Valor/Alltel Spin Off Closing Call Center

Hundreds of workers in Texarkana got some bad news Friday afternoon. The recent merger of two phone companies means a call center is no longer needed. 250 employees at the old Valor call center were told Friday to start looking for work somewhere else. Just this week Valor Communications and Alltel completed their merger, creating a company called Windstream. Officials with the new company looked at the current structure and decided some changes needed to be made. That includes closing the Texarkana call center. All 250 jobs will be eliminated, and only 70 employees were told they will remain. Workers will be given severance packages and the option of applying for positions at other offices within Windstream. After a visit to the call center office, it was apparent employees were upset after learning the news. Many attempts to speak to the employees were made, but they said management told them not to talk to the media. KTAL did get a chance to speak with the chief operating officer of Windstream. He says this was a difficult decision to make. "Anytime that you are closing down a center or taking people out of their jobs, it`s a tough decision and it`s one that should always bother you and it bothered me greatly," says Windstream COO Keith Paglusch. Paglusch says the call center will shut its doors on September 29th.