Minntac announces nearly 600 layoffs

U.S. Steel has notified workers that it will cut production in the next two to three weeks and about 500 union and 90 salaried management employees will be indefinitely laid off.

By: Peter Passi , Duluth News Tribune

U.S. Steel Corp. has notified workers at Minntac, near Virginia, that it will cut production in the next two to three weeks. As a result about 500 union and 90 salaried management employees will be indefinitely laid off.

Minntac currently employs about 1,100 union workers and about 180 people in salaried management positions. So the layoffs will affect about 46 percent of the work force.

“Here at U.S. Steel, we continually analyze and assess our production, market conditions and how those conditions affect our order book,” said Courtney Boone, a corporate spokeswoman.

As a result of that assessment, Boone said: “We’ve made the difficult decision to temporarily idle some of our production at Minntac.”

Minntac has five lines, but just four are currently operating. In the coming weeks, the number of operating lines will be further reduced to two. Boone said the duration of the layoff will depend on market conditions.

Mike Woods, president of USW Local 1938, received word of the pending layoffs late Wednesday.

“I don’t think it came as a huge surprise to anyone, but it’s always devastating to get news of layoffs,” he said. “We haven’t been through layoffs at Minntac since the early 1990s.”

Woods explained that the most difficult part of the situation for workers is that no one knows how long or deep the current downturn in the steel industry will be.

“It may get worse before it gets better,” he said. “I personally think things will turn around eventually. But the question is when.”

Boone said U.S. Steel also is scaling back production at its Granite City Works operations in southern Illinois. There at the mill, the company expects to temporarily lay off 300 union-represented employees and 90 salaried management workers, as it ratchets down steel production.

In December, U.S. Steel halted production at Keetac, a taconite operation in Keewatin that employs about 380 people.

Ecolab cuts 1,000 jobs, stock shoots up

Ecolab Inc.'s stock rose more than 5 percent Thursday morning, one day after it announced major job and cost cutting actions.

St. Paul-based Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) said late Wednesday afternoon it was restructuring its businesses and will cut 1,000 positions, including about 100 in Minnesota. The reduction impacts about 4 percent of the company's 26,000 person workforce.

The cuts included "just under 50" jobs at both its downtown St. Paul headquarters and its research center in Eagan, according to company spokesman Mike Monahan. The types of jobs that are affected range "across the board" he said, but proportionately, more of the jobs are in "non-customer facing areas." Employees were told of the layoffs Wednesday.

The cleaning products manufacturer also said it’s speeding up a cost-cutting plan to reduce the number of products it sells by 40 percent. It also is reducing its number of plant and distribution centers, closing two small “non-strategic” health care business and writing down some investments it has in energy management.

The company said in a news release after the market closed Wednesday that it would take a special charge in the fourth quarter of about $19 million related to the cost cutting moves. The actions are expected to save the company $70 million to $80 million annually.

Ecolab also maintained its year-end earnings estimates of between $1.85 and $1.87 per share, excluding special gains and charges.

Douglas Baker, Ecolab’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement the restructuring should lower the company’s overall operating costs for both the near and long term. He said it also helps the company “capitalize on the opportunities we see in our core Institutional and Food & Beverage businesses and enable us to focus on driving our successful global Pest Elimination expansion, Healthcare Infection Prevention business and Water and Energy growth initiatives.”

The company's stock was up $1.77 per share, or 5.4percent, to $34.78 per share in mid-day trading Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, analyst Andrea Wirth at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Chicago upgraded Ecolab's stock from neutral to outperform. In a note to investors, Wirth said the upgrade was based on the company's attractive valuation, announcement reiterating its guidance and forecast of 4 to 5 percent organic growth.

sblack@bizjouranals.com | (612) 288-2103

Viracon layoff affects 164 Statesboro employees

By HOLLI DEAL BRAGG
hbragg@statesboroherald.com
Posted: Oct. 1, 2008 8:25 p.m.
Updated: Oct. 1, 2008 8:25 p.m.

More than 150 employees of one of Statesboro’s largest industries face a layoff effective Monday in light of recent economic crisis.
Viracon, the largest single source glass fabricator in the country, announced this week 164 employees will be laid off, said Bob Randall, vice president of operations.
Viracon’s Statesboro plant, located in the Gateway Industrial Park off U.S. 301 South, was built in 1998 and employed 600 workers as of last year. The company is based in Owatonna, Minnesota and has 2,600 employees company wide.
“The markets are down,” Randall said. “There is a lot of nervousness” and the local economic dip has affected construction, which affects the glass business, he said.
The Georgia Department of Labor’s Statesboro Career Center is offering resources for displaced workers, said State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond.
The workers who lost their jobs are also offered severance packages and other resources, Randall said. The severance packages are determined by the employee’s “ years of service.”
The work force was reduced to 536, the approximate number of employees the company had two years ago, he said.
Thurmond said labor department representatives and Coastal Workforce representatives were on site at Viracon Tuesday and Wednesday to assist the workers affected.
Statesboro-Bulloch County Chamber of Commerce President Peggy Chapman expressed concern regarding the layoff.
“We’re always sorry to see anybody have to lay off employees,” she said. “We hope it’s a short term event they can overcome.”
Chapman said layoffs for a company such as Viracon occur every seven to 10 years as the economy cycles. “It is a trend ... when there is a downturn in the economy.”
Randall agreed. “Every six or seven years our construction markets do a dip that lasts 11-24 months, then they have a huge comeback,” he said. “We had (a layoff) of a similar size after 9/11 when the markets did kind of the same thing.”
The lay off is not an unexpected phenomenon, said Earl Dabbs, chairman of the Statesboro-Bulloch County Development Authority. “Viracon ... has been affected by the business cycle.”
Randall said in addition to the layoffs, hours worked by employees are changing as well. “Everybody’s being touched by it,” he said.

FICO firm trimming staff

St. Cloud Electrolux to temporarily layoff 190 workers

St. Paul, Minn. — Electrolux in St. Cloud, Minn., says it will temporarily lay off nearly 200 people. The freezer-maker employs 1,400 people in the central Minnesota city.

A company spokesman told the St. Cloud Times the move is normal for this time of year and that the lay off is nothing unique.

However, the company's union representative, Louie Neumann, says the slowing economy and slumping housing market are the biggest reasons for the layoffs at Electrolux:

"And people are holding back on spending money right now because I really believe the recession is around the corner and people tend to hold back on purchasing bigger items like that," Neumann said.

Neumann says if the country goes into a full recession, there could be more layoffs at the plant.

One Electrolux worker told the St. Cloud Times he's been through several lay offs in the past, and said the company usually hires workers back by April.

Minneapolis/St. Paul CFOs Report on Fourth-Quarter Hiring Outlook

Minneapolis/St. Paul CFOs Report on Fourth-Quarter Hiring Outlook

State's jobless numbers increase

By Dawn Peake, dmpeake@stcloudtimes.com


Minnesota employment remained almost stagnant in February while unemployment continued to climb, according to government data released Tuesday.
Minnesota posted a net loss of 1,200 jobs in February from a month ago with gains in about half the sectors and losses in half, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Employment grew less than 0.8 percent from a year ago as jobs in most sectors increased far less than a percentage point.
Unemployment rose to 4.5 percent in February, up from 4.4 percent in January. That puts the state on par with the national rate.
The state saw the largest decline in natural resources and mining jobs, with a 12.6 percent decrease from a year ago.
Nationally, jobs in natural resources and mining increased 7.6 percent — performing better than all other sectors.
Education and health services provided the most growth as it added about 12,540 jobs, 3.1 percent more than a year ago.
Jobs in education and health-related fields accounted for 60.3 percent of all jobs added during the past 12 months.
St. Cloud employment data will be available next week.
In January, the area's job growth surpassed economists' expectations by rising 2.4 percent from a year ago. Unemployment climbed to 5.9 percent, exceeding the state and national rates.