GTE CALIFORNIA TO BOOST STAFF; PHONE COMPANY TO HOLD JOB FAIR SATURDAY AT OXNARD FACILITY.

Byline: City News Service

GTE California, which has hired 1,200 new employees and transferred 1,000 others into new jobs since January, announced Tuesday that it plans to hire 600 more workers this year.

Ron Johnson, GTE California's director of human resources, said the additional employees are needed to meet increasing customer service and calling needs.

Johnson said increased use of GTE's network and customer use of second and third phone lines have helped spurred GTE's hiring trend.

Since last year, GTE has built a national long-distance customer base of more than 1.2 million customers and 140,000 Internet-access customers, and is providing cable TV service to 27,000 households in Ventura County, he said.

``Based on current projections, GTE California plans to hire 25 new employees a week and 100 new employees each month, as customer contact associates in our customer service Megacenter in Oxnard,'' he said.

He said GTE immediately wants to fill 100 full-time positions and 100 part-time positions there. To help find candidates, GTE will host a Career Fair from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Oxnard Megacenter.

The company also plans to hire 25 bilingual customer contact associates for its National Multi-Lingual Telecommunications Center in Santa Monica.

``To serve our diverse marketplace, we want to hire people who are fluent in English and either Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean or Mandarin, to work in the NMTC,'' Johnson said.

Vacant jobs in the Santa Monica NMTC and Oxnard Megacenter pay from $8.35 to $17.38 an hour, he said.

Anyone interested in a GTE job should call [phone] or [phone], answered 24 hours daily, seven days a week.

GTE also wants to hire 50 sales associates to work in its Phone Marts, located throughout Southern California. Ten of those positions require bilingual candidates with fluency in English and either Spanish or Vietnamese.

Pay for those positions ranges from $7.12 to $10.66 per hour, plus commission.

``We also have about 75 craft positions open,'' Johnson said. ``Only candidates who are trained will be considered for those jobs.''

He said the company is seeking 30 customer service technician II candidates and 10 cable splicers, to work at various locations throughout Southern California, at a pay range of $9.53 to $21.16 per hour.

``In addition, we have openings for 15 senior communication specialists and 10 equipment maintainers and 10 equipment installers, with those positions located throughout the company,'' he said.

Johnson said GTE has experienced a 7.5 percent increase in customer line growth since last year, with a 10 percent increase in customer use of its telecommunications network. He said GTE also has transferred about 1,000 employees so far this year into new jobs in paging, cable TV and video services and other vacant positions.