Michelle Olson will fall a few months short of her 10-year anniversary as a Qwest employee.
Olson of Duluth and 51 other communication union workers were notified this morning that Qwest will close its directory assistance operation in Duluth on Feb. 5.
Olson, a directory assistance agent, would have reached the decade milestone in May.
"I was pretty angry," said Olson, a mother of two boys. "I'm going back to school and was hoping to pay for it with work. That is why I'm so angry."
Joanne Hjelmeland, a Qwest spokeswoman, said decreasing call volume prompted the closure of the directory assistance office, located in the company's building at the corner of West First Street and Fourth Avenue in downtown Duluth.
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"It's closing for a decline in workload, and we measure staff levels to work levels," Hjelmeland said. "There has been a trend for customers to use online and cell phones for directory assistance, and that affects these jobs."
Terri Newman, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7214, said call volumes have been declining for more than six months, and workers were concerned.
"We were still rather shocked," Newman said. "We were hoping for a different outcome."
The call center accounts for more than one-third of Qwest's local work force. The company employs about another 95 people in Duluth as technicians and workers in its wholesale division.
The closure in Duluth will be paired with a similar shutdown in Pueblo, Colo., Newman said.
Qwest said it will offer a limited number of relocations to its call center in Midvale, Utah. The company's only other directory assistance operation slated to continue operations is located in Waterloo, Iowa.
"There will probably be very low interest," Newman said of the relocations. "That is a long way to chase a job."
The Duluth call center had been spared in previous rounds of closures by Qwest and even landed additional jobs in 2008, when the company cut its directory assistance operations from eight to four.
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"They're not closing Duluth because it wasn't a good center. It's been a very good center," said Newman, citing numerous customer service awards the local operation has earned.
Newman said upcoming meetings on severance, medical payments and educational benefits will aid Olson and others soon-to-be let go.
"This is the first time I've been laid off," Olson said. "I not sure what I'm going to do."
News Tribune staff writer Peter Passi contributed to this report.
