Blue Day for IBM Semiconductor Group: 450 Jobs Lost

IBM laid off approximately 450 workers in its semiconductor operations on Monday.

Hardest hit was the East Fishkill semiconductor plant in New York where 300 people were laid off, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.

Another 90 jobs were lost at a chip complex in Burlington, Vt.

Some managers were included, the newspaper said.

The “resource action,” as it is called by IBM, produced an angry response from Alliance@IBM, the group attempting to unionize IBM workers.

"We believe that instead of throwing valuable employees out the door, IBM Corporate management should be looking at ways to keep these workers employed,” the Alliance said in a statement.

“It appears that this is just more of the same ‘slash and burn,’” the group added, “cut cost in the employee ranks and fire them but let a bloated senior managment level stay the same.

"It appears it doesn’t matter how good a quarter IBM just had–employees continue to have targets on them.”

Two weeks ago, IBM reported a 12 percent jump in quarterly earnings to $2.26 billion, or $1.55 per share, on revenue of $23.8 billion.