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IBM Endicott NY Work To Be Sent To China
March 20, 2001 ---
On Tuesday, March 20, 2001, an "all hands" meeting was held at the IBM plant in Endicott. Chuck Ebel, IBM Endicott plant manager, Microelectronics, held the meeting apparently to quell rumors that were raised by an issue of the Endicott Alliance@IBM flyer that dealt with job security. Richard Roscoe Jr. was in attendance, and provided the following report.
The Monday Endicott Alliance@IBM 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 $30 per month as opposed to what IBM Endicott, NY, workers are paid to operate process equipment.
Chinese operators would be able to send their $30 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.
The Chinese government would charge IBM zero taxes for a number of years. Endicott's taxes are about 30%, he stated.
The chance for IBM to get logo recognition in China. A factory with the IBM logo would familiarize the future Chinese consumers with IBM.
Chuck Ebel explained that Endicott workers need not worry. IBM [Endicott] would be an IBM Center of Competency, for at least the next five years. Endicott would be the brains.
Chuck Ebel stated, "Endicott would catch the fish and the Chinese plant would fry them!"
Chuck was proud to inform the crowd that the first Chinese engineers were hired, eight of them. That they had arrived in Endicott and like to wear uniforms. In this case, a gray jacket with a red stripe.
Ebel spoke of the need to make this work and to get the process and yields perfected this year. He hoped that people would consider a transfer to Blue Devil. Ebel feels that it's a great chance to learn something new, meet and work with people of Chinese culture, and perhaps even be sent to China on business. As Ebel put it, "We will run the Chinese site, from Endicott."
Officials:
IBM was set to close ENDICOTT -- State
officials are convinced IBM Corp. was set to sell its Endicott Microelectronics
Division and eventually close the entire site before a deal was reached
this week, but IBM refuses to confirm that was its plan. Visions of an abandoned
IBM complex that would present, at best, a redevelopment challenge drove
state officials to hatch a plan to sell the expansive industrial site
to local investors. "This entire
facility has been at risk," Gov. George E. Pataki said. "They
said it was going to be sold." For their part, IBM
representatives were coy about their exact plans for the Endicott site.
They acknowledged that their strategy included plans to exit manufacturing,
a move that would have left Endicott's microelectronics in limbo. "We are focusing
on an agenda where we can be most competitive," said Todd Martin,
spokesman at IBM Endicott, referring to an early June announcement of
a restructuring at IBM's Microelectronics Division. Were the operations
in Endicott ready to be sold? Was closing the Endicott site a possibility?
State officials say
"yes." IBM representatives won't indicate what would have happened
if the microelectronics operation had not been sold to local investors.
"There were some
inaccurate statements on what IBM's situation was," Martin said,
referring to the governor's statements about Endicott's impending closure.
State officials, however,
were almost certain that the Endicott manufacturing operations were on
the verge of being sold. "We believed
the direction of this whole global downsizing (at IBM) was not a positive
for us in Endicott," said state Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton.
Libous, with the governor,
engineered the sale of the manufacturing operations and the eventual transfer
of 2,000 people to the new company. The new owners said
IBM had the clear intention of selling the microelectronics operations
to another party. "IBM was having
discussions with other companies," said James W. Orband, chief counsel
for Endicott Interconnect Technologies, the locally controlled company
that expects to take over the operations within the next three months.
"IBM had been entertaining other options." On Monday, the state
announced the microelectronics business in Endicott is being sold to a
company controlled by local businessmen, the Maines and Matthews families.
Between them, the two families have a wide array of holdings, including
food distribution and electronic subcontractors. State officials portrayed
the arrangement between the local investors and IBM as the best possible
scenario for the community. John E. "Jack"
Cheevers, Town of Union supervisor, said closing the Endicott site was
a "strong likelihood" under alternate plans. IBM managers told
workers Monday a deal was almost struck with Sanmina Corp., a multibillion-dollar
contract electronics manufacturer with a plant in Owego and headquarters
in California. "They came within
an inch of buying the place," Cheevers said. "If it was sold
to Sanmina, they would have taken the jobs offshore the next day and bulldozed
the place."
By Alliance@IBM/CWA
Pataki: 'This entire facility has been at risk'
BY JEFF PLATSKY
Press & Sun-Bulletin
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