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Comcast commits to preserving local Time Warner jobs, call center

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Following news of its intention to purchase Time Warner Cable, Comcast says it will preserve all roughly 1,000 jobs in Western New York and move forward with a planned call center in the City of Buffalo.U.S. Senator Charles Schumer says he has received a commitment from Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen that a call center at the site of the old Sheehan Memorial Hospital on Michigan Street will continue as planned. The site is now known as Compass East. 

“In light of the news of this potential merger, my biggest priority is ensuring that Comcast preserves Time Warner Cable jobs in Buffalo and all of New York. After speaking with Mr. Cohen, a top Comcast executive, I am very pleased with the news that Comcast is fully committed to following-through on previous commitments to jobs, particularly the job additions coming to Buffalo at Compass East,” said Schumer, in a statement Thursday. 

Plans for the call center were announced last summer. Maguire Development Company is converting the complex. When it was announced, Time Warner said it would occupy 50,000 square feet of first-floor space for the company's East Coast Business Class Services hub.

State Senator Tim Kennedy says the jobs news will be comforting to the region's many Time Warner employees.

"With this merger, you never know how things will play out. Oftentimes there are cost-cutting measures that take place. However, we've received a commitment out of the gates which was unprecedented from the head of Comcast that they will continue to move forward with creating these jobs here in Buffalo and Western New York and preserving the 1,000 jobs that currently exist," Kennedy told WBFO News.

Time Warner is the dominant cable TV provider in Western New York. Kennedy says he doesn't expect customers to experience any major changes, should the deal go through.

The call center is expected to employ up to 300 workers and create 150 new jobs over five years. The $45.2 billion stock deal combines the two biggest cable TV companies in the U.S. It is subject to regulatory approval.  
 

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