Both Charter Communications and Bridgestone are planning to eliminate jobs in Akron, the companies said.

Charter Communications will shut down part of its Akron call center, laying off or relocating more than 250 employees.

The jobs are all tied to the company’s residential inbound sales call center at 530 S. Main St. in Akron. Mike Hogan, a Charter Communications spokesperson for the Great Lakes region, said in an email the jobs will be moved to other inbound sales centers “where we can deliver information, training and technology to our representatives more efficiently.”

The 259 people whose jobs in Akron are being eliminated can transfer to another location or apply for another role at Charter Communications, known locally as Spectrum, Hogan said. Those who transfer are eligible for relocation benefits. Anyone who doesn’t obtain a new job with the company will receive severance, he said.

The layoffs will begin March 28, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing sent Wednesday to the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services Office of Workforce Development. Hogan said the work will be transferred to other centers effective March 29.

The Akron facility will retain other workers, though Hogan did not specify what their jobs are.

The bulk of the employees whose jobs are being moved or eliminated, 229, are residential inbound sales representatives, who manage potential customers and answer questions.

The remainder of the positions include 20 supervisors, along with four managers. Five additional employees, who work as a facilities manager, administrative assistant, facilitator, facilities coordinator and workforce management administrator, will be cut as well.

Hogan said Charter Communications is continuing to invest in Ohio, including what he said is a new regional headquarters in Hudson.

Bridgestone cuts part of larger reductions

It’s not clear how many positions Bridgestone plans to cut in Akron, but Emily Weaver, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email that layoffs would affect the “corporate, sales and operations in the Americas where a realignment of staffing levels is needed in response to the challenging economic environment.”

The company is eliminating about 1,760 jobs through voluntary and involuntary cuts, Weaver said, about 4% of its workforce in North America and Latin America. Job cuts in Akron, where the company’s technology center is based, are part of those reductions.

Weaver said she could not provide more information about the local cuts, including how many or what type of jobs would be eliminated. The company first announced reductions Thursday, saying it planned to close a Tennessee truck and bus radial tire plant this summer, eliminating about 700 jobs.

The job cuts follow Bridgestone’s announcement last year that it would use more than $9 million in federal funds to build a plant in Akron where the company will research an innovative way to produce butadiene, the largest component of synthetic rubber used in tires, from ethanol instead of fossil fuels. The plant is expected to be operating in three years; design work began in October. It will be staffed mostly with existing employees, the company said previously.