Wireless service provider AT&T will open its Evansville call center in August for training, the companys Indiana President said Tuesday.
Leading a tour of what will become the call center, George Fleetwood told local politicians that center will handle several million calls every month from business customers. To handle that call volume, AT&T plans to hire 600 representatives to work the phones in the east side center. Its located in the former Sams Club at 5101 E. Vogel Road, and the building is in the midst of a $22 million rehabilitation.
That work is taking place in three phases, the first of which should be complete by August. That is when about one third of the staff will come to work for training. Most of those jobs are filled. Several hundred positions remain open, however, and AT&T is asking anyone interested in working for them to
fill out an online application on their web site .
The pay rate has not been formally announced, but the jobs will be union positions, represented by the Communication Workers of America local 4900. Local 4900 president Kurt Shrum called the pay scale a "living wage," saying employees would be able to support their families without having to work a second job.
The center will begin taking calls in October. George Fleetwood told guests on a tour of the facility that the decision to locate in Evansville had little to do with the 10 year tax phase in and $275,000 training grant offered by the city. Recent deregulation of the telecommunications industry by the state legislature made the real difference, he said.