Thursday, March 15, 2012

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Wisconsin) To Lay Off 150


There wasn't a lot of detail to go with this mass layoff notice. Here is htrnews.com with the story:
Thermo Fisher Scientific gave official notice Tuesday that layoffs at its downtown manufacturing facility likely will begin on May 12.

The layoffs of approximately 150 employees are expected to be completed within six months and will be permanent.

Thermo Fisher announced in December that it would be closing the wood manufacturing plant at 1316 18th St., after announcing the closure of its Columbus Street steel manufacturing plant about two months earlier.
Although I take note of this tidbit from the December story:
Around 190 additional workers in Two Rivers will be looking for jobs next year. The second of two manufacturing plants owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the lab equipment maker is closing. Earlier this year, the company said it was closing its steel manufacturing plant by year’s end and moving the jobs to Mexico. Around 120 workers were affected. Jobs from the now closing wood manufacturing plant are being moved to Texas. “Our leadership team continuously evaluates our business operations in an effort to increase efficiencies and improve our global competitive position," Thermo Fisher Scientific Director of public relations Ron O'Brien said in the press release. The company says about 150 non-manufacturing jobs will remain in Two Rivers.
So I guess it isn't too hard to conclude that globalization and corporate greed are the (usual) suspects here.

2 comments:

  1. When will people realise that corporations ARE NOT NGOs ?

    The time when everything was locally produced and consumed is gone. The world is closer today. People are more mobile and so are business.
    The primary responsability of a company is to make money. Nothing wrong with that!. Make money to survive in a very compatitive world, to keep investing and developing, to offer better products, to advance technically and scientifically, to create more jobs and more wealth for more people.

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    Replies
    1. I don't disagree with what Anonymous says above. The primary responsibility of a company IS to make money.

      However, I would caution the comment on creation of jobs. Where are the jobs being created? Certainly not the US with out 8.3% (as of August, 2012) unemployment rate.

      More wealth for whom? The average Fortune 500 CEO took home a $10 million salary in 2011. Corporate profits are higher than they ever have been historically in 2011 yet the unemployment rate is 8.3%

      There's a growing gap between the haves and the havenots in the US.....

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