Jeff Rechenback, a CWA union official, said, "Our people arein fact a disposable commodity."On Tuesday afternoon, Ameritech said it would eliminate 5,000jobs, most of them in the company's home-security and cellular phonebusinesses. Ameritech has bought home-security companies around thecountry in recent months.After the meeting, Notebaert said stitching together many smallbusinesses meant some jobs were made redundant. "We don't need fivesales offices in one town," he said. "The average (home-security)monitoring center has 4,500 customers. We are going to take it up to100,000 customers."Notebaert said that in many cases, employees whose jobs are cutwill be offered work elsewhere at Ameritech. The company will helpwith moving costs and has already talked with other companiesinterested in hiring laid-off workers, he said.The telecommunications industry suffers from a general laborshortage, with jobs available for relatively low-skilled cableinstallers up to highly trained computer network engineers.One shareholder said Ameritech should cut back on luxuriesbefore it lays off workers. "We do not need a skybox at the UnitedCenter," said Virginia Markewych. "We have paid for tennistournaments. That's fine and good, but I'd rather have the peopleworking."