Associated Press
ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. -- About 2,400 IBM employees in Vermont will start working shorter hours next month because of soft demand in the semiconductor industry.
Employees on the chip manufacturing line at the Essex Junction plant now alternate 36-hour and 48-hour work weeks -- an 84-hour schedule over two weeks. Starting next month, they'll work 36-hour weeks, or 72 hours every two weeks, IBM spokesman Jeff Couture said Friday. The workers will still be paid for 40-hour weeks.
IBM imposed the same cutbacks at the plant two years ago, citing lower demand for the chips made there. All workers resumed their original schedules by about eight months later.
Last year the company laid off 988 workers at the plant as part of a restructuring of its Microelectronic Division, which designs and produces microchips.4
