After 12 years of service, West Corporation announced Monday that they will be closing down the Erie branch.

Effective May 31, 378 employees will be without work.

For Damon Pierce--who worked for the company for three years--the announcement comes as a surprise.

"I've seen management positions not getting filled and other positions within the building not getting filled," said Pierce.  "So everybody was kind of wondering what was going on, but nobody thought it would come to this."

Each employee received a letter informing them of the termination.  In that letter, West Corp. VP of Operations Kelli Smith says, "It is with great regret that we announce the closing of the Erie, Pennsylvania facility effective May 31, 2012."

Smith said "...business considerations and realignments force us to make this carefully considered decision."

According to Pierce, many employees quit after receiving the news.

"They weren't real happy," said Pierce.  "Some of these people got hired in the past two months and they can't understand why."

According to David Pleiss, who is the vice president of investor and public relations, the workers in Erie take orders for products sold on television.  However, those types of sales have shifted to the Internet, so the company feels it's no longer necessary to offer these types of services.

Pleiss tells us that the employees can apply for the West at Home division, which allows them to work from home.   They can also apply for a transfer to another West location.

However, according to Pierce, many of the employees aren't happy with those options.

"A lot of these people I feel bad for because I don't know if they have anything else other than that (West)," said Pierce.  "The place has been open for 12 years....and where do these people go? When you're at a job for so long, what do you do?"

The company has about 40 locations across the U.S.  But we're told that Erie will be the only branch to close it's doors.