Sony announced today that they will be making extreme cuts to it’s work-force over the next two years. Bloomberg is reporting cuts of up to 8000 full time employees and another 8000 part time employees, which equals around 10% of it’s total work-force. They believe they can save upwards of $1.1 billion by 2010 by closing some of their facilities and outsourcing the work.
It’s fairly well known that I’m no fan of Sony’s gaming console but I truly feel sorry for everyone who will be affected by these cuts. These are tough times for everyone and it seems to grow worse each day. My sister actually works at one of the plants getting the axe…..
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pa. — Sony will shut down its flat-screen television plant in East Huntingdon and Hempfield as part of a company-wide downsizing that will cut 8,000 jobs.
Employees at Sony Technology Center-Pittsburgh were notified that they would be losing their jobs at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon.”They said they’re phasing out some areas of the building sooner than others,” technician Tim Myers said.
The plant has gone through several years of change and different attempts to survive since it opened in 1992.”I went through when CRT closed, then I was moved to the LCD section, and now I’m going through it all again,” Myers said.Just four months ago, the plant reported high demand for Sony’s LCD models in August. Tuesday’s news was an unexpected blow.”I’m surprised, disappointed, but the handwriting’s on the wall for a lot of American workers,” said Frank Schollaert, of New Stanton.The plant employs 790 people in what used to be a Volkswagen production facility. It is Sony’s only northeastern plant in the United States.Gov. Ed Rendell said the state will offer retraining and job placement services to local Sony employees who are losing their jobs.”I’ve turned down jobs because I wanted to hang it out here,” Myers said. “This place has been good to me, but got to move on.”
Source: ThePittsburghChannel.com
Most of us can remember it like it happened just yesterday. We remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news that the United States of America was under attack by terrorists. We also remember the horrible feeling that we experienced when watching the television coverage of the carnage that had been delivered to our doorstep by Al-Qaeda. Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy three lives were taken that day during the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and Flight 93 in Shanksville, P.A.. The devastation sent shock waves throughout the United States and across the globe. Unfortunately for the terrorists, the act that they thought would bring us to our knees ended up making us stand taller, stronger, and more united than ever.
It would be one of the first and only times my children had ever seen their father cry. I was sitting in my office on a normal, busy, summer day when my wife called to tell me that a plane had struck the WTC. Being under the impression that it was a small commuter plane that had possibly malfunctioned in some way, I replied with a simple “I hope there weren’t many people hurt”, or something of that nature. Not until the news reports started to flow in on CNN.com did I understand the scope of what was happening. I remember feeling a mixture of sorrow, anger, and disbelief while reading the steady flow of breaking news.
When I got home from work that evening and watched the coverage on TV, the emotions were uncontrollable. Like the rest of the United States, I sat in front of my television with my wife and children watching the news coverage for hours upon hours with tears running down my cheeks. It was a day I hope to never duplicate.
The outflow of patriotism in the next several weeks was incredible. Almost every store in the U.S. was completely sold out of American flags within two days following the attacks. Everywhere you looked you would see red, white and blue shirts, hats, bandannas, stickers, posters, etc. Businesses whose windows were normally bare were now plastered with patriotic posters and flags. The unity was so unbelievably strong that you could feel it everywhere you went. Continue reading ‘Remembering September 11, 2001′
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