HP EMPLOYEES IN OREGON WORRY OF LAYOFFS

[Anonymous]

Hewlett Packard Employees in Corvallis worry about
layoffs

CORVALLIS,Ore-The Hewlett-Packard Campus in
Corvallis is buzzing with rumors these days, about possible layoffs at the
electronics giant that could come later this year.

Corvallis employees and community leader said they haven’t
been given definitive numbers, and estimates of how many jobs could be cut in
Corvallis range from 20 percent of the HP workforce to just five percent.

But any cuts at all would be a big blow to the town, where
the Palo Alto-based Hewlett Packard employs about 4,300 people.

On Jan. 14, HP merged its imaging and printing group, the
division most Corvallis employees work for, with its personal systems group,
which makes desktop computers, an especially competitive market.

Low-cost competitors include Lexmark and Dell, the computer
giant whose CEO, Kevin Rollins, has vowed to chip away at HP’s industry-leading
inkjet printing business.

Brigida Bergkamp, a company spokeswoman, said personnel
changes were necessary companywide for HP to remain competitive.

At the same time, she predicted that overall employee
numbers in the imaging and personal systems group would remain about where they
are today.

Bergkamp said affected employees would receive plenty of
notice before their jobs end and that HP would provide assistance for workers
applying for new jobs either within or outside the company.

Some Corvallis employees have been told they’ll need to
reapply for their current jobs or apply for other positions.

People who work at the Corvallis site say managers have
told them to expect job cuts of about 20 percent over the next year or so. Cuts
of that depth could mean a loss of about 860 jobs, reducing employee headcount
to around 3,440 – about half the number HP Corvallis employed in its mid-90s
heyday.

Some community leaders, meanwhile, say they’ve been briefed
to expect lesser cutbacks – in the range of 5 percent or about 200 jobs.

Some HP employees in Corvallis told The Corvallis
Gazette-Times that they are also hearing plans for leasing out unused space in
Hewlett-Packard’s 11-building industrial campus.

Part of one building has already been donated as temporary
quarters for the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.

That raises the possibility that the HP compound could
someday transition into a multitenant industrial park, with Hewlett-Packard as
the anchor.

[Author]

February 15, 2005 at 9:51 AM