Henry Raymond
Fairfax News => Current News & Events => Topic started by: Henry on May 17, 2013, 04:13:04 AM
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No Regular Employees Laid Off
The Vermont Labor Department received word in early May that possible layoffs were coming to IBM in Vermont, according to public records obtained by the Burlington Free Press.
The word came as Manpower of South Burlington, which provides temporary long-term employees for IBM, began losing workers at the Essex manufacturing plant.
“Received notice from a source that Manpower is having to layoff 17 contract employees at IBM. Some were released last week and the majority are today,” Ann E. Carnell of the Vermont Labor Department office in Burlington wrote in a May 8 email to Commissioner Anne Noonan.
“The Morrisville office had someone come in about two weeks ago stating he was being laid off at IBM on the 8th which is today,” Carnell wrote in the email, which was obtained through a Vermont public records request.
“I did follow up with my contacts at IBM atthat time and neither had any news about a layoff. One did say that he wasn’t surprised though about a potential layoff,” Carnell continued.
“According to my source today, she stated that the first quarter earnings at IBM were disappointing and that the company needed to ‘tighten their belt,’” Carnell concluded.
As of Thursday morning there were no confirmed layoffs at IBM in Vermont, according to Lee Conrad, the national coordinator for Alliance@IBM.
Conrad placed the number of employees at the chip design and manufacturing facility in Essex at about 3,600 — down from a record high of 8,500 in 2001.
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Rumor has it more to come.
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With all of the prior downsizing, did those workers move or did they stay in VT. That a lot of workers for such a small state. I'm referring to the 8500 to 3600. Hopefully Manpower will find new contracts.
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Maybe this company needs to look further up the food chain for answers to its problems, it appears those making decisions do not have a clue. IBM just directly hired any number of "new" temporary employees, because they were in "need." Spending however much $$ on orientation, etc., now they're getting rid of some others. (?) I'm not a Rhodes Scholar, nor do I have an MBA, but it seems like the decisions being made at this company are of the "knee-jerk-reaction" kind.
Not a fan of large corporations, so I am always suspicious of what "disappointing first quarter earnings" really means:
A: Not enough money to pay our bills--we need to make some cuts, since things aren't selling as we expected.
OR
B: Profits aren't as high as we would like them to be--we need to make some cuts to show more of a gain.
Is there a C? I hate to be a pessimist, but at any point in time, during the last decade, has the CEO ever announced: "Quarterly earnings were down, I think I'll shave some off my salary..." It's always the workforce that takes a hit, then they can't manage with such a gutted manufacturing line, so they start hiring people again. This isn't the only time this scenario has played out--how is it rational from any perspective? What's wrong with this picture? Either there isn't as much wrong with IBM's finances, as the bean counters will have us think, or someone in charge is pretty damn bad at his or her job.
If you need xx employees to make xx parts to fill xx orders and that's not earning enough $$ to keep the company solvent, then clearly something different needs to happen. Even I'm dumb enough to know that much.
The "IBM is laying off again" rumors are just getting old from a spectator perspective and surely sickening for all the people who have to live through it wondering what's happening. Teenage girls have nothing on this IBM drama queen!
If she can't make it, then close the doors, merge, or find another "thing" and stop screwing with the lives of everyone in northern Vermont already.
We will survive without this behemoth, though it doesn't feel possible since it's been here so long, but seriously it's ridiculous and sad that IBM Burlington (its top execs) jerk people around as much as they do. It's an international corporation, this is a small piece of the IBM pie, I don't believe for a minute the corporation is limping along. If it is, dumping a few temp employees isn't going to change a thing.
Wouldn't it be nice if Vermont could turn the tables and say "Listen IBM, you're demoralizing the people of this fine state with your antics. You need to get your sh** straight or you need to go." ;-)