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Delta Plans to Close 500-Employee Call Center in Miramar

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Patrick Danner, The Miami Herald

Jun. 7--Delta Air Lines, trying to shave costs in an effort to emerge from bankruptcy next year, will close its 500-employee call center in Miramar on Sept. 1.

The Atlanta-based company expects to save $2.7 million annually with the closure of the Miramar facility and a 150-employee reservations center in Montgomery, Ala., spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.

Kelly said workers will be offered positions at its other call centers in the United States, though the closest one to South Florida is in Tampa. Those who do not relocate will be offered severance, she added.

The closure of the Miramar facility, first reported in The Sun-Sentinel, will come three years after Delta moved the call-center operation from Coral Gables.

Delta was enticed by the offer of $476,000 in incentives from the city and Broward County. That set off a firestorm of debate between Broward and Miami-Dade economic development officials, who claimed the incentives were tantamount to corporate poaching.

The two counties later agreed not to recruit each other's firms.

Delta was obligated to employ 705 full-time employees at an average annual wage of $35,000 to receive the incentives, according to Robert C. Bell, Miramar's assistant city manager for administration. Delta never got a dime, however, though Bell didn't know why.

Delta signed a 15-year lease to occupy the 49,650-square-foot building at 2901 SW 145th St. Bankruptcy permits companies to seek court permission to reject leases.

"There is an equal or better use for that building right around the corner," said Miramar City Manager Bob Payton, alluding to possible interest from other call-center operators.

The carrier, burdened by high labor costs, expensive pension obligations and climbing fuel prices, filed for bankruptcy protection in September in New York.

Delta has to achieve $3 billion in savings and new revenue to exit bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.

Gerald Grinstein, Delta's chief executive, told Bloomberg News the airline expects to trim about 9,000 jobs to reduce labor costs. It had about 55,000 employees when it entered bankruptcy. Kelly said the call center jobs in Miramar are not part of the 9,000 because those positions will remain open if employees don't relocate to other call centers.

Delta's other U.S. call centers are in Atlanta and Augusta, Ga.; Huntsville, Ala.; Cincinnati; Dallas; Salt Lake City; and Tampa.

The closing of the Miramar center was "a business decision due to lease rates and other things," Kelly said.

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DALRQ,

Source: The Miami Herald

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