KENT, Wash. (AP) -- United Airlines is closing its customer call center in this Seattle suburb on June 4, a move that will cut 400 jobs.
Jeff Green, a spokesman for the Chicago-based airline, said all workers at United's Seattle Reservations Center in Kent will be offered work at the company's call centers in Chicago, Honolulu, Detroit or Washington, D.C. The Kent facility opened in 2000.
Employees who do not choose to be relocated will receive a severance package in accordance with their collective bargaining agreements with the company, Green said. The workers are represented by the International Association of Machinists.
''This is not a happy day for us,'' said Alan Wayne, United's director of governmental and public affairs, who called the mayor's office Tuesday to inform city officials of the company's plans to close the call center.
United, the nation's second-largest airline, is trying to cut labor costs to help offset high fuel prices, Wayne said. In the past two years, the airline has reduced its work force from 110,000 employees to about 60,000.
United's parent company, UAL Corp., has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since December 2002.
The company has cut 456 workers in the Seattle area since October 2001, with the last round of layoffs here taking place in July 2003, according to state Employment Security Department records.
United is one of several major U.S. carriers that have raised fares on round-trip domestic flights in recent weeks. In March, the company also canceled an order for a Boeing 777 jetliner that had a list price of $186 million.
Green said United will be rerouting incoming calls to its Kent call center to reservation centers in Mexico and Ireland. United also uses call centers in Canada and India.
