UL planning additional layoffs (200 jobs)

[UpInArms]

http://newsobserver.com/business/story/1498067p-7656622c.html

Underwriters Laboratories will slash almost two-thirds of the work force at its Research Triangle Park facilities as the product-safety testing company follows many of its manufacturing customers to overseas markets.

The employees at the RTP facility were told Tuesday that UL will eliminate as many as 200 of its 371 jobs over the next 12 months. Many of those jobs will be transferred to UL's facilities at Melville, N.Y., and its headquarters in Northbrook, Ill.

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"Many of our traditional U.S.-based customers have relocated their manufacturing facilities overseas and are requesting that we provide safety certification services locally," said August Schaefer, senior vice president, in a statement. "As we become more efficient in the United States, we are also increasing our presence in those markets."

<snip>

The latest reduction is part of a streamlining plan UL announced in May to cut 750 workers from its U.S. work force by June 2005. It is the third time RTP has been targeted for job cuts since the company started restructuring two years ago. The site had 576 employees in 2000.

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[UpInArms]

1. just have to add one more detail to this story

But the economic downturn hurt many of UL's manufacturing and high-tech customers, forcing the 110-year-old company to begin laying off workers in 2001 for the first time in its history.

How many 100 and more year old companies for the first time in their histories are doing this or closing their doors? It seems to be a trend that I am noticing.