![]() Clark, an asthma sufferer who had worked years as a waitress, no longer wanted to spend her nights in a smoky cocktail lounge. On the overhead skywalk ahead of them, in big gold letters, is this reminder: "Think of Yourself as a Customer." The motto is reprinted over every doorway in the lobby - and beyond.Ĭonnie Clark, 32, applied for a job there in 1997 at the prodding of her cousin. When MBNA employees arrive for work at the Belfast complex, they flash company IDs, pass through locked doors and enter an airy, atrium-crowned lobby. "What is most important is that we have people who are empathetic to our customers," he said. Though many apply, only one in 10 are hired, said Flynn, MBNA's regional manager. The Belfast facility debuted three years later and employs 2,200 people. MBNA opened its first New England center with 100 employees in 1993 in Camden, where Cawley has a summer estate. The state's high-speed phone lines were essential for an MBNA call center - a 24-hour-a-day operation to serve customers, sell products, counsel latecomers and collect overdue bills. With an unlimited credit card interest rate and an updated telecommunications system, Maine appealed to MBNA. In Maine, the company is the eighth-largest private employer, according to 1999 state figures. Dallas, Texas Beachwood, Ohio and Boca Raton, Fla., and has overseas offices. The MBNA empire, based in Wilmington, Del., employs 19,562, operates credit card processing centers in Hunt Valley, Md. (Last week, MBNA agreed to pay nearly $7 million to settle consumer complaints about misleading advertising several competitors reached similar agreements.) The credit card operation moved to Delaware and Cawley, now 60, built MBNA into the world's largest independent issuer of Visa and MasterCards. In 1982, Cawley headed a small credit card unit of Maryland National Bank. Cole, a community consultant and author of a book on a Belfast factory worker, countered that MBNA doesn't have to ask for a thing because "anything MBNA wants, it gets. "MBNA has never asked for anything, and they will never ask for anything. I've seen 5,000 jobs go just like that," said Kief, referring to past plant closings. MBNA's presence has raised the pay scale in town and increased revenue for local businesses, he said. Cawley, he is voicing the feelings of many in Belfast. When barber Bill Kief defends MBNA and its chairman, Charles M. I woulda sold them and then I woulda went up to the house and brought down some more." "There's no truth to it whatsoever," he said. Still, some worry that the new money and improvements will "Camdenize" their city- turn it into another cute, upscale tourist destination.īailey harrumphs at the tale. Weaver's early birds acknowledge MBNA's generosity, the good fortune of clean industry coming to town. "I guess Belfast was bound to change," said Weaver. They knew Belfast before the cappuccino bars opened across from Weaver's, before sculpted bears stood on streets, before MBNA brought the 21st century to this 18th-century port. They recall Belfast's grand, refurbished bayfront homes when they were relics of the city's maritime past. They walked Main Street before new-agers opened art galleries and crystal shops. They worked in Belfast when the best jobs were knuckle-swelling, mind-numbing shifts at shoe factories and chicken plants. ![]() They are Belfast's elder sons, men whose roots reflect the livelihoods of coastal, working-class Maine. ![]() A lobsterman, the barber, the fire chief, a local mechanic, a groundskeeper and others gather around a floured table where a 53-year-old aproned doughboy, Mark Weaver, is making doughnuts. At Weaver's Bakery on Main Street, the breakfast regulars enter before dawn, through the back door.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |