Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Congressman Jared Golden (D-Maine) are raising concerns over Consolidated Communications’ (CCI) proposed Portland-based layoffs. The House delegation said CCI’s customer service layoffs will have many harmful impacts and strongly urged CCI President and CEO Bob Udell to reconsider. 

“[W]e urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this decision based on its harmful impacts – not only on your workers and their families, but on your company’s capacity to provide quality service to customers in Maine, now and into the future. We ask that you choose instead to invest in your employees and the communities you serve,” Pingree and Golden wrote.

Pingree and Golden also cited a troubling trend within the CCI company, noting that CCI’s union-represented workforce has decreased by 32 percent in Maine since 2017. 

“The continued depletion of our local telecommunications workforce not only harms your customers, but it also hurts the Mainers that depend on these jobs,” they said.

The letter is available here and copied below.

In 2021, Pingree and Golden cosponsored and helped the House pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, the most comprehensive pro-labor legislation in decades. 

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Dear Mr. Udell,

We write to share our urgent concerns with Consolidated Communications’ plan to lay off customer service employees throughout Maine. These proposed layoffs are just the latest effort from CCI to eliminate and outsource Maine jobs. 

Consolidated Communications (CCI) serves hundreds of thousands of Mainers through telecommunications infrastructure that is vital to our safety and economic security. Most importantly, the company’s workers provide high quality customer service because they live in and are members of the communities that they serve. It is this strong commitment to customer service that is essential to ensuring that households across the state can access this infrastructure and related services. Customer service employees are truly the backbone of your relationships with consumers and businesses. 

It is troubling that the proposed layoffs are the just the latest effort from CCI to eliminate and transfer jobs based in Maine. It is our understanding that the IBEW-represented workforce alone at CCI has declined 32 percent in Maine since the company assumed operations from FairPoint Communications in 2017. The continued depletion of our local telecommunications workforce not only harms your customers, but it also hurts the Mainers that depend on these jobs. 

That is why we urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider this decision based on its harmful impacts – not only on your workers and their families, but on your company’s capacity to provide quality service to customers in Maine, now and into the future. We ask that you choose instead to invest in your employees and the communities you serve.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

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