Updated August 4 at 8:44 a.m.
Consolidated Communications, a telephone and internet provider that operates throughout Vermont, confirmed to VTDigger on Thursday that it is laying off employees.
In an emailed statement, Ryan Whitlock, senior vice president for operations, said the Illinois-based company is laying off less than 5% of its Vermont workforce.
“While this is a difficult step, it is necessary to ensure a sustainable Company positioned to continue to invest in future-ready technologies and provide competitive solutions to our customers,” Whitlock said in the statement. “Consolidated Communications is taking steps to manage costs within a highly competitive industry while aligning resources and continuing our investments to transform from a copper-based telco into a leading fiber first provider.”
Kyle Thweatt, a spokesperson for Consolidated Communications, said that the company has 3,000 employees in all, of whom about 220 work in Vermont.
As of 2021, Consolidated Communications had about 150 unionized employees in the state.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is holding discussions with the company over a reduction in force in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said Ed Starr, the IBEW International representative for New England, in a phone interview with VTDigger on Thursday. The union represents more than 100 Consolidated Communications employees in those three states.
Starr said Consolidated Communications laid off three Vermont union employees last month, and is trying to persuade as many senior employees as possible to accept buyouts, after which it will determine how many people it will lay off.
“They try to entice the senior employees to take a voluntary exit package,” Starr said. “So they’re doing that now.”
Communications Workers of America also represents some Consolidated employees, although spokesperson Beth Allen said she does not believe the union has any members in Vermont.
CWA members have a contract that protects them from layoffs, she said, but the company has offered buyouts to some members.
“A limited number of our members are eligible for the voluntary buyout the company is offering,” said Allen.
Thweatt said in Vermont, the company works with IBEW. He said five CWA employees in New Hampshire and Maine have been offered buyouts.
Meanwhile, one of Consolidated Communications’ brands, Fidium Fiber, is making a big push to woo internet customers in Vermont. Its website says it’s now available to customers in more than 70 Vermont communities. Fidium bills itself as an internet provider, with streaming TV packages available through one of its partners.
Consolidated Communications is also working with two Vermont communications union districts to lay down fiber-optic cable, Southern Vermont CUD and Lamoille Fibernet. Eric Hatch, chair of the Southern Vermont CUD, and Lisa Birmingham, executive director of Lamoille Fibernet, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
So far, the Vermont Department of Labor is not aware of any layoffs at Consolidated Communications, according to Cameron Wood, the labor department’s director on unemployment.
