Mayor Rendell said earlier he did not expect the layoffs to be "extremely large or a significant number." Yesterday, Deputy Mayor for Communications Kevin Feeley offered the following comment: "It's certainly not encouraging.
"We have about 25 percent of the First Union operations nationwide, and it seems we didn't do any worse than other regions. But it's worse than we expected it to be."
Layoffs and other cutbacks were predicted in January when the bank admitted it had fallen $50 million short of its targeted savings of $258 million from its merger with CoreStates.
Two weeks ago, First Union announced it had earned $94 million in additional revenues from its tri-state CoreStates acquisition, instead of the projected $194 million. The $100 million shortfall mostly came from asset management and banking services.
First Union said its restructuring plan was expected to produce pre-tax cost savings of about $400 million for 1999.
About $380 million in pre-tax charges related to the merger and restructuring were expected in the first quarter, the bank said. About $200 million of those expenses are related to personnel.
Laid-off employees will receive a severance package based on their years of service and pay levels effective 60 days after workers were given notice. Most employees in the area received their pink slips by March 5.
Tish Signet, spokeswoman for First Union, said the bank was looking for cost savings throughout the company, but spared tellers in Pennsylvania and most customer-service employees who work in sales and have direct contact with customers.
Signet could not say where the 764 jobs in Philadelphia would come from, except that they were in the noncustomer-support areas at all levels, including management.
