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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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KeyBank’s nationwide call center in Tacoma will close this year. Two hundred employees will be laid off from the facility at 2420 S. State St. on the edge of Hilltop.
Tom Spilman, KeyBank South Sound District president, spoke with the affected employees in meetings earlier today. He explained that other call-center positions would be made available in Cleveland, where the bank has its headquarters, or in Buffalo, NY. Other positions may also be available in the Puget Sound area, he said.
“We anticipate all these employees will be employed through June, and perhaps through the end of the year,” Spilman said in an interview this morning.
The layoffs “will be transparent to clients” and will not affect the bank’s 146 branches in the state, he said.
Fully 170 other employees at the facility will maintain their jobs. These workers are engaged in such back-office functions as vault management and internal mail delivery.
The employees being laid off may also find opportunities in the Puget Sound region, Spilman said. “We have a ton of talented people there. We will assist them with employment with Key and elsewhere.”
The decision to close the canter – a decision made in Cleveland – reflects a changing environment in banking, Spilman said. The volume of calls to the bank has decreased since the center opened in June, 2006, and more clients have been making use of online facilities.
“The volume starts to decrease,” Spilman said. “When you look at our efficiencies and volume, I think it’s the right decision. But it is painful.”
During the meetings with workers this morning, he said, “there was emotion in the room. We take the decision seriously.”
The closure does not portend further cuts, he said. Key’s South Sound region employs 549 people, and the Seattle district 925. The bank has also made recent commitments to local branches, ordering major rehabilitation to branches in Shelton, Gig Harbor, Lakewood and Puyallup.
“We continue to invest in our branches and our network,” Spilman said.
