County officials weren't notified of call center closing
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 9, 2009 1:46 PM
The closing late last month of a downtown Goldsboro call center has led to the loss of 54 jobs.
CDG Management, a New Jersey-based company, notified the Department of Commerce that the center would close as of Nov. 27. However, Wayne County Development Alliance officials did not learn of the closing until contacted by the News-Argus this week for comment.
The county should have been informed of the closing through the Department of Commerce, said Mike Haney, existing industry specialist for the Wayne County Economic Development Alliance.
Haney said he was unsure why that information had not been forwarded to the county, other than the fact that the announcement was made around Thanksgiving.
He plans to talk with commerce officials to determine what happened.
"(The closing) is unfortunate for our city, county and whole community," Haney said. "You read about it and feel bad for those folks, but when it happens to your neighbors it drives the point home."
Haney said he went to the CDG office, located in the old Citizens Bank building on Center Street, on Tuesday where he found a note indicating that Dec. 2 was the last time that management had been in the office.
Haney also contacted the Employment Security Commis-sion office, where he was told they had not been informed of the closing until this week. ESC officials did not know at present how many employees were affected.
However, Haney said that the last count he had was 24. He said he was unsure how many jobs were full-time and how many were part-time.
Originally, the office was opened to conduct fundraising phone solicitations for the Fraternal Order of Police.
"I think it was the summer of 2008 that FOP elected not to be included anymore," Haney said. "They were an outbound call center. CDG had different clients of which the FOP was just one of them."
Haney said he understands that the company is closing all of its fundraising call centers. All the laid-off workers will be eligible for state unemployment benefits.
CDG officials could not be reached for comment.