IBM Job Actions Since 1983

BY JEFF PLATSKY
Copyright 2002 Press & Sun-Bulletin

After about 60 years of constantly building its local work force, IBM Corp. changed course in December 1983 and began cutting personnel at its Endicott site.

That trend of cutbacks at Endicott -- and across the company -- continued for 19 years. It culminates today with the announcement that IBM is selling the site to investors, but retaining a modified presence in the community.

Here are some key dates in IBM-Endicott history:

* December 1983: IBM Corp. offers workers at Endicott's Systems Technology Division in Endicott and Federal Systems Division in Owego a "special opportunity" for early retirement. The sites are two of five targeted for the program. Workers with 25 years or more experience can leave the company and receive two years' pay over four years.

* June 1985: The company announces that the Systems Technology Division headquarters will move from Endicott to Danbury, Conn., in an attempt to consolidate top-level management near corporate headquarters in Armonk. Up to 50 members of the headquarters staff will make the move.

* September 1986: IBM offers an early retirement incentive to more than 10,000 employees nationwide at a cost of $250 million. The company said it will add five years to employees' years of service and age when determining pension benefits, as a program incentive.

* December 1988: IBM representatives tell 200 employees of the Glendale facility west of Endicott to expect some changes in 1989. The employees will be reassigned to new work and very few will be transferred from the community, a company spokesman said. The company said the basic mission of the product laboratory will not change.

* February 1989: IBM announces it is expanding the mission of the Glendale Laboratory to include development of factory automation programming, a move that will require the retraining of present workers and hiring new employees.

* September 1989: IBM sets 400 workers as the target for a special retirement program directed at Endicott and Owego as part of the company's effort to "streamline operations." The company wants to trim 600 to 1,000 employees at overstaffed manufacturing plants including Manassas, Va., and Lexington, Ky.

* December 1989: IBM announces it will eliminate 10,000 people from its workforce nationwide in 1990. Retirement incentives will cost $2.3 billion, but will produce annual savings of $1 billion. The incentive offers one week's pay for each six months of employment, up to a maximum of one year's pay.

* October 1990: The company will transfer about 50 white-collar employees from Lexington, Ky., to Broome County as IBM moves its medium-speed printer business to Glendale.

* March 1991: Yet another retirement window is opened by IBM, which is trying to encourage more than 10,000 workers nationwide to leave. Previous programs have trimmed about 1,000 workers in Endicott and Owego.

* May 1991: IBM takes off the kid gloves with a plan to cut unneeded workers. Under the Individual Transition Option, employees who aren't up to par or who just have a lot of time on their hands will be invited to leave, taking a bonus of up to a year's salary. IBM also announces a cut in severance pay to workers fired for poor performance. They will get one week's pay for each year of service, instead of two.

* December 1991: IBM shuts down its operations in Endicott and Glendale for two weeks at Christmas, idling 9,000 workers. Employees were encouraged to schedule their vacations during the shutdown or face an unpaid leave.

* March 1992: IBM announces another cutback to cope with the changing technology industry, with an initial goal of eliminating 20,000 employees worldwide. By July, IBM announces that 40,000 workers took the "Individual Transition Option." IBM's Product Development Laboratory in Glendale is affected. The company cuts 350 jobs at the site.

* May 1993: About 1,200 workers will leave the Endicott site by June 1993, in an early-leave window called the "Endicott Transition Option Program." Endicott site representatives said layoffs would be possible if the site fails to get enough people to join the voluntary program. The company says future voluntary programs will not be as generous.

* December 1993: IBM announces it will sell The Federal Systems Co., including its 3,300-worker plant in Owego, to Loral Corp. for $1.5 billion. The operation is subsequently acquired by Lockheed Martin Corp. and renamed the Systems Integration Division.

* February 1994: Pennant Systems, IBM's printer subsidiary, offers employees a chance to leave the company in a voluntary program. About 400 of the subsidiary's 3,000 workers at the Endicott site work for Pennant.

* February 1994: IBM-Endicott eliminates 320 jobs, the first official layoff in the site's history.

* March 1994: One hundred Glendale workers are laid off. The site also announces that it will transfer 100 workers to Raleigh, N.C.

* June 1994: The IBM development lab in Glendale is shut down; the remaining workers are transferred to the sprawling Endicott complex. The 1-million-square-foot Glendale plant is put up for lease.

* September 1994: An unspecified number of non-manufacturing layoffs occur, resulting in Pennant Corp. consolidating operations in Boulder, Colo. Up to 75 jobs are expected to be transferred from Endicott to Boulder.

* October 1994: An unspecified number of Integrated Systems Solutions Corp. employees -- 300 of whom work in Endicott -- are laid off.

* December 1996: The Endicott site escapes layoffs as more than 100 workers accept an early retirement offer.

* October 1997: Microelectronics workers are given the opportunity to leave with an enhanced severance package. Managers warn that if too few take the early retirement incentive, there will be layoffs. IBM is hoping to convince 3 percent to 5 percent of its 119,000 workers nationwide to leave.

* May 1998: Endicott loses 140 jobs as the Computer Task Group is relocated to Fishkill. Of those cuts, 40 people are offered transfers; the balance are laid off.

* December 1998: IBM offers yet another retirement option to Microelectronics workers in Endicott as the division tries to cut costs. IBM is giving some workers "the opportunity to look at other career opportunities where it's appropriate," an IBM representative said. Unlike other buyout packages, IBM will not add five years to service to calculate pension benefits.

* November 1999: Some 200 to 500 in the company's Server division -- which has operations in Rochester, Minn., Poughkeepsie, Endicott and Somers -- are let go because of lagging sales.

* November 2001: IBM lays off 1,100 nationwide -- 400 at IBM's Microelectronics operation in Endicott -- because of soft demand.

* May 2002: IBM consolidates the server division, resulting in the loss of 224 jobs in Endicott. Some are offered transfers to other IBM sites. Others are let go. A week later, as part of a companywide cutback in the Global Services Division, Endicott loses another 30 people. The cutbacks are a part of some 3,000 nationwide.

* June 2002: One hundred engineers and other technical personnel are laid off as part of a larger cutback in Microelectronics. In Burlington, Vt., 1,000 are terminated. In East Fishkill, 200 are fired as IBM realigns its Technology Group. Employment in Endicott drops to 4,100.