IBM Outlines New York Area Staff Cutbacks --- Sharp Job Reductions Set As the Company Clings To No-Layoff Policy
International Business Machines Corp. gave details about sharp cutbacks in New York's Hudson Valley, edging closer to making layoffs in an area that was the cradle of its modern-day business.</br></br>As part of its plan to cut 25,000 workers this year, IBM said 3,000 to 3,500 employees would leave three of the company's New York plants -- East Fishkill, Poughkeepsie and Kingston -- at the end of the current quarter. Together, the plants currently employ about 21,500 workers.</br></br>IBM said it hopes it can keep alive its hallowed "full employment" tradition by achieving all the cuts through voluntary incentive programs available until March 5. But Big Blue signaled that this is an unlikely outcome, and said its first layoffs in a half-century could come in East Fishkill during the second quarter.</br></br>The news had been expected. All three facilities are closely associated with IBM's mainframe-computer operation, which was targeted for the company's harshest cuts: East Fishkill supplies the chips that serve as "brains" for mainframes, while Poughkeepsie and Kingston develop and make the bulky machines.</br></br>East Fishkill will take the brunt of the latest cutbacks, possibly losing as many as 2,500 of its 9,200 workers, an IBM spokeswoman said.