Rumors of sweeping layoffs and cost cuts had been causing high anxiety at the company for weeks. Even so, when AT&T; announced last week that it would close some of its plants, eliminate 27,400 jobs and take a $3.2 billion write-off against its fourth-quarter earnings, the sheer magnitude of the reductions was stunning. The job cuts alone were the largest in the firm's history, and the write- off will all but wipe out 1986 after-tax earnings, which had been expected to approach $2 billion. While one spokesman for the Communications Workers union accused the company of "mean and inappropriate" behavior for...
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