Tuesday, January 27, 2009

IBM cutting 2,800 positions; Vt. jobs impacted

By Galen Moore

UPDATED JAN. 28, 3 P.M.

Officials at the Massachusetts Division of Labor and Workforce Development said today that IBM has not contacted them with news of any layoffs in Massachusetts. IBM spokesman Doug Shelton said the company will notify state officials the size of a planned layoff triggers warning thresholds set by law. Federal law requires notification if 500 or more employees are to be laid off in a given state.

IBM’s layoffs will hit the company’s facility in Essex Junction, Vt., the state Department of Labor has confirmed.

Citing internal company documents, the Wall Street Journal reported today that IBM has laid off 2,800 workers companywide. Cuts at the Essex Junction facility, which manufactures microprocessors on a sprawling campus along the Winooski River, will number “less than 500,” said deputy labor commissioner Tom Douse.

“We were notified by IBM today that they will be notifying some of their workers that they will be laid off,” Douse said.

More specific numbers were not available, and it was not clear whether the 500 Vermont workers are included in the 2,800 reported by the Journal. The site employs 5,000 to 5,500 workers, Douse said.

IBM has so far declined to give specifics as to where layoffs will occur or what divisions of the company will see cuts. So far, no reports have specified layoffs at the company’s Massachusetts facilities, which include the former Lotus Development headquarters in Cambridge and a large research campus in Westford. IBM officials were not immediately able to state whether layoffs will impact Massachusetts.