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June 20, 2008
OMAHA - About 50 area residents were left without jobs Thursday after satellite TV giant DIRECTV terminated its contract with home service provider Premier Communications of Oklahoma City.
Premier's local operations were based at 13435 A St. in Omaha, where it moved from La Vista, Neb., about a month ago. That office has now been closed, along with those the company occupied in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Texas.
The layoff came as a shock to local employees, said Patrick Mummey of Glenwood, who was a team leader for Premier.
"We were notified that the contract was terminated just a couple days ago," he said. "Up until (Wednesday), we all thought we would still have jobs. We were told we were OK."
Jason Lenz, who was a regional manager for Premier, agreed the layoffs were "very sudden."
"At this point, I'm unemployed myself," he said.
Employees were expecting to have the opportunity to sign on with a new home service provider, Mummey said.
"(Wednesday), they called us in and said they were not going to have an HSP coming in here."
Instead, DIRECTV is bringing in an alternate fulfillment source to handle the service area until a new, permanent HSP can be put in place, Lenz said. The legal departments of the "old company" and the "new company" are working out terms.
"It's all a matter of finances," he said.
Mummey was told Tuesday night to call the technicians he supervised and have them turn in their trucks and equipment on Wednesday, he said. That included cable, fittings and other hardware they had paid for themselves, he said.
"We were supposed to pay for our own cable, fittings, gasoline - that was part of the deal," he said. "Even in a company truck, we were required to pay for our own gasoline."
Technicians' expenses were paid for out of a so-called "drop account," Lenz said. He said any money left in the accounts would be refunded to employees on Monday. Final paychecks were to go out today.
On Thursday morning, employees weren't sure whether they would get their checks, Mummey said.
"Shortly after we learned that we were not employed, the utility company was there turning off our utilities already," he said.
Lenz said he and his former staff might be able to return to their jobs when a new HSP comes in.
"I hope so," he said. "There's a lot of families that were affected by this."
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