Gte California

The Times' "Bully on the Line?" story contained some oversights and unfair associations. First, there is the implication that as regulated monopolies, GTE California and Pacific Bell have inherent advantages over smaller competitors. We, indeed, each have franchised serving areas, with an in-place customer base. However, unlike new competitors, we must provide service to all customers in our service areas. We cannot selectively "cherry pick." Secondly, unlike some of our competitors, GTE has not had to refund money to customers for overzealous marketing practices or "competitive abuses."

GTE Corp. said Wednesday that it will cut 7,000 jobs by 1992 as part of the company's previously announced plans to overhaul its telephone operations and make them more competitive. The number of jobs to be eliminated at Thousand Oaks-based GTE California has not been determined, officials said. "These reductions are expected to generate substantial annual cost savings, which will be reflected over time in rate reductions to GTE customers and in improved earnings for GTE stockholders," James L.

A federal mediator Wednesday called a new bargaining session in an effort to avert a telephone strike set for July 9 by the union representing 15,000 workers of GTE California. GTE provides local phone service for 2.7 million people in communities scattered along the Southern California coast and interior as well as in two Northern California towns. Members of the Communications Workers of America last week rejected the latest offer of the Thousand Oaks-based company by a 55% to 45% margin.

GTE California announced Thursday that it will establish a customer service center in Oxnard, a move that will bring 650 jobs to a city reeling from a spate of plant closures and job losses in recent years. Executives of the Thousand Oaks-based telephone company said they chose Oxnard because it is close to the company's Thousand Oaks headquarters and because local officials aggressively recruited the firm.

GTE California hopes to avoid laying off any of the 62 employees now working at a Thousand Oaks long-distance center that is due to be closed by the end of 1994. Every effort will be made to transfer those working at the facility to other positions, said company spokesman Daniel Smith. Work now being done at the facility and at two other long-distance units in Southern California is being moved to GTE centers in North Carolina, Florida and Texas, Smith said.

The March 19 story "PUC to Revamp Pay Phone Rules to Benefit Callers" exposed the inferior quality of many privately owned coin telephones. Overcharging is not even the worst problem: In many instances, the caller can hardly understand the other party, and it seems impossible to make long-distance credit card calls or get messages on answering machines at one's home or office. The user often also puts up with inferior equipment. And since no one has the time to file a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission, most problems go unreported.

The California Public Utilities Commission ordered GTE California on Wednesday to reduce static on its telephone lines by 30% during the next three years and to develop a plan for cutting the cost of postage on bills to its 3 million customers. The actions were the latest in a series of PUC orders aimed at prompting GTE to reduce costs and improve the quality of its telephone service.

As many as 15,000 GTE California employees are preparing to strike Monday if their demands for a salary hike and improved medical benefits are not met. A strike could affect 2.9 million telephone customers from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino. After five months of negotiations, talks between GTE and the Communications Workers of America, the employees' union, broke off Wednesday afternoon, spokeswomen for both sides said Thursday. The two sides would not say how far apart they are.

Beginning next month, GTE California customers in Orange County will be able to pay their telephone bills as they pick up prescription drugs, liquor or hardware items and have the payments electronically credited to their accounts in less than 24 hours.

James L. Johnson hadn't provided many clues that he planned to inaugurate a new era at GTE Corp. when he assumed the top post at the nation's third-largest telephone operating company last April. A plain-speaking Texas native, "Rocky" Johnson was a telephone company "lifer" who had served for two years as company president under Theodore Brophy, the polished lawyer who preceded him as chairman and chief executive. But those who expected Johnson to stay the course soon learned differently.