Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Rockford to lose 500 Motorola jobs

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 23:08:55 -0400

Rockford to lose 500 Motorola jobs
The company’s radio repair center will close by March.
By SARAH ROBERTS and ELIZABETH DAVIES
Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Motorola will close its radio repair center in Rockford by March,
moving half of the 500 jobs to Elgin and eliminating the rest. Rockford operations
will be combined with Motorola’s distribution and service center in Elgin as a way
to improve efficiency and financial performance, the company said
Thursday.Rockford employees will be eligible for 250 job openings at Motorola’s
Elgin center, although spokeswoman Faye Bergemann would not say whether they would
be offered similar positions at similar pay.

She also declined to provide wages paid at the Rockford center, or to say whether
employees will be given severance packages. The news comes a week after Textron
Fastening Systems announced it will close two Rockford plants by the end of 2004,
eliminating 680 local jobs. Motorola’s decision adds to the growing list of
manufacturers slashing local jobs. In the past two years alone, the region has
lost a fifth of its manufacturing work force. That’s helped drive local
unemployment to the highest in a decade and among the highest in Illinois. In
Rockford alone, more than one in 10 workers are jobless.

In January, Motorola shut down its cell phone plant in Harvard, putting the
remaining 700 people out of work. The massive McHenry County operation, just 7
years old when it closed, employed 6,000 people at its peak. Many of them commuted
45 minutes from the Rockford area.

A year ago, two dozen employees at the Motorola radio center lost their jobs as
part of company cuts. The layoffs come as the Schaumburg-based telecommunications
giant struggles to right itself after two years of heavy losses, declining sales
and intense global competition.

The center, in Southrock Industrial Park in southwest Rockford, provides repair
services and logistics for two-way radios and other wireless communication
devices. Bergemann said Motorola decided to keep the Elgin repair center open
because the company owns the building, whereas it leases the Rockford center. The
Elgin center employs 600 people.

Southrock Industrial Park opened in 1990 and is home to Midland Paper, Rockford
Spring and Kelley-Williamson Mobil. Motorola moved to the park in late 1996 and
requested to lease rather than buy the property, said John McNamara of William
Charles Investments.

No warning for workers

Motorola’s announcement came as a surprise to Rockford employees, who were told of
the decision at work Thursday morning.

“I’m very upset right now. Unemployment is very, very high, and it’s hard to get
jobs,” said Tim Shelley, 31, who has worked as a cafeteria chef at Motorola for 18
months. “Nobody knows what they’re going to do now.”
Shelley said employees were told that Motorola would gradually cut jobs between
now and March, beginning with employees with the least amount of seniority.

Commuting or moving to Elgin — about 45 miles east of Rockford — is not feasible
for some workers.
Shelley, who moved to Rockford from Chicago two years ago, said he can’t afford to
commute or move to Elgin while trying to support his five children, ages 2 to 12.

A worker who earns $23,000 in Rockford would need to make at least $25,000 in
Elgin to maintain his or her lifestyle, according to Internet cost-of-living
calculators, “Maybe if they gave me a real good pay raise I could afford it,” said
Shelley, who earns $11.90 an hour with full benefits. “With the cost of living in
Elgin, I might as well stay on I-90 and go 30 more minutes to Chicago. I can’t
pack up my family and move. A lot of people can’t do that right now. The economy
won’t let us.”
Other workers, leaving for their lunch breaks Thursday, declined to speak with
reporters. They said that company officials advised them not to talk about the
closing and quickly got into their cars.

Motorola, which posted a $2.48 billion loss last year, is searching for a
replacement for chief executive Christopher Galvin, who announced last month he
will resign. Critics say the company spread itself too thin in many products,
ranging from police radios to cell phones, during a down economy.

Company executives insist Motorola’s recovery is on track. Last week, the company
reported it made $116 million in the third quarter and sales increased 5 percent.

Motorola’s Rockford radio repair center earned recognition last year when it won
the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, given by the U.S. president
to companies in recognition of their achievements in quality and performance.
The Rockford center specifically was recognized for quickly and efficiently
overhauling equipment for the Los Angeles Police Department immediately after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Motorola’s Bergemann said the job cuts are not a reflection of the Rockford center
or its employees, but rather a part of Motorola’s long-term strategy to become
more competitive and profitable.

Officials get the word

Some Rockford business and community leaders first heard about Motorola’s
departure on Thursday during a three-day trip to Tacoma, Wash., to learn how that
city revitalized its downtown.

Rockford Mayor Doug Scott spent much of Thursday on the telephone, trying to set
up meetings with Motorola executives. He and others expressed frustration that the
company didn’t discuss the move with them before making the announcement.
“I had actually talked to some Motorola executives a few weeks ago,” Scott said.
“It wasn’t that kind of meeting— it was at an event. We were talking about the
Rockford facility and there were no hints that, ‘This isn’t the time, but we need
to talk soon.’ Nothing like that.”

Rockford’s business leaders hope they can produce an incentive package to change
Motorola’s plan. Scott and Bob Levin, executive director of the Rockford Area
Council of 100, are brainstorming for a meeting with Motorola in two weeks.
But Scott acknowledged that it might be too late to change Motorola’s plan.

“They’re already very far along in the decision-making process,” he said.  “But at
least it gives us the opportunity to find out from them what their needs are and
see if there’s some way that we can do something about that.”
Levin also was disappointed in Motorola as a stockholder. The company, which
trades on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at $13.48 Thursday.  It has a
52-week low of $7.58 and high of $14.40. That’s far below the share prices of $90
and higher three years ago.

“I believe Motorola hasn’t demonstrated vision, leadership or savvy,” Levin said.
“It’s a quality company, but they’ve made some very bad strategic moves.”

Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, maintained that Rockford is the best place for
Motorola to operate. “Rockford, economically, is the best,” he said. “It’s a
successful program and it works well. They’ve got transportation. For them to do
this is irritating.”

Register Star Assistant Business Editor Adam Lowenstein contributed to this
report.
http://www.rrstar.com/business/services/20031024-28453.shtml

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/