SBC moving jobs out of Tulsa and Oklahoma

The Tulsa economy took another step back over the weekend. SBC Communications announced it's moving about 200 jobs out of Tulsa. <br><br>News on Six business reporter Steve Berg says SBC says the bad

Monday, January 13th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The Tulsa economy took another step back over the weekend. SBC Communications announced it's moving about 200 jobs out of Tulsa.

News on Six business reporter Steve Berg says SBC says the bad economy is forcing it to consolidate operations. Many of the jobs are headed for Kansas City. But the head of the workers' union says that SBC is making a bad call.

Communications Workers Local 6012 president Dave Ratcliff says the news came out of left field. â€œWe were not expecting this.â€ Any job loss is bad. But these are high-paying technical jobs in the $25 an hour range. Ratcliff says those people won't be spending that money in Oklahoma anymore.

And given the cost to relocate them, he doubts SBC will send them back. â€œTo my knowledge, these jobs will not return as the economy returns, these jobs are more than likely going to be lost forever.â€

A spokesperson for SBC says the workers here will have the opportunity to seek new jobs within the company, but seeking and finding are two different things. When we asked whether they were guaranteed the same kinds of jobs in Kansas City that they have here, he said it was too soon to say.

Even the best case scenario means workers uprooting the family and making the long-distance move to Kansas City or somewhere else.

Ratcliff says the union also feels betrayed because it helped SBC pass a piece of state legislation known as the broadband bill. He says the company specifically said the bill would help keep jobs here in Oklahoma. He says that doesn't seem to be the case. He also says "Right to Work" isn't working. Since Kansas City is in Missouri, a non-"Right to Work" state.