Layoff Tracker

Wells Fargo cuts 62 jobs in Durham

2009-08-19T23:47:00.001+05:30

Wells Fargo announced that it is closing a mortgage processing center in Durham, a move that will eliminate 62 jobs.

The decision to close the Durham office and shift its operations to an existing mortgage processing center in Charlotte was triggered by a decline in refinanced mortgages, said company spokeswoman Christine Shaw.

The Durham office is part of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, a division of Wells Fargo Bank.

Last year San Francisco-based Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia after the Charlotte-based bank veered to the brink of insolvency, creating a bank with 6,650 U.S. branches, more than any other bank. But the Durham mortgage processing center was established by Well Fargo well before it acquired Wachovia.

The center's 62 employees are receiving a 60-day notice and will be given special consideration for filling jobs at Wells Fargo and Wachovia. Wells Fargo plans to switch the name of its Wachovia branches to Wells Fargo sometime next year.

Shaw said Wachovia is hiring additional workers at its branches in the Triangle this year to bring them up to the staffing of a typical Wells Fargo branch. The typical Wachovia branch has a dozen workers, two less than than Wells Fargo.

"This was a difficult decision to make," Shaw said of the consolidation. "Our team members are wonderful team members. We will work hard to see if we can find other opportunities for them in our company."

The Durham center processes loans arranged by outside mortgage brokers.

Source: News Observer

Stora Enso to layoff 1,100 workers

2009-08-19T23:45:00.001+05:30

Stora Enso Oyj said that it will lay off up to 1,100 workers, cut production and close mills in Finland as the Nordic paper maker continues to struggle with dwindling revenue.

The announcement came four weeks after the company reported a second-quarter net loss of euro368 million ($523 million) and a 24-percent drop in net sales to euro2.2 billion.

Stora Enso said it will close a pulp mill by the end of the year and a sawmill in 2010. Also, cutbacks and reorganization at other mills will be made to save costs, it added.

Earlier this year, Stora forecast a weak third quarter and warned of layoffs, plant closures and production cuts.

Stora Enso is one of the world's largest forest product companies making magazine paper, newsprint, fine paper, pulp and packaging boards. The group has 29,000 employees.

Source: AP

Gerdau Ameristeel layoffs 300 employees

2009-08-19T23:43:00.001+05:30

Gerdau Ameristeel has issued layoff notices to some 300 employees at its Sand Springs steel mill as it gets ready to either idle the plant for two years or shut it down permanently.

The company is weighing its options as it waits on an incentive package from the state of Oklahoma. But even if Gerdau decides to stay, it says it will need to shut down the plant for 24 months to make upgrades for meeting environmental regulations.

The layoffs will take effect no earlier than Oct. 16, Gerdau says.

Robert Bullard, vice president and general manager of the Sand Springs mill, confirmed the layoffs in a statement Tuesday.

The 60-day notices are required by federal law.

Gerdau announced in June that it would shut down the mill. It then decided to listen to offers from the state that might keep the plant economically viable.

Source: Tulsa World

Smithfield Foods subsidiary Premium Standard Farms layoffs 117 workers in Texas

2009-08-19T23:41:00.002+05:30

A Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary will lay off 117 workers at its Texas hog farms, according to a filing with the state.

The layoffs, at Premium Standard Farms' sites in Dalhart, Texas, will begin by mid-October, the notice said.

Source: Hampton Roads

Onesteel cuts 1,240 jobs

2009-08-19T23:33:00.002+05:30

Despite managing to avoid its first ever half-year loss and restarting some idled steel production, Onesteel has revealed it will slash its Australian workforce by an extra 1240 jobs as it strives to keep costs under control.

In an expectation-beating full-year profit report released yesterday, Onesteel, which had previously been silent on how much of its 11,000-strong workforce would be slashed under a plan announced in April, revealed the extent of the cuts.

The company said 840 directly employed staff had already been axed and that there were 400 more to go by the end of the calendar year.

They add to more than 1000 job losses announced earlier in the year.

Chief executive Geoff Plummer said the cuts, which were expected to save $160 million a year, were across all the company's operations.

If conditions improve and Onesteel's still-reduced operating output is ramped up, some staff will be brought back, but savings would be still be $100m a year, he said.

The Sydney-based steelmaker yesterday reported underlying full-year profit of $215m, which was down 32 per cent from last year but beat guidance of $200m.

Reported full-year profit, which included $24m from the sale of land and a trademark, fell 6 per cent to $230m.

Second-half profit came in at $2m, saving the company from an expected loss which would have been the first half-year loss since Onesteel was spun out of BHP in 2000.

"It has been if not the hardest year ever for international and Australian steel industry, then awfully close to it," Mr Plummer said yesterday.

He said the company was encouraged by recent improvements to the outlook but warned domestic market conditions in key segments continued to be challenging, with only modest improvements in activity levels expected in the near term.

Internationally, there were clear indications steel prices had bottomed and started to recover.

"Domestic steel prices fell significantly in the fourth quarter, but we believe prices have bottomed and will increase from here," Onesteel said.

Yesterday, Onesteel shares rose 12c to $3.10 on the better-than-expected profit. Onesteel said it had started to boost production at its steel mills, although they were still well below capacity.

Steelmaking at Whyalla in South Australia had been increased from a rate of 460,000 tonnes a year to 1.1 million tonnes, Onesteel said.

Production from electric arc furnaces in Sydney and at Laverton in Victoria was 240,000 tonnes in the second half, or about 35 per cent of capacity.

Onesteel said it would boost production to about 65 per cent of capacity in the first half of 2009-10.

Iron ore sales were on track for 6 million tonnes this year, most of which was expected to go to China, Onesteel said. About two-thirds of Onesteel's iron ore is currently being sold at spot prices, giving it access to higher-than-contracted prices.

Mr Plummer said Onesteel also planned to explore for copper, gold and uranium, as well as iron ore, on its South Australian exploration ground.

Source: The Australian News

Michael Page International plans for layoffs

2009-08-18T23:18:00.003+05:30

Michael Page International Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest recruitment company, will reduce the number of job cuts it makes even as it enters a “challenging” third quarter.

“There will be some headcount that will have to come out but not a significantly large amount,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ingham said in a telephone interview. “We can’t change the headcount for the sake of one holiday month.”

Michael Page will also post losses from some of the smaller countries in Europe that it operates in, rather than exit the locations, Ingham said. “If we were to reduce headcount further we would be closing offices or countries and we have no intention of doing that.”

The recruiter said today first-half profit more than halved as companies continued to cut jobs in the recession. The number of people seeking work in the U.K. in the three months through June rose 220,000 to 2.44 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Net income in the six months ended June 30 fell to 28.3 million pounds ($46.2 million), or 8.7 pence per share, from 58.9 million pounds, or 18 pence, a year earlier. Sales declined 27 percent to 364.7 million pounds, the London-based company said in a statement.

Source: Bloomberg

New Zealand's Transfield Services plans to cut 154 jobs

2009-08-18T23:15:00.001+05:30

Contractor Transfield Services is proposing to make 154 staff redundant, saying it needed to adapt its telecommunications business to stay ahead of significant changes.

The move was revealed by the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) which said 125 of the redundancies involved field managers, designers and field staff throughout much of the country.

The EPMU said Transfield was a major contractor for Telecom and the redundancies showed Telecom's failure to properly fund the network.

In June Telecom's network access business Chorus announced it was awarding a 10-year contract worth about $1 billion to Transfield to carry out field force operations in several parts of the country.

But it also announced it was bringing in Australian company Visionstream in some areas, making it the third company doing the work, along with Transfield and Downer EDi Engineering.

The three 10-year contracts were worth a total of about $3 billion.

Today the EPMU said it would be fighting the Transfield redundancies, but also said the entire industry was being starved of cash as Telecom moved to squeeze profit from its operations.

That could be seen in the attempts by Visionstream to force workers into "dire" contracting arrangements, the EPMU said.

"The union is calling for the Government to step in now before it is too late for the skilled workforce and for New Zealand's vital telecommunications infrastructure."

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said Telecom had an ongoing tactic of playing contractors off against each other to drive prices down.

"It's a model that's hurting our members and endangering the long term security of New Zealand's broadband," he said.

Source: NZ Herald

Samsung Austin Semiconductor plans to cut 550 jobs

2009-08-18T23:13:00.001+05:30

Samsung Austin Semiconductor plans to cut 550 jobs from its Northeast Austin manufacturing operations starting on or about Oct. 18, according to a notice submitted by the company to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The company did not immediately provide a list of job categories affected.

Samsung has said that many of the job cuts would affect equipment operators at Fab 1, which will be shut down on or about Oct. 18. But spokesman Bill Cryer acknowledged that other job classifications, including engineers and technicians also will be affected.

Samsung informed workers of the impending shutdown of Fab 1 last Friday. The company expects to spend $500 million renovating and re-equipping the older chip factory to become a part of the newer Fab 2, which is inext door to Fab 1.

Fab 1 began producing chips in 1997. Fab 2, which is much larger and far more automated, started production in 2007.

Fab 2 makes flash memory chips used in smart phones, portable media players and other consumer devices.

When the renovation is complete, Samsung said it expects to hire 150 to 200 workers next year to work in the expanded Fab 2.

Source: Statesman

Vestas cuts 425 jobs in UK

2009-08-18T23:12:00.001+05:30

Vestas, the Danish wind turbine company which last week shut two British plants with the loss of 425 jobs, unveiled a worst-than-expected drop in profits of more than a third.

The group, whose Isle of Wight factory was the scene of an 18-day sit-in by angry workers, revealed that pre-tax profits in the three months to the end of June dropped from €90 million at the same time last year to €59 million.

The group said its margins had been hit by severance payments to workers both in the UK and in Denmark, where it made 1,142 people redundant as well as a scaling-up of production in the US and China.

However, it stuck to its full-year sales and profits forecast with revenues of €7.2 billion and an operating profit margin of between 11 per cent and 13 per cent.

The Danish group found itself at the centre of a political storm after it announced plans to shut its Isle of Wight and Southampton factories.

Members of the Climate Rush campaign group chained themselves to the north London home of Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, in an "act of solidarity" for the workers about to lose their jobs.

They accused the Government of hypocriscy when, two weeks after announcing plans for a low-carbon Britain, Vestas was being forced to shut down because of an apparent lack of demand for wind turbines in Britain.

Vestas, which secured a court order to remove the protesting workers, said that demand was too low to justify continuing production in Britain.

In an interview today, Ditlev Engel, the chief executive of Vestas, said that while Northern Europe continued to pose a challenge, the group was now seeing a pick-up in business following the credit crunch. "We are seeing there is a pick-up in the market. We are seeing things moving again and there is life out there even though we cannot see it in the order backlog."

The group's order backlog at the end of the second quarter was €4 billion, although it has secured a further €700 million of orders since then.

Global government initiatives were beginning to take effect, the group said, while banks and financing institutions, which had pulled out of the market during the downturn, were returning to the sector.

Prices of a components had also peaked, it said, with no further price rises expected this year.

The credit crunch, the group said, had had a big impact on the industry, triggering falling orders as projects were shelved and seeing funding drop away.

Vestas claim of low demand in the UK was contradicted by a survey by the British Wind Energy Association. It found that Britain's countryside and coastline will be dotted with 2,700 new wind turbines by 2012 - more than double the existing total.

Source: Times UK Online

Teledyne Brown layoffs 130 employees

2009-08-18T23:10:00.001+05:30

Rex Gevenden, President of Teledyne Brown, said the company has given 60 day layoff notices to 130 employees.

The possible cuts are at the company's "plant 2" near the intersection of Mooresville Road and Interstate 565.

Gevenden said the cuts are directly related to a slow-down in a Department of Energy Nuclear Enrichment project in Ohio.

Even though the initial notification is for 130 employees, the acutal cuts could be less.

"There's almost no question that there will be some layoffs. We just don't know the extent of it until we negotiate the terms of the suspension, and we ultimately know what our customer wants to happen during this period," said Gevenden.

He also said Teledyne Brown is working to relocate workers to other projects to lessen the impact of the cuts.

Source: WAFF

BAE Systems in Fridley layoffs 314 employees

2009-08-18T22:55:00.002+05:30

Employees at BAE Systems in Fridley got word that 314 of them will lose their jobs because of the cancellation of U.S. Army contracts.

Nearly one in four employees will be laid off from the workforce of 1,319 people.

"These layoffs come as a result of the partial termination notice and stop-work orders the company received for its Future Combat Systems (FCS) manned ground vehicle program contracts," BAE spokeswoman Kelly Golden said Monday.

In recent years, BAE was among the defense contractors working on the next generation of combat equipment, and BAE employees were charged with the development of an artillery platform.

But the Pentagon recently directed the U.S. Army to restructure the FCS program. The Fridley facility was affected by an Army stop-work order for a "non-line-of-sight cannon,'' which a BAE official in 2006 said would provide soldiers with "an even more lethal, flexible and responsive fire support option." The firing platform featured a fully automated 155-millimeter howitzer.

However, President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Congress are conducting a broad review of defense spending priorities.

While BAE employees were absorbing the sobering news of the layoffs, President Obama was advocating the need to scrap costly programs that don't meet the needs of today's military. "Our troops and our taxpayers deserve better," Obama told the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention.

In early April, Gates recommended that the vehicle portion of the Future Combat Systems program needed to be redesigned. In his budget address, Gates said he thought the FCS program relied on low-weight vehicles that "do not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency and close quarters combat in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Source: Star Tribune

Ryanair layoffs 600 employees at Manchester airport

2009-08-18T07:24:00.001+05:30

Low-cost airline Ryanair Plc said that it will cut most of its routes out of north England's Manchester Airport with the loss of up to 600 jobs.

The Dublin-based carrier said some of the routes will be switched to other airports in northern England.

It said it had decided to move away from Manchester Airport after a dispute over charges.

Source: Boston

New Flyer Industries cuts 320 jobs

2009-08-18T07:22:00.002+05:30

New Flyer Industries Inc. said that it is cutting up to 320 jobs or about 13 per cent of its workforce after a major customer deferred an order of buses.

The heavy-duty transit bus maker said it would cut up to 270 jobs from its unionized workforce at plants in Winnipeg and Minnesota, plus up to 50 jobs from its salaried staff, mostly in Winnipeg.

New Flyer announced last month that the production of 140 diesel-electric hybrid articulated buses for a major U.S. customer was deferred indefinitely because of problems with funding.

Some of the job cuts will take place immediately, with the balance taking place over the rest of the year, the company said in a statement.

"Management has explored a variety of actions to mitigate the effects of this order deferral," New Flyer said.

"The company has not been advised by other customers of any other material funding issues nor has it received any other material firm order deferrals from any of its other customers."

In addition to the cuts, New Flyer said it will shut down its plants in Winnipeg and Crookston and St. Cloud, Minn., for the last two weeks of the year.

The announcement of the cuts came as the company reported a loss of $14.7 million or 31 cents per unit for the quarter ended July 5 compared with a loss of $10.7 million or 29 cents per unit a year ago.

Revenue in the quarter totalled $273.5 million, up from $260.4 million in the second quarter last year.

New Flyer's total order backlog including firm orders and options totalled $4 billion or about 9,425 equivalent units at July 5, up slightly from $4 billion or 9,236 equivalent units at the end of the previous quarter.

The firm order backlog totalled 2,388 equivalent units of production.

The expected revenue from the deferred order was approximately $122 million, about three per cent of the total order backlog.

New Flyer said the buyer has said the new buses are required under a bus replacement plan and that it intends to purchase the buses once funding is made available.

New Flyer employs about 2,500 workers in Canada and the United States.

Source: Canadian Press

Lockheed Martin Space Systems to layoff 800

2009-08-17T23:42:00.001+05:30

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., a major business area of the Lockheed Martin Corp., said that it will reduce about 800 employees or 4.5% of its overall workforce by the year-end in order to improve its competitive posture.

The company noted that the workforce reductions will impact all levels and disciplines, including technical, managerial, and administrative positions primarily at the Denver, Colo., and Sunnyvale, Calif. facilities.

The company said it will also offer a voluntary layoff plan designed to minimize the number of layoffs necessary.

Source: RTT News

Sovereign Bancorp layoffs 517 in Pennsylvania this year

2009-08-17T23:38:00.002+05:30

Sovereign Bancorp has cut its Pennsylvania staff to 2,710, from 3,227 at the beginning of the year, confirmed spokesman Andrew Gully, a spokesman for the bank.

Cuts aren't just at the Boston bank's former Wyomissing and Philadelphia headquarters. It's "across the business lines," says Gully, spokesman for Sovereign, which is owned by Spain's Banco Santander. Nationally, Sovereign has slipped from 12,000 to just under 10,000 workers in eight states.

So 517 jobs gone in PA, some of them after the January 30 deal between the bank and dissident shareholder-employees. That deal says "Santander will not terminate and will not to permit Sovereign to terminate, except, in either case, for cause, the employment of any Sovereign employees employed by Sovereign in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" until next year.

"People can take voluntary departures," Gully pointed out. "We'd like to reduce jobs. They get an enhanced severance package if they left."

How enhanced? Workers whose layoffs were announced before the settlement get severance pay based on time served. Others got "a year's worth of salary," plus severance, Donovan & Searles LLP partner Michael Donovan, who represented shareholders and employees vs. Sovereign, told me. Workers could stay a year, then leave. Or they could leave now, get a year's pay for staying home, and have that time to find another job, earning two incomes. Tough choice! Donovan says Sovereign's cuts conform with "both the spirit, and the letter," of the deal.

Sovereign, once the biggest bank based in eastern Pennsylvania, was bought by Santander for pennies on the dollar after rebel investors forced out longtime chief executive Jay S. Sidhu and ran the giant savings bank into the ditch. Sidhu now runs New Century Bank of Phoenixville, where he's in expansion mode, raising capital and hiring Sovereign veterans.

Sovereign is "finished" cutting, Sovereign's Gully told me. "Pennsylvania is still an important market for us. We'll be hiring."

Source: Philly

ABB layoffs 160 employees at Lake Mary plant

2009-08-17T23:36:00.001+05:30

ABB Inc. will move its Lake Mary switchgear manufacturing operations to its new San Luis Potosi, Mexico, plant next year and start laying off up to 160 employees in a couple of months.

The 109,500-square-foot Lake Mary facility makes switchgears for Zurich-based ABB Inc. Switchgears are electrical protective devices comprised of fuses, disconnects and circuit breakers that prevent power outages and surges.

Currently, the facility employs 430 people who work with ABB’s switchgear customers globally. After the layoffs, the remaining 270 employees will consist of ABB’s switchgear customer service, administration and a smaller manufacturing staff.

“This is a strategic move by the company during a down period to consolidate our business and strengthen our market leadership,” said Bill Rose, spokesman for ABB

Source: Biz Journals

Analogic Corp cuts 6% of workforce

2009-08-17T23:32:00.001+05:30

Analogic Corp. is cutting about 6 percent of its work force in Canton and Peabody and it has halved the size of its Copley Controls plant in Canton in an effort to save $5 million a year.

The Peabody-based high-tech manufacturer said it plans to cut 85 people out of its worldwide work force. The company plans to record a $2.1 million charge to account for severance payments and related costs.

Mark Namaroff, Analogic’s director of investor relations, said 58 affected people work in Massachusetts, where Analogic has facilities in Peabody and Canton. After the layoffs, Analogic will employ 881 people at the two locations.

Namaroff said Analogic vacated 51,000 square feet out of its roughly 100,000-square-foot Copley Controls plant on Dan Road in Canton last month and moved some operations to Peabody. He said the company uses the Canton plant to make motion control systems for the semiconductor and robotics industries and power amplifiers for MRI machines.

Analogic acquired the Canton operations last year as part of its nearly $70 million acquisition of Copley. But Analogic doesn’t own the building, and it will record a charge of $1 million to make ongoing lease payments through the lease’s expiration at the end of 2011. Namaroff said Analogic will try to sublease the half of the property that it no longer uses.

Source: Wicked Local

Finnish design group Marimekko plans for layoffs

2009-08-15T20:42:00.001+05:30

Finnish design group Marimekko posted a 58 percent annual drop in second-quarter earnings, hit by soft demand, and said it would start job talks to save costs.

"The difficult market situation continues and there are not yet any signs of recovery," Marimekko said in a statement.

"We will continue our actions aimed at lowering fixed costs to ensure the company's profitability and steady business development," it added.

Marimekko's April-June operating profit sank to 1.06 million euros ($1.50 million) from 2.54 million a year ago, with sales down 13.7 percent year-on-year at 16 million euros.

The firm said except for Japan, which showed extremely high growth, sales in the first half of 2009 were weak in Finland and foreign markets.

Marimekko repeated its full-year outlook of a 10 percent annual drop in sales and "distinctly" lower earnings.

Separately, it said it would start job reductions, permanently cutting 35 staff at most, seeking to save 1.5 million euros in costs. At the end of July, the firm employed 407 people.

It said it would also adjust its cost structure and operations in Finland to boost profitability.

Source: Reuters

BAE Systems to scale down operations, layoffs coming up

2009-08-15T20:38:00.002+05:30

The scaling down of a big military project will mean layoffs next week at the BAE Systems plant in Fridley, but the defense contractor isn't saying how many.

BAE employees in Minnesota have been working on a cannon firing platform, part of a project to develop the next generation of combat equipment for the U.S. Army.

But the Army announced last month that it would "partially terminate" elements of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) project, and that decision affects BAE workers in Fridley.

"We are anticipating layoffs in the Minneapolis [area] facility as well as in other locations," BAE spokeswoman Kelly Golden said Friday.

She said she didn't have a number for the total job cuts in Fridley, nor did she have layoff numbers for a few other U.S. plants.

Golden said that BAE managers have been telling their employees that the layoffs will occur "on or before Aug. 21."

BAE is a large defense contractor in Minnesota, employing 1,319 people at the Fridley plant.

Typically, companies notify the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development when they are planning substantial layoffs. But department spokeswoman Kirsten Morell said Friday that the department had not yet received word from BAE Systems.

The Army has issued a stop-work order for the non-line-of-sight cannon and manned ground vehicle components of the Future Combat Systems project, in which Boeing Co. is the lead contractor. BAE is one of many suppliers and subcontractors working with Boeing.

The Defense Department said the Army is considering a new ground combat vehicle and wants to incorporate "lessons learned and threats encountered from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Almost three years ago, BAE Systems in Minnesota unveiled the cannon firing platform, featuring a .38-caliber length, fully automated 155-millimeter howitzer.

At the time, a BAE official said it would provide "push-button firepower" and "give soldiers an even more lethal, flexible and responsive fire support option."

Source: Star Tribune

Got via a Tip:

BAE Systems U.S. Combat Systems to layoff about 400 employees immediately. This is FCS related, but national reorganization is a key factor. Sterling Heights, MI will be BAE Systems Army location.

Sprint Nextel layoffs 68 employees at Olathe facility

2009-08-15T20:35:00.002+05:30

Sprint Nextel has laid off 68 employees at an Olathe facility after deciding to outsource its operations.

The closing is part of the layoff of 8,000 workers companywide that Sprint announced in January, said Melinda Tiemeyer, a company spokeswoman.

Sprint gave the Olathe employees the option of a severance package or seeking employment at Kansas City-based DST Output.

“Some took the severance, and some joined the new company, but we don’t have a specific breakout on that,” she said.

The Olathe operations still are running but are winding down, Tiemeyer added. The facility had been providing all of Sprint’s mailing services for paper items such as bills and checks.

The company recently filed a notice with the Kansas Department of Commerce indicating that it would close its print and mail service operations at 540 N. Rogers Road, said Shelly McDonald, adult services coordinator with the state agency.

According to the content of the letter sent to the department, Sprint said it would outsource those operations to DST’s Output Solutions unit.

Most of the employees were let go at the end of July and received severance benefits, McDonald said Thursday. The company indicated the layoff was permanent, and most of the jobs eliminated were described as mail operation specialists, she said.

Source: Kansas City

Virgin Media cuts 250 jobs

2009-08-15T20:27:00.001+05:30

Cable group Virgin Media has confirmed it will close its customer service department in the Black Country with the loss of about 250 jobs.

Virgin Media announced there would be a three-month consultation period over the plans for its Dudley site in May.

The firm originally said 322 jobs would be lost but a spokeswoman said 20% had been redeployed to other positions.

She said the firm had created 200 new jobs in Dudley which would be the focus for its "field support function".

A total of 115 of customer service team will stay in their roles until the end of October.

"We are very grateful to all our staff for the professionalism they have demonstrated throughout this difficult time," the spokeswoman added.

In November, Virgin Media said it planned to cut 2,200 jobs by 2012, about 15% of its workforce, as part of a group-wide overhaul.

Source: BBC

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance layoffs 118 employees

2009-08-15T17:33:00.001+05:30

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. made another round of job cuts this week in its Connecticut and Massachusetts offices, a spokesman said.

Taking into account the previous round of layoffs in April, in which about 118 employees lost their jobs, the latest reduction brings the total number of cuts to about 300 positions, or 5% of the company’s work force.

Prior to the latest job cuts, the insurer had about 6,100 employees.

The cuts are part of the Springfield-based company’s initiative to streamline its operations, and the insurer expects to continue reducing its head count through the end of the year, according to a statement from spokesman Mark Cybulski.

The most recent cuts eliminated positions in MassMutual’s Springfield and Enfield, Conn., offices, according to the statement.

Employees across all departments were affected, Mr. Cybulski said.

Including the layoffs that have already occurred, the carrier expects to have reduced its work force by a total of 4% to 8% by the end of the year, according to the statement.

Source: Investment News

Atomic Games might shut down soon

2009-08-15T17:30:00.001+05:30

Atomic Games, which ran into a firestorm of public criticism for its “Six Games in Fallujah” video game, has laid off staff and reportedly could be shut down.

A spokesperson for Destineer, the Minnesota-based game company that owns the Raleigh studio and has an operation in the Triangle, declined comment when asked if Atomic is shutting down.

“The person you need to talk to is not here and you need to call back on Monday,” the spokesperson said.

Attempts to reach Atomic Games were unsuccessful. Destineer purchased Atomic in 2005.

Last week the company acknowledged that it had cut its staff. Atomic was working with several Marines who fought in the battle. Atomic said a “smaller team” would be “funded by our sister company” Destineer.

The company said it could not find a backer for “Fallujah,” citing “a mixture of fears about the edgy subject matter” and “low videogame sales this summer.”

According to NPD Group, video game and hardware sales plunged in July 29 percent. It was the fifth straight month that sales dropped.

How many people Atomic laid off is not known. Various media reports have said Atomic has around a dozen people remaining.

Atomic’s financial support crumbled in April due to controversy about the Fallujah title. Designed to recreate the bloody battle in the Iraqi city, its subject matter ignited criticism that triggered a decision by Japan-based Konami to withdraw as the game’s publisher. Thousands of people, including many Iraqi citizens, and 38 U.S. soldiers, were killed in the fighting.

Peter Tamte, president of Atomic and a founder of Destineer, said at the time that Atomic would publish the game on its own.

“This caught us by surprise,” he told Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com about Konami’s decision. “Development of the game had been progressing very well and on schedule. We would very much like the opportunity to complete the game.”

The statement about the layoffs that Atomic issued as reported by various media outlets follows:

“Due to a mixture of fears about the edgy subject matter of Six Days in Fallujah, as well as low videogame sales this summer, we have been unable to secure full-scale funding from a major publisher for Six Days in Fallujah. This has caused us to reduce the size of our studio today.

“In the words of Marine officer Chesty Puller, ‘We’re surrounded. That simplifies the problem.’ Development at Atomic will continue with a smaller team that will be funded by our sister company, Destineer.

“We wish to assure the dozens of Marine veterans who have collectively invested hundreds of hours in this project that, while we have been badly wounded, we will fight on. The stories of your brothers’ courage and sacrifice in Fallujah must be shared with the world.

“All of the 75 people in the Atomic studio have stayed with us until this week. This is a testament not just to their commitment to Six Days in Fallujah, but also to their character when faced with adversity and personal financial risk. We encourage videogame development studios wishing to speak with the many talented and loyal staff who are affected by this situation to contact the jobs page on the atomic.com web site.”

Source: Local Tech Wire

Midwest Airlines cuts 100 jobs

2009-08-15T17:26:00.002+05:30

Midwest Airlines Inc. will cut about 100 jobs from its Milwaukee-area workforce, a reduction of about 9%, company Chief Executive Officer Bryan Bedford said.

Most of the job cuts from Midwest's Oak Creek headquarters and operations at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport are back-office and administrative positions that duplicate jobs at Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings Inc., which completed its $31 million purchase of Midwest on July 31.

"We've got to make the airline highly efficient," Bedford said.

The jobs that remain intact include mechanics at Midwest's maintenance hangar, gate agents and ground crews at Mitchell International and customer service representatives at the headquarters and reservations center, 6744 S. Howell Ave.

Many of those employees are needed because Republic's main business is operating commuter flights for Delta Air Lines Inc., United Airlines and other major carriers. As a result, Republic doesn't have a customer service department, marketing department and other operations used by the carriers that hire Republic.

The cuts will leave Midwest with around 1,000 local employees, Bedford said. Midwest has around 1,600 employees, with 1,100 employees locally, he said. Employees who are laid off will receive severance packages, he said.

Around 160 employees are receiving layoff notices, Bedford said.

But some of those employees, including mechanics, are being offered positions with Republic Airlines, one of the airlines owned by the parent corporation, Republic Airways Holdings, he said. He said those employees were notified to make sure the company complies with the law requiring 60-day notices for layoffs.

Still up in the air is the fate of more than 250 Midwest pilots and flight attendants represented by the Air Line Pilots Association and Association of Flight Attendants.

Those unions are negotiating with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents union flight crews at Republic, over combining seniority lists of union flights crews from Republic and Midwest.

Meanwhile, Republic plans to add more flights to Midwest's schedule, which should create more jobs, Bedford said. Republic has restored Midwest flights from Milwaukee to Louisville, Ky., and Los Angeles.

There also will be a change in aircraft, with Midwest dropping its nine 99-seat Boeing 717 jets, to be replaced by nine 99-seat Embraer 190 jets. Under Republic's ownership, Midwest's fleet will include a dozen 76-seat Embraer 170 aircraft, and 12 regional jets with 37 to 50 seats.

Also, Republic on Thursday emerged as the winning bidder in a bankruptcy auction for Denver-based Frontier Airlines. Bedford said some of the 138-seat Airbus A319 jets used by Republic will likely be shifted into service for Midwest flights to West Coast destinations.

Source: JS Online

West Corp layoffs 250 employees at Tulsa call center

2009-08-15T17:23:00.001+05:30

West Corp. has announced it will lay off 250 people at its Tulsa call center by October 14. Employees were notified Wednesday along with city officials.

"We're working to try to get additional work in there so that hopefully we won't have to let as many people go, but right now we don't have anything that is close enough, so we want to at least give them some advance notification," said David Pleiss, vice president of investor and public relations for West Corp., during a phone interview Thursday.

Omaha, Neb.-based West Corp., which has about 47 call centers around the country, began operations in Tulsa in September 1997. The center at 3810 S. 103rd East Ave. employs 415 people.

The customer service representative positions being affected pay between $10.25 and $11.25 an hour, Pleiss said.

No layoffs are occurring at the company's Oklahoma City call center, which opened in late 1999 and employs 350 people.

Pleiss said the two programs being discontinued in Tulsa include work for a retail bank and a wireless cell phone service provider. One of those clients is moving some of the work offshore, while the other has experienced lower call volumes.

Call center work makes up about 25 percent of West Corp.'s overall business, Pleiss said. The company processes billions of minutes in voice-related transactions every year and employs about 48,000 people throughout North America, Europe and Asia, according to the company's Web site.

Source: Tulsa World