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IBM Plant
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Another round of layoffs at IBM's Essex Junction plant
last month was the latest in a line of bad news for the company and its employees.
However, hope is alive at IBM. An announcement two weeks ago that IBM will now produce chips for Intersil Corporation of California didn't bring any of those laid off employees back, it signaled a new strategy to bring contract work, or foundry manufacturing, to the plant.
... That foundry business is growing at a rate of 25% a year world-wide. IBM is not new to this type of work, and experts say the Essex plant has certain advantages over other companies vying for the same contracts.
"IBM has a complete food chain," Technology Consultant and former IBM engineer Paul Castrucci says, "from the very beginning of the tests to the design of the chip all the way through the production of it and final tests. A lot of foundry's don't have that capability, especially on the front end with the design systems, but IBM has it and it's right here in Burlington."
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Anxious IBMers arrived at work Monday - hoping for the best
- but bracing for the worst.
The rumors had been running rampant for weeks - more job cuts at Vermont's largest private employer. Those fears became reality when Big Blue handed out 500 pink slips...and these hit engineers, technicians and managers.. NOT the production workers.
6700 people worked at IBM Burlington before Monday's cuts but it's a work force that's been dropping from a high of 8500 a little over two years ago. 500 job cuts in November of 2001 were followed by another thousand in June of 2002. Normal attrition accounts for three hundred and these latest cuts bring the work force to 6200.
"We have not seen broad-based improvement, our customers in their own markets are having difficulties that has led to a decline in demand, a decline in revenue," said company spokesman Jeff Couture.
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Congressman Bernie Sanders addressed IBM employees and members of the media
Explosive new allegations tonight involving IBM from the lawyer
at the center of the biggest lawsuit in the history of the semiconductor industry. Lawyer bill deprospo told us today he will expand the lawsuit now pending in New York to add dozens of IBM Essex junction workers to the case.
Thom, over the last two weeks, you've seen the newspaper ads, urging past and present ibmers who work in this plant's "clean rooms" and whose families suffered unusual health problems, to come forward. The lawyer who took out those ads say more than 3-hundred have and the number is still rising.
These pictures, provided by IBM, show the clean rooms where local workers make the cutting-edge wafers, the computer chips used in some of the world's best technology. And the chief lawyer already suing i-b-m and its suppliers in New York, say in these places workers may have been exposed to chemicals which made them sick.
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IBM Endicott NY Work is Going To Be Sent To China.
The Monday Endicott Alliance flyer on job security got Chuck Ebel's attention! He wanted to end the rumors that the flyer raised. To an astounded audience, he proudly admitted to rumors of a partnership between IBM Endicott and China. With child-like giddiness, Chuck Ebel (IBM Endicott plant manager, Microelectronics) explained why IBM was sending, eventually, "all" of HyperGBA, Blue Devil manufacturing to China.
IBM would be able to pay Chinese operators/workers per month as opposed to what IBM Endicott, NY, workers are paid to operate process equipment. Chinese operators would be able to send their per month to family back in the Chinese villages. The new Chinese site would have "dorms" for workers. Chuck indicated that free food and lodging was a great benefit, affording the Chinese workers the luxury of sending their wages home to family. The auditorium became motionless and silent.
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Over 600 retired IBM employees have organized to fight
drastic increases in their health insurance co-payments. The retirees called the press to a meeting today where they blasted IBM for breaking what they call a "social contract."
It's reminiscent of an earlier battle against IBM's switch of pension plans. Retired IBMers and a few active employees filled a room to hear plans for fighting huge increases in their rising share of health insurance premiums. Many saw their contributions triple to around a month or more.
... Organizers say the group signed up almost 700 members in 36 states and three countries. They admit the problem is larger than IBM. Health care costs have skyrocketed for everyone, not just them. And they know that several large companies are cutting health benefits.
John Franco, a lawyer who volunteered his services "pro bono," or without charge, said, "The message is simply this: if IBM retirees cannot rely upon the promises that were made by IBM for pensions and for health care, then who can?"
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Rumors are Circulating About More Cuts At IBM.
The employment picture for manufacturing jobs, especially at IBM, has the Governor worried. Waterbury plastics has announced layoffs in Randolph. So did Vermont Tubbs in Brandon. And now there is increasing concern in many quarters that IBM might be next.
IBM has already announced cuts in overtime because of a lack of work. Now reports are circulating of another layoff of hundreds of employees. Governor Douglas meets regularly with IBM executives and so far they have NOT told him about any plans to layoff workers.
Again... just as happened last year, public officials and business leaders say they have heard the rumors of impending layoffs. But there is no official word from IBM, which is now down to an official payroll of six thousand employees. In the last two years, Vermont has lost more eight thousand manufacturing jobs.
Marselis Parsons - Channel 3 News
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1999 was the year when many IBM employees' image
of their employer was shattered.
IBM had just switched its retirement plan into one that no longer rewarded long-time employees with heftier benefits. Under the new plan, retirement medical benefits were reduced, and some veteran workers saw cuts in pension payments.
Employees recalled the period as a dark time in IBM's history in Vermont, when workers said they felt a blunt shift in the tenor of daily life at the Essex Junction plant.
"It was clear that the company was no longer looking out for the interest of the employees as it had done in the past. Employees were now on their own," said Kemerer, who called himself a Watson-era employee after the former IBM chief executive known to have been very employee-centric. "It became a customer-driven place where the employees were a distant second."
The bad taste of those days lingers still.
IBM manufacturing worker Earl Mongeon described a "mass exodus" of employees in the wake of the pension change.
IBM is actively looking to fill several entry/junior level
Long Term Supplemental Manufacturing Operator positions in our Burlington, VT facility. The job responsibilities will include training and certification on processes and equipment in a cleanroom environment. Candidates must have good communication skills, the ability to perform a variety of tasks at various levels of complexity, be self motivated and have strong system skills. Physical requirements may include but are not limited to lifting 25LBS and prolonged sitting and/or standing (up to 12 hours a day). These Positions will be AWS Night shift opportunities. Candidates must be flexible in meeting the overtime demands in production hours. This may include working weekends or holiday hours. Semiconductor Manufacturing experience is a plus.
Long Term Supplemental positions are project based positions that can last up to 3 years in length but will never exceed that amount of time. These
positions do offer IBM Benefits as well as time off.
Click here to read more.
About 250 former IBM employees arrived at a South Burlington job fair
Wednesday, just two weeks before their paychecks will stop.
They dressed in suits with polished shoes, brandishing polished resumes and polished smiles.
They tried not to be discouraged. ... The fair was held by Drake Beam Morin, the job counseling firm hired by IBM. IBM announced in November that it would let 500 of its 8,500 Essex Junction employees go to
cut costs.
Fifty-one businesses -- all but three from Vermont -- set up shop at the fair, hoping to pick from the engineers, technicians and other mid-level professionals let go by IBM. The
companies left with dozens of resumes. Some of them reported receiving hundreds of applicants for one or two jobs. ... The fair attendees said they were impressed by the number of companies but said many of the positions seemed to be entry level or lower paying than they had hoped.
Bernie Sander's Town Meeting at St. Mike's in Winooski
On Tuesday, August 17 close to 800 IBMers came to the McCarthy Arts Center on the campus of St. Michael's College in order to discuss IBM's decision to switch its pension plan from a traditional defined benefit plan to a cash balance plan.
A number of loyal and dedicated IBM employees who have worked for IBM for many years have expressed deep anger over this pension conversion because it will result in a significant reduction in their pensions.
Ex-IBM employees are being asked to consider joining
an age discrimination suit against Big Blue. The lead lawyers on the case are in Vermont to hold informational meetings. They say when it comes to layoffs, IBM has a practice of letting go the older employees first.
"I think that statistically the evidence will ultimately show there was age discrimination here and I think in terms of anectdotely from individuals we will be able to show that age discrimination occured," says Jeffrey Neil Young who is representing several laid off IBMers.
So far 135 employees, including 60 in Vermont, are part of the suit.
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Five Holocaust victims from the United States, the Czech Republic and the
Ukraine yesterday filed a class action lawsuit against International Business Machines, Inc., (IBM), in New York, on behalf of all concentration camp survivors of the Holocaust.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court for the Eastern District of New York, targets IBM, the largest computer company in the world, for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and violations of human rights. Plaintiffs assert that IBM provided the technology, products and services that catalogued concentration camp victims and substantially aided the persecution, suffering and genocide experienced in the camps before and during World War II. As well, information about Jews and others was recorded, tabulated and sorted by IBM equipment for purposes of perpetuating slave labor and extermination. Plaintiffs also assert that not only did the company profit from this conduct, it has refused to permit historians and others access to archival records evidencing its complicit role in the Holocaust.
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Former IBM workers laid off from the Essex Junction facility
will be getting some extra help from the federal government.
Gov. Jim Douglas said Friday that the 753 ex-employees of the computer company have been certified for federal trade adjustment assistance. Douglas said that means they'll be eligible to apply for placement assistance, career counseling, up to 104 weeks of occupational training, and allowances for relocation. ... According to a release from Douglas' office, the U.S. Labor Department decided that all the workers from the Essex Junction IBM plant who were "totally or partially separated from employment on or after Aug. 14, 2001," are eligible for the assistance.
The aid comes through a federal program designed to help workers who lose their jobs because of increased exports. The Labor Department concluded the IBM workers were laid off because of competition from Canada.
Have a comment about this story? E-mail our newsroom.
Governor Jim Douglas met today with IBM executives
from the corporate headquarters in New York.
Today's meeting in Essex Junction is exclusive of the Governor's usual quarterly meeting with local leaders.
While Douglas says he does not expect future layoffs at Vermont's largest private employer, he does admit IBM's role in Vermont will change.
"Their mission will change here," Douglas said. "Clearly they're going to be doing less manufacturing and more testing and research and development. But they're still going to employ a lot of people and I think there will be tremendous opportunites for Vermonters to continue to work there as the years go by."
Douglas expects to meet again with corporate executives this summer.
Friday, 5/9/03
IBM announced that it has developed a new method for building microchips
that can deliver up to a 30 percent boost in computing speed and performance.
IBM Burlington Cuts ALL Overtime
On July 31st, 2001, the Superintendent of manufacturing announced to all manufacturing employees that he has come up with a way to keep the plant open while eliminating all overtime for manufacturing. On each day of the four-day weeks, ¼ of the shift will take an unpaid day off, so that ¾ of the shift is being paid for that day and everyone gets paid for working 3 of the 4 days. It was novel approach for IBM’s payroll problem, and most employees’ feel eliminating over time is probably the best and most humane solution.
Employee reaction is mixed. Some employees are outraged. Other employees say they appreciate the time off, but know they will miss the extra money. Some employees wish IBM started the policy back in May or June, so they could have enjoyed more of the summer.
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IBM Burlington has been named a "Top Fab 2000
International magazine in its annual competition. Also recognized were semiconductor plants in Taiwan and Germany.
The magazine's editors recognized IBM Burlington for being "on the leading edge of technology." Burlington was selected for its broad product diversity, advanced technology, continuous facilities improvement, world-class control systems and aggressive environmental protection programs.
"This honor is a tribute to our employees who have engineered and operated this fab with world-class professionalism," said Hank Geipel, senior location executive. "It also underscores the importance of this plant to the company and the role it plays in making IBM a leader in providing the world's best technology to our customers."
IBM Corp. will cut 770 people from its payrolls Monday
-- the final shakeout from the 988 layoffs announced June 4.
Jeff Couture, IBM's Vermont spokesman, said Thursday that IBM hired 200 of the original 988 people who were told their jobs were being eliminated for various manufacturing jobs over the summer. Most received the same pay, Couture said.
Another nine found work at IBM's East Fishkill, N.Y., chip-making plant that went on-line Wednesday. The remaining took other jobs offered throughout the company, he added.
The 770 will meet with IBM officials Monday for their exit interviews and to receive severance checks. IBM will pay one week's salary for every six months in IBM employ, Couture said.
In addition, workers with more than 25 years at IBM will receive a year of medical and group life insurance; workers with five to 25 years will receive six more months of benefits; and those with fewer than five years at the company will receive three months of medical and life insurance.
IBM Employees are being Forced to Transfer to Manpower.
According to Alliance, The IBM manufacturing plant in Endicott, New York has been hiring temporary employees with the allurement of becoming full-time employees. Workers who take these jobs, hold out the hope that they'll become regular IBM employees after the year, with IBM's benefits. Near the end of the year IBM has been telling its Endicott temporary employees, "transfer to Manpower Inc., or lose their jobs. If an employee refuses, they lose their job, and they are not entitled to state unemployment benefits." By using this approach IBM is able to allure more employees into temporary positions, keep them indefinitely through a temporary agency without needing to pay benefits, and reduce IBM's social security unemployment taxes.
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IBM Essex Junction, VT Plant Honored With 2004 Dirty Dozen Award.
Charging that IBM does not adequately protect their employees, their families and the community at large from dangerous solvents and chemicals used in the manufacturing process, the Alliance / CWA Local 1701 joined the Toxics Action Center to present the company with a 2004 Dirty Dozen Award. The Alliance is an alternative union campaign representing IBM employees across the United States, and the Toxics Action Center is a New England-based environmental group. They were joined by a representative of the Vermont Workers’ Center / Jobs with Justice and the Political Director of the Vermont State Labor Council. The Alliance was represented by Earl Mongeon, an IBM employee and leader of the Vermont chapter of the Alliance, and Rick White, a long-term Alliance activist who is deeply involved in the struggle against toxic contamination in Endicott, NY, the birthplace of IBM.
Click here to read more.
IBM fired 988 workers from its Microelectronics plant in Essex
Junction on Tuesday, one of the largest single job cuts in the state's history.
Vermont took the lion's share of the hurt: a total of 1,500 positions were eliminated in IBM's computer-chip division, including plants in Endicott and Dutchess County, N.Y. The cuts were part of an ongoing effort to trim billion to billion in expenses -- mostly from low-profit product lines -- because of the lingering slump in the technology industry.
IBM let go managers, engineers, scientists, technicians, lab specialists and workers in support services, according to Jeff Couture, IBM's Vermont spokesman. Production jobs were left alone. In fact, IBM needs to fill 200 assembly line positions to keep up with demand.
The impact of the cuts are enormous. The total lost jobs represent almost 13 percent of the 8,000 who work at the plant, the state's largest private employer. The jobless will increase by 22 percent the total unemployed in Franklin, Addison and Chittenden counties.
IBM has been awarded the 2000 Vermont Governor's Award for Environmental
Excellence in Pollution Prevention in the large business category. The Burlington site has received this award in each of the eight years it has been given. The award recognizes individuals, organizations and businesses for using innovative approaches to protect the state's environment through pollution prevention initiatives. -- end --
IBM has named Palmisano chief.
In a changing of the guard for the computing industry, IBM's board of directors selected the company's president and chief operating officer, Samuel Palmisano, to replace Louis Gerstner as IBM chief executive.
The succession will take effect March 1, Gerstner's 60th birthday. Gerstner will remain IBM chairman through the end of 2002.
"From March 1 on, Sam is our new leader," Gerstner told IBM employees in a memo circulated companywide Tuesday. "My job will be to help him in whatever ways he seeks my time and counsel."
Palmisano, a longtime IBM employee, rose through the ranks to lead several departments before being groomed for the top job. He took over day-to-day operations in September 2000 after a dramatic, Gerstner-led turnaround in Big Blue's fortunes.
IBM has opened a center in Essex Junction to test
the company's latest semiconductor wafers produced at its just-opened, state-of-the-art plant in East Fishkill, N.Y.
While the center will not create more jobs, about 1,200 of Essex Junction's 7,000 employees are involved in the operation, IBM spokesman Jeff Couture said.
plant, there was news of expansion there Tuesday.
No new jobs are on the horizon, but some new technology could be -- at a testing facility for 300-millimeter semiconductors.
The semiconductors are made at the East Fishkill, N.Y., factory and shipped to Vermont for inspection.
About 1,200 workers in Essex Junction are involved with the testing which is not performed at any other IBM plant. -- end --
IBM has Settled part of one of its Lawsuits.
Douglas A. Grose, Vice President, Manufacturing & Operations, sent out an email to the employees around IBM MicroElectonics announcing that "IBM has settled pending litigation brought by a former employee and her child, who allege that the child's (serious) birth defects were the result of his parents having been exposed to various chemicals during their work in IBM manufacturing facilities." This occurred after having lost a last-ditch maneuver to block the lawsuit, where IBM would not be allowed to claim that his father and mother knowingly exposed themselves to toxins while assembling semiconductors in a hermetically sealed ''clean room,'' when in fact, IBM provides information about all the chemicals on its computer systems and tells its employees how to access the database, as required by law, but doesn't generally warn its employees about such risks.
Click here to read more.
IBM has shaved what it needed to shave,
say technology industry experts, and now it needs to concentrate on sales during the next six months.
Most believe IBM should emerge from 2002 with a profit without further cuts, despite a continued semiconductor slump.
June 4, IBM cut about 1,500 people from its Microelectronics Division, the bulk from its Vermont plant in Essex Junction. At the beginning of July, IBM announced it was selling its Endicott, N.Y., chip-making plant.
These moves, combined with an agreement to sell its hard-disk drive business to Japanese electronics giant Hitachi, represents a shift in its technology business.... Many in Vermont worry about what this shift will mean for the Essex Junction plant. Last week IBM opened a state-of-the-art chip-making plant in East Fishkill, N.Y.
... The plant is relinquishing its leases or selling a number of machines that produce aluminum-based chips.
IBM has sold a line of computer chips built
at the company's plant in Essex Junction.
San Diego-based Applied Micro Circuits Corp. announced on Tuesday it agreed to buy the intellectual property associated with the PowerPC 400 series of microprocessors from IBM for million.
"The PowerPC 400 series of product line delivers performance and a rich mix of features for Internet, communication, data storage, consumer and imaging application," Applied Micro said in a news release.
The production work will remain at the Vermont plant, IBM spokesman Jeff Couture said by e-mail.
... IBM is already an Applied Micro supplier.
IBM is divesting its PowerPC products in order to focus on what it calls its core technology businesses, such as high-performance and customized processors; custom chips; manufacturing other companies' products; and engineering and technology services, Couture said.
IBM in Essex Junction is joining with Motorola Inc.
to make a new, cheaper computer chip that can pinpoint exact locations in virtually any portable electronics using global satellite systems.
The new chip, which was designed in part by IBM at the technology giant's Essex Junction plant, is called Motorola Instant GPS. It is a self-contained, single-chip GPS receiver small enough to fit into a wristwatch. IBM took Motorola's GPS technology, enhanced the signal and put it on one computer chip made with its new Silicon Germanium chip-making process, said Jeff Couture, IBM's spokesman in Vermont.
The chip will be made at the Vermont plant, once orders start coming in, Couture said. He said the partnership would not result in new hiring in Vermont at this time.
The chip could be used in cameras with time and location stamp; electronic organizers with maps and navigation; and Emergency-911 compliant cellular phones that also can find people, restaurants or nearby shops with goods on sale.
IBM introduced a new high end server Tuesday
that uses sophisticated new components designed and made at the Essex plant. The heart of the new computer is what IBM calls it's "Multichip Module" which is made in Vermont. The speed of the module allows the new system to process 13-billion transactions a day, more than the number of transactions at the New York Stock Exchange in one week. IBM spent a billion dollars developing the new computer and it is expected to pay off. The "Wall Street Journal" reported Tuesday that IBM has succeeded in the once considered obsolete main frame section of the market and the new system is expected to boost IBM's main frame sales.
George Wilson - Channel 3 News
IBM is being Sued Over Birth Defects
The first time Heather Matthews of Essex Junction saw her baby, she knew something had gone terribly wrong. Logan couldn't hear or see. His ears appeared slanted. And his digestive system didn't work right. The milk he swallowed went to his lungs instead of his stomach, causing him to throw up anything he ate.
Matthews doesn't believe Logan's birth defects were merely an act of fate. Her husband worked at an IBM semiconductor plant in Essex Junction, where she believes exposure to solvents damaged his sperm and killed their son. She filed a lawsuit in 2000, and a trial date has not yet been set.
IBM...denies any liability for health problems.... ... IBM officials deny their plant caused the health problems, and they say all workers are told about possible risks.
"I was always wondering if those chemicals had an effect," Shari says. "I wasn't aware how many other people had had problems. I hope this will stop companies from hiding things from employees.
IBM is cutting out overtime for manufacturing operators.
IBM Friday confirmed the report on Channel 3 Thursday night that more than two thounsand manufacturing employees will see their hours reduced and pay cut.
Big Blue's changes affect the vast majority of those in manufacturing. 2400 workers out of roughly 3000 in that division will have their hours shortened by 12 hours every two weeks -- some of those overtime hours. The company did the exact same thing two years ago and roughly 1500 IBMers were later laid off.
But IBM's spokesman says people should not read into this action... Jeff Couture told us a similar move is not planned. . "Although we did have layoffs we did not have layoffs that affected our production workforce so there is not necessarily any kind of connection between what we would have to do with layoffs or future actions having to do with this schedule"
Click here to read more.
IBM is cutting overtime for manufacturing operators,
Channel 3 News has learned that the hours of 24-HUNDRED workers at Vermont's largest private employer will be cut.
More than 3-thousand line workers work in IBM's manufacturing division. Word came Thursday that FOR MOST--their hours would be cut down to a 36 hour work week, but they will get paid for a 40 hour week....
The cut will result in about an 18-percent cut in (pay premium and) total take-home pay for these employees. The schedule change goes into effect August 2nd. IBM did the exact same thing in August of 2001. In the subsequent 10 months, Big Blue cut 1,500 jobs total, though not in the manufacturing division.
An IBM spokesperson did not return our calls until Friday. Then, Jeff Couture told Channel 3 News that we CANNOT draw any conclusions from this scale-back in hours and how it may relate to future job cuts. IBM is attributing the cut to the overall sluggish economy and a decline in demand for computer chips.
Click here to read more.
IBM is offering many manufacturing workers additional hours.
Those are the employees whose hours were cut last fall when business slowed down, and other workers were laid off.
Big Blue officials say it isn't a huge turnaround. But, business is up--so they're starting to ask workers if they want to work additional hours.
Spokesman Jeff Couture says nearly all of those involved in manufacturing are being asked about the extra hours to handle what he termed a 'bubble' in demand. Couture says it's a good sign for the plant.
-- end --
IBM is thriving, but for how long?
A year after the state's top private employer announced the largest job cuts in recent history, IBM Corp. is becoming more profitable and its Vermont plant remains at the cutting edge.
One analyst said what was done last year appeared to be enough to shave costs for now, but might not be adequate for the long-term.
A year ago today IBM announced it was shedding 988 jobs at its plant in Essex Junction. The cuts came on the heels of an announcement in November 2001 that the company was eliminating 500 jobs at its Vermont plant. The cuts were part of an effort to trim billion to billion in expenses -- mostly from low-profit product lines -- because of the lingering slump in the technology industry.
At the same time, IBM restructured its Microelectronics division by creating a custom engineering department and providing outsourcing services for its customers.
The realignment seems to be working, said Jeff Couture, IBM's Vermont spokesman.
IBM officials have assured Gov. Jim Douglas
there was nothing he could have done to reverse the company's decision to cut 500 jobs at its Essex Junction plant Monday and require 3,000 workers to take a week off without pay next month.
In the next breath, local IBM officials say there are plenty of steps the state can take that could affect the company's future in Chittenden County. IBM has operated a plant in Essex Junction since 1957 and employs 6,200 people.
IBM's wish list includes better highway access, lower electric rates, predictable regulation, lower taxes, educational opportunities for workers and a political environment that values business.
It is a list that Douglas has set out to accommodate as fast as he can. He says he wants to make up for opportunities that were lost during the previous Democratic administration of Gov. Howard Dean.
Dean, who is crisscrossing the country in a bid for the Democratic nomination for president, chose not to comment on the efforts of his administration to please IBM.
IBM Pension Lawsuit has been Class Certified.
Today, Judge Murphy, Chief United States District Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, issued an order certifying that up to 140,000 employees, ex-employees, and retirees are part of the class in Cooper v. IBM. This is a lawsuit against IBM charging that the 1995 and 1999 pension plan amendments are illegal. Plaintiffs in the case believe all employees participating in a defined benefit plan have a right to be covered by a non-discriminatory plan, and that rather than giving their employees a choice between multiple illegal options, IBM needs to amend both the 1995 plan and the 1999 plan in ways that are not age discriminatory.
Click here to read more.
IBM provides workers who lose their jobs with the following
severance package: PAY: Workers receive paychecks through Oct. 17, plus one week of pay for every six months of service up to a maximum of 26 weeks pay.
JOB COUNSELING: Employment transition resources. Retraining assistance of up to ,500.
HEALTH BENEFITS: Extension of medical benefits and group life insurance for one year if 25 years or more of service; six-month extension if five or more years; and three months if less than five years.
IBM received the most U.S. patents in 2001,
IBM received the most U.S. patents in 2001, the ninth consecutive year the computer company was the top patent recipient, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said Thursday.
The U.S. Patents and Trademark Office awarded IBM 3,411 patents, last year, 18 percent more than the 2,886 patents the company received in 2000.
NEC Corp. was second with 1,953 patents, Canon KK third with 1,877, Micron Technology fourth with 1,643 and Samsung Electronics Co. fifth with 1,450.
"One of the biggest myths of 2001 was that innovation was dying along with the dot-com bust," Nick Donofrio, IBM senior vice president for technology and manufacturing said in a written statement. "Innovation is thriving in the research and development labs of corporate America and companies around the world."
Vermont ranked fourth among states with IBM sites, with 391 patents in 2001, up from 289 the previous year, IBM said.
IBM stock prices dropped more than 10 percent Monday
after the company warned investors to expect lower-than-projected earnings for the first three months of 2002.
Big Blue stock fell .84 per share and closed at .41.
Analysts said the news doesn't change a rosy long-term outlook for technology, microelectronics or IBM's computer chip plant in Essex Junction, but the company's Vermont employees fear more bad news is on the way.
John R. Joyce, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer, blamed the earnings shortfall on a tough business environment. ... The first quarter traditionally is the weakest period of the year for technology purchases," Joyce said in the statement released Monday. "Many of our customers chose to reduce or defer capital spending decisions until they see a sustained improvement in their businesses."
IBM stock sunk after probe inquiry by SEC.
IBM Corp. shares fell more than 5 percent Thursday after a newsletter said the world's biggest computer maker is the subject of a federal Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry.
The article, published by SEC Insight, a research firm that scours the SEC for word of investigations, was enough to send IBM's stock into a tailspin for the second time this week.
After plunging almost 10 percent on Monday when IBM warned investors to expect lower-than-anticipated earnings, IBM shares dropped another 5.4 percent, or .82 a share, to close at .19 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
John Gavin, president of Minneapolis-based SEC Insight, said his company received a letter from the SEC on April 4 stating that the SEC had started a preliminary inquiry into IBM on Feb. 15.
The SEC sent his company the information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Gavin said.
IBM Technology Group...is...actively looking to fill
several entry level Long Term Supplemental Manufacturing Operator positions in our Burlington, VT facility. The job responsibilities will include training and certification on processes and equipment in a cleanroom environment.
Candidates must have good communication skills, the ability to perform a variety of tasks at various levels of complexity, be self motivated and have strong system skills. Physical requirements may include but are not limited to lifting 25LBS and prolonged sitting and/or standing (up to 12 hours a day). These Positions will be AWS Night shift opportunities. Candidates must be flexible in meeting the overtime demands in production hours. This may include working weekends or holiday hours. Semiconductor Manufacturing experience is a plus.
Long Term Supplemental positions are project based positions that can last up to 3 years in length but will never exceed that amount of time. These positions do offer IBM Benefits as well as time off.
IBM today announced fourth- quarter 2001 diluted earnings
per common share of .33, a 10 percent decrease compared with diluted earnings per common share of .48 in the fourth quarter of 2000. Fourth-quarter 2001 net income was .3 billion, a 13 percent decrease from .7 billion in the year-earlier period. IBM's fourth-quarter 2001 revenues totaled .8 billion, down 11 percent (8 percent at constant currency) compared with the fourth quarter of 2000.
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., IBM chairman and chief executive officer, said: "This was a solid finish to a demanding year. We achieved strong profitability and we continued to gain market share in high- priority segments of our software, storage and server businesses. For example, our new 'Regatta' UNIX servers, which didn't begin shipping until late in the quarter, are sold out. On a full-year basis, our mainframe revenues grew for the first time since 1989.
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IBM used income from the sale of a business unit to lower operating costs,
giving its fourth-quarter 2001 earnings report a rosier glow than it might otherwise have warranted.
The move boosted the company's operating income, which, IBM reported, narrowly beat Wall Street analysts' expectations. At other companies, such sales are often reported as a one-time gain that wouldn't be reflected in operating income.
IBM defended its accounting of the million sale, reported in Friday's editions of The New York Times, saying the company buys and sells businesses as a normal practice. ... In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, IBM shares were down nearly 4 percent, or .29 a share, at .60.
IBM will move out of more than 200,000 square feet
of leased space, move employees around its Essex Junction plant, and get rid of equipment over the next few months as the technology giant strives to cut costs.
John W. DiToro, vice president of the company's worldwide semiconductor group, and Hank J. Geipel Jr., senior executive in Essex Junction, sent a memo dated Aug. 1 to the remaining 7,000 employees to explain the action at the Vermont plant.
...
The memo also sought to reassure employees of the plant's importance to IBM in the wake of a new, more advanced chip-making plant coming on-line last week in East Fishkill, N.Y. ...
The memo said as part of that cost-cutting plan, IBM will move out of its leased modular buildings in Williston, and a leased building along River Road in Essex, as well as portions of an IBM-owned satellite office near the Saxon Hill Development in Essex and some office space in another building off River Road.
IBM Workers in Burlington are Fighting Pay Cuts.
IBM's 475 Essex Junction workers leave Big Blue's payrolls today.
IBM spokesman Jeffrey Couture said Thursday that 26 of the original 501 employees who received layoff notices Nov. 28, were hired back during the past 60 days. The cuts bring the largest private employer in the state down to 8,000 employees from its all-time high of 8,500.
Couture said IBM has no further job cuts to announce. Neither is the company hiring. He did say the company might need to add hours, even overtime, in some areas of the plant.
"We are continuing to watch spending and costs as we move through this downturn," Couture said. "The first initial indications that this industry is picking up are positive."
Local economists expect that the unemployment rate, at 3.9 percent in December, to spike past 4 percent come February -- when the fired IBMers will be counted.
IBM's chip-making division increased sales this year,
one of two companies in the globe's Top 30 to pull off such a feat during the industry's worst slump.
So says an industry analyst, Dale Ford, at iSuppli Corp., a Segundo, Calif., firm selling analysis and supply chain management services to the electronics industry.
IBM's Essex Junction plant will be the only site making the world's fastest
semiconductor chip, the company said.
IBM spokesman Jeff Couture said the Essex Junction plant is the only site set up to mass produce silicon germanium chips and should start manufacturing the new circuit later this year.
"This will certainly provide more work for this site and more customers for the technology we make here," Couture said.
The chip unveiled Monday will be used in communications products such as cell phones. The chips allow switches to turn on and off more than 100 billion times a second and products to process more than 2.8 million pages of text per second, Couture said.
The fastest silicon germanium chips now operate at about 80 gigahertz. This chip is expected to operate at speeds more than 110 gigahertz.
IBM's profits slipped in the third quarter,
but the Technology Group, which includes the company's Essex Junction plant, improved its performance through cost-cutting and a shift in focus.
Wednesday, IBM reported a profit of .3 billion, or 76 cents per share, for the three months ending Sept. 30. That compares to a profit of .6 billion, or 90 cents per share, a year ago.
The technology giant, based in Armonk, N.Y., said the past year's cuts have accomplished the company's goal.
... This year, IBM cut 15,600 jobs, including 770 in Essex Junction. The company is Vermont's largest private employer, with 7,000 people.
Joyce told investors that even though the company lost money in most of its business segments, the losses were not as bad as they have been over the past year.
As part of its restructuring, the company shed its money-losing hard-drive business, which drained million from earnings during the quarter.
IBM's technology division is on track for its first profitable
quarter in a year thanks a restructuring that included jobs cuts, and increased chip sales toward the end of the year, according to a published news report.
IBM Microelectronics, home division to the company's microchip plant in Essex Junction, is aiming for profits not only this quarter, but throughout 2003, CFO John Joyce told Reuters news service in a recent interview.
"You should see the technology group contribute for the year," Joyce told Reuters.
IBM has cut nearly 1,500 jobs at its Essex Junction plant in the last year. The company blamed a global slowdown in technology sales for the cuts.
IBM, which makes semiconductor chips used in everything from computers to video game consoles to cell phones at its Vermont plant, remains the state's largest private employer with about 7,000 workers.
IBM's technology group, with about billion in annual revenues, accounts for about 6 percent of the company's total revenues, according to the Reuters report.
IBM's VT chief says Essex Junction plant is NOT for sale.
John DiToro had been on the job as head of IBM in Essex Junction less than two months when, on Aug. 18, the company announced it was shedding more than 500 employees from its Vermont microelectronics operation.
The loss of jobs added fuel to fears that IBM was getting ready to sell or shut down its Vermont semiconductor plant, fears that had been fanned by a series of cuts that have trimmed 2,300 jobs at the state's largest private employer since late 2001.
With a shrinking plant population -- currently about 6,200 -- and a new plant in East Fishkill, N.Y., overtaking Essex Junction as IBM's leading-edge computer chip manufacturing site, many here feared a dim future for the company in Vermont.
But to DiToro, the cuts are no indication of IBM's demise.
"We're not on the block. Clearly, we're not going to close," DiToro said.
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IBM, struggling with losses in its computer chip business,
announced Monday it was letting 500 people go from its Essex Junction plant and making another 3,000 take one-week, unpaid leaves next month.
The job losses, on top of another 300 through attrition in the last year, mean that almost 2,300 jobs have been cut at Vermont's largest employer since 2001, bringing the plant total to 6,200 its lowest since 1994.
Those who lost their jobs were engineers and technicians, as well as people in manufacturing support, product design and development. Production was spared, but those workers had their hours reduced earlier this month.
The cuts had been rumored for weeks since IBM had reported a million loss in the second quarter in its microelectronic division. The plant makes computer chips used in everything from cell phones to appliances to video games.
"We all knew it was coming,'' said Ruel Loehr of Williston, who lost his software programming job Monday morning. ''There were no surprises.''
In the next several weeks, a federal judge will rule
on whether two pension plan changes IBM made in the 1990s discriminated against Kathi Cooper and 140,000 other U.S. employees.
Cooper, the 52-year- old lead plaintiff, stands to receive an annual pension of ,475 under the first of the two disputed pension plans, which were instituted in December 1994 and July 1999.
But she would get slightly more, ,666, if she were a year younger, and ,221 if she were five years younger -- even with no change in the number of years she worked for the company, according to her lawyers.
Getting older doesn't help.
Job placement firm is planning a job fair for laid-off IBM worker.
The job consulting firm that IBM hired to help its 500 laid-off employees find new careers said Tuesday it has seen just about all of those Vermonters come through its office.
Now it's looking for businesses to hire them.
The firm, Drake, Beam & Morin of Boston, will hold its first job fair Jan. 16 to match IBM employees affected by the November layoff announcements with regional businesses in South Burlington, said Patty George, job developer with DBM at its temporary Colchester offices. ... So far, more than 20 companies, mostly Vermont firms, have registered for the fair. Business who wish to take part in the fair should call DBM at 654-9255 or e-mail patty(underscore)george.com. ... IBM announced Nov. 28 it would let 500 workers go from its Essex Junction plant. The workers were mostly engineers, designers, programmers, technicians and others.
Last august, 500 employees left the IBM plant in Essex
without plans to return. Two large rounds of layoffs in 14 months created a grim outlook for the facility. With close to 1,00 positions lost, some financial forecasters even predicted the beginning of the end for IBM in Vermont. But spokesperson Jeff Couture says there is growth in the chip market and that means growth now at the Essex plant.
The plan is to hire between 70 and 100 new full time employees in the next few weeks. They're looking to fill chip manufacturing and chip testing positions. The new jobs won't replace jobs lost in the last year. Instead, they are adding even more manufacturing employees to the payroll. The company says these jobs are part of their new focus on foundry work. Or in other words, making chips for other computer companies.
Those jobs will pay between 450 and 500 dollars a week and will include some benefits. However, they are long term, supplemental positions. They can last up to three years but they are not permanent jobs.
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Last May, IBM appeared to give Wall Street something to love:
Layed off IBMers are Still Looking for Jobs
It's been three months since IBM in Essex Junction announced 500 layoffs among company engineers and managers, and now the impact of those layoffs is hitting the local economy. Many of those workers are still looking for new jobs.
Some out-of-work professionals are attending seminars like one at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington this weekend. This kind of session seems perfect for those who face a career change in a vastly different employment world from the one they entered. ... Here, the participants are urged to tap into their imagination, and write down their favorite activities or hobbies. Include them in their thinking about any career changes. That is, consider making the next job not only your vocation, but your avocation.
Less than a month after laying off 500 employees,
there is some welcomed good news for IBM's Essex Junction plant. The company has signed a deal that will bring more work to its production line.
IBM has signed a contract to manufacture computer chips for Intersil Corp. of California which makes high performance analog semiconductors for panel displays, CDs and DVDs and power management products.
... The deal will bring more work to the Essex Junction plan, but NO new jobs.
The move is part of IBM's plan to increase work load at the plant by producing chips for other computer companies.
... Couture added that while the new contract does not mean any new jobs right now, he did indicate that if IBM Essex could secure more contracts in the future, the plant could eventually add to its employment roles.
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More Blues are Due to Big Blue.
Chittenden County business leaders wanted to know what impact those 500 layoffs at IBM will have on the Vermont economy. Even the economist they hired was surprised by his own report.
Jeff Carr says that as laid-off IBMers rein in their spending, Vermonters outside IBM will lose jobs too. His study shows that those 501 lost IBM jobs will lead to another 729 jobs lost at other companies in the next 2 years for a total of 1230 lost jobs.
Carr says Vermonters will spend less as more jobs disappear, and that will effect all kinds of businesses. His study shows that those 1230 lost jobs will lead to a million drop in spending over the next 2 years. All told Vermonters will lose million dollars in income by the end of 2004. ... Carr says the IBM job losses have such a big impact because the IBMers who lost jobs were so highly paid. IBM gave Carr confidential salary information so he could run the numbers more accurately.
Reassuring words about IBM from Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie,
R-Vermont. Big blue laid off 500 Vermont workers in August. And since then, rumors have been flying. But Dubie says IBM officials told him the company's future in Essex Junction is strong.
"He said the state of Vermont... the IBM company is going to invest million in the Essex Facility in the upcoming year. He wanted me to boldly share the good news of IBM and he said there's a lot of anxiety in our community and I even shared with him that I am anxious about sales and he said strongly that is not true. IBM is committed to the facility," says Dubie.
IBM spokesman Jeff Couture confirmed the company continues to invest in Essex Junction though he would not comment on the amount. Couture did say IBM would not make such investments if they planned to leave soon.
Rumors are swirling over possible layoffs at Big Blue.
IBM officials won't comment on rumors and speculation.
They say they "have nothing to announce" at this time.
But employees, residents and some business leaders have heard that cutbacks are possible at some point soon.
It's a troublesome development for businesses that are still reeling from last year's round of cuts.
"We had some people in this morning who were really scared," Lisa Lattrell, a hairdresser near Five Corners, said. "It's going to be big. That's what I heard this morning. It makes people nervous. It makes us nervous because that's our main source of clientelle."
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Some Former IBM employees say age was a factor in layoffs.
David Griffiths, 48, of South Burlington figures his age probably had something to do with why his technician job was eliminated at IBM's Essex Junction plant. ... Griffiths and 769 others received their last paychecks Monday, 60 days after IBM announced the job cuts to ease expenses during a worldwide technology slump. James Leas, an ex-patent lawyer, and Earl Mongeon, a union activist and manufacturing employee at IBM, set up a table Monday and displayed a chart outside DBM showing why they thought IBM had terminated more jobs held by older people than younger people.
The chart was compiled by an anonymous IBMer who also lost his job and used an IBM report to track engineers and technicians fired June 4 in IBM's Worldwide Semiconductor Group. According to the chart, 67 percent of those in the 61 to 65 age category were laid off versus 20 percent for those workers in the 31 to 35 age category....
Some Laid Off Workers Are Accusing IBM Of Discrimination.
Two months after IBM announced it was cutting 1000 jobs from its plant in Essex Junction .. workers pick up their last company pay check. ... Some of the workers are saying that IBM violated their civil rights when the company cut their jobs.
It's a matter of age discrimination they say .. and a group of current and ex-IBM'ers are trying to make that case with Vermont's Attorney General.
For 20 years Chuck Drake designed chips for IBM.
But on his way into the resource center ... he's also getting a pitch from a group claiming IBM committed age discrimination.
The group says workers over age 45 .. had a much higher rate of being laid off.
"I can't say for sure if they did it on purpose, but it's wrong and illegal," says James Leas the man who is spearheading the discrimination claims.
IBM says there is no discrimination they carefully plan job cuts.
Some of those workers are now raising questions about why they
were the ones let go.
In June, IBM said...skills and performance.
Some workers now say there was another factor: age.
As the laid off workers arrived Monday for an exit interview and their severance checks, they also signed an agreement not to sue the company.
But union organizers urged laid off workers over the age of 40 to sign something else.
...
Former IBM employee Dale Cahill filed an age discrimination complaint. ... The first voice came from a laid-off worker who crunched the company's numbers. He said about 20 percent of workers under 45 lost their jobs, and the percentage jumped with age.
"I think its distinctly an age issue -- age and years of service," Mongen said. "They want to get their hired tenured workers out of there." ... The company refuses to release hard numbers to refute the allegation, and many IBM workers are skeptical of the discrimination claims.
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The engineers and designers at IBM's computer chip-making
plant in Vermont produced 13 percent of the company's inventions in 2002, helping to make the technology giant number one for U.S. patents in the world, and Vermont fourth in the nation.
IBM's Essex Junction plant, which designs and makes computer technology for a wide range of products such as cell phones and video games, received 411 patents from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in 2002. The plant's division, Micro- electronics, received 1,220 as a whole, or about a third of IBM's total.
The company generated 3,288 patents in 2002 -- the most U.S. patents in the world for the 10th consecutive year. In the past decade, IBM inventors have received a national record 22,357 patents.
IBM in Vermont is second among IBM's major locations with the most prolific inventors -- those who have earned 10 or more patents -- over the past 10 years. The plant has 18 inventors who together have earned more than 600 patents.
The IBM Essex plant has won a 10-year -million contract
with the Department of Defense, even though much of IBM's newest technology is now being developed at the new plant in East Fishkill, New York.
... Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, personally pushed the IBM contract thrum appropriations at the last minute.
"Everybody's absolutely convinced that the technology is what they want. The expertise is there. The people who can do it are there. And it all came together," said Leahy.
The good news comes at a time of speculation that IBM's future may not be secure in Vermont given that the company has reduced its Essex workforce by 25%, that's 2,300 jobs, over the last two years.
Jeff Couture says the new contract may not mean new jobs, but it does mean stability.
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The layoffs at IBM will have a ripple effect on Vermont's economy,
causing consumers to spend less, jobs to be cut and personal income and population to drop in northwestern Vermont, according to an economic study released Thursday.
"It goes well beyond IBM," said Jeffrey Carr of Economic & Policy Resources Inc. of Williston, who prepared the analysis. "It hits all areas of the economy."
As the 501 IBM employees lose their high-quality jobs, they will spend less in other areas of the economy, causing other jobs to be cut, Carr said.
A total 730 additional full- and part-time jobs will be lost by 2004, as a result of the cuts at the state's largest private employer, the study predicts.
Approximately 200 trade jobs and 110 construction jobs will be cut, the study said. Jobs will also be lost in the business services, professional, education, nonprofit and personal services sectors, the study said.
The number of age discrimination complaints against IBM
stemming from job cuts announced in the last year has hit 50 this week, said Kate Hayes, a state assis- tant attorney general in the civil rights unit.
Some IBM workers charge that they lost their jobs because of their age, which is prohibited by federal law.
IBM has maintained that it did not select the nearly 1,300 people by age. Workers were picked according to their job, performance and essential skills as the technology giant reorganized its Microelectronics Division during the semiconductor downturn, said Jeff Couture, spokesman for IBM's Vermont plant.
IBM is the state's largest private employer with about 7,000 workers at its Essex Junction semiconductor plant. Employees design and make computer chips and other technology.
Of the 50 claims of age discrimination against IBM, the attorney general is investigating 30, Hayes said. She is waiting for more information on the remaining claims.
The state attorney general opened investigations Monday into 13
age discrimination complaints filed by former workers at IBM Corp. in Essex Junction.
The Vermont attorney general has received 32 complaints in all, said Kate Hayes, assistant attorney general in the civil rights unit. "More are coming in," she said. Normally, the office receives fewer than 15 age discrimination complaints per year.
Monday, Hayes asked IBM to respond to 13 of those complaints by mail. Each complaint must be answered individually. The technology giant has until the end of September to respond.
The attorney general has asked the remaining 19 ex-IBMers who filed complaints to provide more details on their employment before the attorney general will formally investigate. The federal equal employment law prohibits employers from firing workers because they are too old.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has signed an agreement with IBM
Burlington that allows regulatory flexibility in handling wastewater from IBM's new copper manufacturing process, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. The agreement was negotiated under EPA's XL (eXcellence and Leadership) Program, which gives companies flexibility in implementing innovative projects to achieve `environmental" benefits.
The new manufacturing process uses an electroplating technique to deposit copper onto the microchips. The rinse waters from this process are combined with other wastewaters because all wastewaters from plating processes are defined as hazardous. Since copper is not considered hazardous in this waste stream, the EPA was willing to make a redefinition.
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The Vermont Attorney General is investigating age discrimination
complaints by former employees of IBM Corp. in Essex Junction, said Kate Hayes, an assistant attorney general in the civil rights unit.
Hayes said Tuesday that she had received three claims against IBM stemming from its layoff of 770 employees, announced June 4. Normally, the office receives fewer than 15 age discrimination complaints per year.
The employees have the right to file a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint by the end of March , Hayes said.
"The first thing we will do is ask IBM to respond to each specific complaint and why it is not age discrimination," Hayes said.
Hayes expected that IBM would respond with perhaps 20 to 30 pages per complaint. Workers can either respond or accept the explanation.
If the AG finds that IBM has discriminated against workers after further investigation, negotiations for compensation would begin. IBM could have to provide back pay, reinstate the worker's jobs or compensate in some other way.
There were more layoffs at IBM today.
Big Blue let 500 workers go last week in a cost-cutting measure. Those effected were mainly engineers, technicians and managers. Today, IBM laid off another 14 people in Marketing and Sales. The 14 jobs at the Essex Junction plant were among 35 announced nation-wide today
This month IBM asked its plant workers to resume working 84 hours
in a two-week period, returning to the schedule IBM cut in August in an attempt to save money.
Workers have until mid-April to decide whether to work the increased hours, IBM's Vermont spokesman Jeff Couture said Tuesday.
Some employees at IBM's plant in Essex Junction are happy to have more work. They share the confidence of technology
industry experts that an economic rebound is imminent, despite Big Blue's warning Monday of an earnings shortfall for the first quarter.
Other workers are nervous. Some refuse to take back hours in order to keep the second jobs they took after IBM cut their
schedules last summer. They worry about future cost cuts and figure another job means security.
Union says IBM is Laying Off 5 - 15,000 Employees
According to Len of Colorado, top management is looking to layoff or fire between 5000 and 15,000 employees world wide, by year-end. At least 1200 layoffs are expected from BIS North America Alone. An estimated 2800 employees were laid off in IGS. Employees in Burlington are expecting IBM to lay off around 1000 employees in Burlington alone. The 15% reduction in manpower is expected to occur on Wednesday, November 28th. The RTP, Endicott and Austin development labs are expected to be hit as hard as Burlington during the same week. Employees say innovation centers in Dallas, Santa Monica, and New York are being shut down. At least one relatively new development team of over 100 people in Burlington faces Work Elimination; although, engineers and programmers are said to be the main targets.
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Vermont IBM plant has bailed out of the chip 'cold war'.
John DiToro, who took over in July as the top executive at the IBM in Essex Junction, oversees a plant that is markedly different from the one that made its mark as the source of the company's leading-edge computer chips.
DiToro said that chasing the fastest microprocessor -- chips that are the brains behind devices from hand-helds to supercomputers -- is no longer what the Essex Junction plant is about.
"There is a whole world of business out there that is not in the, let me call it the microprocessor cold war where you invest a billion dollars a year or more to have what your competition is going to have in six months," he said.
Instead, the Essex Junction plant is aiming to find new and sometimes leading-edge applications for technology that has been around a while, he said. What is obsolete in the world of microprocessors still has applications in making other types of chips, he said.
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Vermont's big dogs want to keep Big Blue in Vermont.
Governor Jim Douglas and Senator Patrick Leahy met with IBM executives via videoconference today and expressed their desire to keep the company happy.
The two men were supposed to fly to IBM headquarters in Armonk, New York, this morning.
Snowbound, like the rest of the Northeast, they decided to videoconference instead.
... Leahy and Douglas pledged to solve some of the problems facing the company -- the unbuilt circ highway, high taxes, big electric bills and an unwieldy permit system.
The Governor has already made it clear that he wants to create a more business friendly state.
Job creation is perhaps his number one initiative.
But, asked whether IBM is planning on more layoffs, the Governor couldn't provide a clear answer.
Leahy and Douglas will be meeting with IBM executives regularly in the future.
It's a sign, they say, that the lines of communication are now open and always will be.
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Environment dump:
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on April 17, 2001 at a press conference in Burlington, Vermont; he denounced IBM's implementation of the cash balance pension plan for all IBM employees. The statement Congressman Sanders read is displayed below in the right column. James Marc Leas read an open letter from the IBM Employees of Burlington, which they plan to present to Lou Gerstner at the annual Stock Holders meeting. The open letter is displayed below on the left side. A few other employees stated how the cancellation of the pension plan will affect them.
IBM's new manufacturing technique uses a material known as a "low-k dielectric" to meticulously shield millions of individual copper circuits on a chip, reducing electrical "crosstalk" between wires that can hinder chip performance and waste power.
The company is putting the technology to work immediately, designing custom chips that meet the high performance and low power consumption demands of next-generation networking equipment and Internet servers. The first chips built with this new process are expected to be available next year.
The Burlington organizing committee has been very active since our last update in the August/September issue of Think Twice. That issue featured an article reporting that, thanks largely to the efforts of Sharon Stevens and other members of our organizing committee, concerns were raised over cuts in premium pay at other locations. Our site manufacturing management team held a series of employee meetings at which they made the commitment that cuts in premium pay would not be done in Burlington. We took IBM at its word.
Unfortunately within a week, there were another series of meetings at which it was announced that one day of work, with all associated pay, would be removed from the work schedule of those working 12-hour shifts in selected manufacturing areas. For those affected, it amounts to a pay reduction of approximately 18%.
extra profit. The profit was coming by converting employees to a cash balance pension plan that slashed their retirement pay and increased the surplus in IBM's pension fund.
But money in IBM's irrevocable pension trust fund can never actually leave that fund and enter the company's hands. There are billions of dollars in the pension trust fund. IBM can look but it cannot touch the money for IBM. It can only be spent on retirees. Nevertheless IBM reported million as profit from the pension fund surplus in 1999 up from million in 1998. This pension fund surplus profit arises from an accounting rule that allows a company to report as profit a portion of the surplus in the pension trust fund even though no dollars are transferred from the fund to the company.