November layoffs, WARN notices, job losses
As November comes to a close, and with Thanksgiving behind us, we examine major layoffs and job losses announced thus far. Some forward-looking statements about future layoffs are included, but we do not include city, county, state and local job losses unless otherwise noted.
We begin with a correction concerning Verizon layoffs which, according to Verizon, were not layoffs.
In a Nov. 17 story about job cuts at Verizon Communications Inc., The Associated Press, relying on a labor union report, erroneously reported that Verizon is laying off more than 1,000 employees in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
In response to AP’s query, a Verizon spokesman on Tuesday confirmed that layoffs were occurring. On Wednesday, the spokesman said Verizon has a “surplus” of employees in the area and is giving people a chance to leave voluntarily through buyouts. The spokesman said layoffs could follow if necessary.
The next day – November 18 – we saw this report:
The layoffs are part of Verizon’s already announced plan to cut 8,000 jobs as it works to trim its workforce in parts of the business where consumer demand is down. You be the judge as to whether cuts, trimming, buyouts and voluntary actions are the same as, or a forerunner to layoffs, firings, and joblessness.
Tech sector layoffs were brutal in November. Software maker Adobe Systems announced 600 layoffs. Video-gaming company Electronic Arts also announced layoffs, saying approximately 1500 jobs.
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Applied Materials said it would cut 1,300 to 1,500 jobs, or 10 percent to 12 percent of its global work force. The company sells tools for making crystalline silicon wafers and cells, as well amorphous silicon panels.
At AOL, aka America Online, the number of layoffs could total 1000 or more. By November 19 the number increased. AOL plans to shed up to 2500 jobs — more than a third of its work force — as it prepares to separate from Time Warner
Aetna says it will axe 625 jobs immediately as it braces for the potential impact of health-care reform, reducing its workforce by 2 percent.
Invista’s Waynesboro operation told its employees Wednesday afternoon that a round of layoffs will see about 110 employees and contractors lose their jobs. Layoffs will take place in the coming months. Wednesday’s announcement comes just 13 months after Invista halted production of nylon at its Waynesboro plant and laid off 210 employees and additional contract workers.
More than 50 Steel of West Virginia Inc. workers will be out of work by the end of November. President Tim Duke said the layoffs of 53 workers will leave the company with about 300 employees.
The auto-racing season came to a close in November. Indianapolis Motor Speedway laid off about 40 employees in its latest cost-cutting move while the drag racing season closed in Pomona. After sponsoring drag racing for thirty years Budweiser dropped out of the sport.
Donating blood does not come without issues. In Connecticut 22 workers were layed off in the Connecticut Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross — 19 are union members.
Alcoa, which has about 450 locations worldwide, announced late Tuesday that it will eliminate about 13 percent of its global work force — 13,500 workers — by the end of this year. Alcoa Inc.’s Engineered Plastic Components employs more than 400 workers in Mattawan Michigan and will be sold.
Mid-November saw mergers at large pharmaceutical companies. After Merck’s merger with Schering-Plough employees were nervous. Merck’s workers are rightfully so as one out of six of them—16,000 researchers, sales representatives and manufacturers–will lose their jobs as a result of the merger.
Overall, drug companies have announced 58,696 job cuts through October, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
We return to Connecticut again to see Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas eliminating about 70 employees who respond to gas leaks, repair meters, dispatch service personnel and carry out other tasks. The state is trying to block the layoffs until company officials show safety is not compromised.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Friday that the agency is seriously considering increasing fees for immigration benefits amid a major budget shortfall. To avoid layoffs it will cost more to become a citizen. The USCIS relies heavily on fees paid by immigrants.
Who would have ever seen this coming?
As a side note to USCIS woes in July 2007, the cost of processing a citizenship application increased from $330 to $595, plus an $80 fingerprinting fee. At the same time, the cost of a green card application including biometrics rose from $325 to more than $1,000 with the fingerprinting charge.
Minnesota-based boot maker Red Wing Shoes says it will lay off about 200 workers in Kentucky and Minnesota due to soaring unemployment among blue-collar workers. A plant in Potosi Missouri is expected to add employees to handle a higher workload caused by the production changes.
Premium Protein Products is accused of violating the federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act, better known as the W.A.R.N. Act, in a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Thursday. The law requires companies in certain instances to give workers 60 days notice of a closing or mass layoff. Its protections can be triggered in several ways, including when more than 50 employees are cut and they make up at least 33 percent of the employer’s active work force.
An estimated 400 Premium Protein Products workers have been off the job since June. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this past week.
Penn Traffic did file a WARN notice in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania WARN notice applies to an estimated 1,441 employees who work at 23 stores throughout the state. The notice said Penn Traffic “regretfully anticipates that it will discontinue permanently its operations at the BiLo, Quality, P&C stores and distribution centers on the enclosed list.” Syracuse-based Penn Traffic, which claims assets of $150.4 million and debts of $136.9 million, filed for bankruptcy last week under chapter 11, which allows the company to reorganize its finances.
Leadership of Chicago’s transit unions say they are not willing to accept cuts that the CTA intends to impose. The state has agreed to borrow money to avoid CTA fare hikes for two years, but the agency still plans 1,100 job cuts and some service reductions.
Regarding the Postal Service we saw this quote: “The Postal Service takes great pride in our 200-year history of no layoffs.” That may soon change. As letters and post cards disappear like newspapers and rotary-dial phones the USPS is looking at the feasibility of consolidating mail processing operations at the USPS West Jersey Processing & Distribution Center in Whippany. The number of people effected is unknown.
Dartmouth College has experienced a financial crunch. The College cut roughly 130 employees from its workforce during last year’s budget reductions, in addition to enacting a hiring freeze. More than 70 staff members voluntarily left the College through a retirement incentive plan, while 60 employees were laid off.
Dartmouth is not finished with layoffs but no decision has been announced on whether faculty members will be included in the next round of layoffs.
The College of William and Mary also eliminated 18 jobs, which include 12 layoffs, to help balance its budget.
Gamesa USA’s decision to furlough more than half its employees at a turbine blade plant came as a surprise to many. The company, located in Ebensburg, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, said it is furloughing 141 workers from its 238-member union bargaining unit. Voluntary buyouts are being offered to 62 of the employees, while 79 were placed on temporary layoff.
In Durkee Oregon the Ash Grove Cement plant announced plans to lay off 68 of the factory’s 116 workers in mid-December. The plant is located at 33060 Shirttail Creek Road. In 2009 Durkee’s population is 654 people.
A new statewide survey by the Ohio Hospital Association found 18 percent of responding hospitals plan to lay off additional employees. Ohio has been hard-hit by foreclosures and job losses.
Business Week may lay off up to 100 workers, while the number of Associated Press staffers laid off Tuesday has risen to 57, according to the News Media Guild, which represents editorial employees.
Boeing officials began notifying about 250 workers at the company’s Global Services and Support center that they would be laid off in January after the company chose not to appeal the loss of a $3.8 billion maintenance and logistics services contract on the KC-10 fleet of aerial refueling tankers.
Boeing’s Wichita Kansas Integrated Defense Systems said they would cut 800 workers by mid-2009 as work on some existing programs wound down. In a bit of good news Boeing spokesman Jarrod Bartlett says the company now expects to cut only 500 of those job cuts by the end of the year with the remainder happening by mid-2010. This is a slight reprieve for some Boeing workers.
78 employees at the Goodrich Airplane Maintenance Center in Foley, Alabama will be let go in January, company officials said Monday. The reason given was a “slowdown” in aircraft maintenance.
Elsewhere, key Democratic senators are proposing an innovative two-year plan to spend as much as $600 million to avert layoffs. The proposal comes on the heels of citizen suggestions that the government should send everyone a portion of the $600 million instead.
A ‘Hold My Beer And Watch This’ moment:
Continuing a quagmire of decision making we visit the Seattle Zoo. Attendance and donations are both down, and the zoo needs to come up with a way trim about $700,000 from the budget.
How will the Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo avoid layoffs? By shutting down the popular “Nighthouse” exhibit, which allows people to see nocturnal animals in action. While one of the more popular attractions, closing it will save $250,000 a year – $30,000 a year alone on natural gas for heating.
The only way this idea will work is if cage cleaners are forced to wear bikinis (women only please), Starbucks provides free coffee, and Woodland Park Zoo visitors are charged three times as much to enter the facility.
Boeing has been issuing Seattle layoff notices since January, when it said it planned to cut 10000 positions from its baseline employment of 163356.
How did the United States fare in November compared to previous months? The Labor Department said the 2,127 mass layoff actions reported in October — defined as job cuts involving at least 50 people from a single employer — was down 434 from September. The layoffs affected 217,182 workers, down from 248,006 in September. November numbers are not yet available.
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