Recently reported layoffs at GlobalFoundries’ facilities in New York come at the same time the company is celebrating a new investment in Vermont.
The Times Union and Poughkeepsie Journal this week reported that GlobalFoundries, which operates in Malta in the Capital Region and East Fishkill in the lower Hudson Valley, recently began cutting as many as 150 jobs after a round of voluntary buyouts. The company would not specify exactly how many layoffs were affecting each site.
The high-tech company that manufactures semiconductors for smartphones and other devices has invested billions in Saratoga County for its Fab 8 facility and took over operations at the former IBM chip manufacturing plant in East Fishkill.
Catherine Hill, a professor of business administration at Skidmore College, said while the job losses are a hit for the workers, it’s not a sign that the company is at risk.
“For the most part, I don’t think that you can see a 150 job loss as them pulling away from the region. They’ve done a ton of hiring. And any time you do that much hiring, either you make some mistakes in the amount of people that you hire or you make some mistakes in which departments you make larger and not. I think this is just a right-sizing.”
GlobalFoundries employs more than 3,000 workers in Saratoga County.
Meanwhile, the company was joined by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin this week to announce the results of a $55 million investment at its facility in Essex Junction. Officials said the investments will help make the former IBM facility more competitive.
Shumlin, in a statement, said he was “extremely encouraged” by the investments and the company’s commitment to the local workforce.
GlobalFoundries senior location executive Janette Bombardier said the upgrades are “further proof that GlobalFoundries is excited about the future potential of the Essex Junction facility”.
Capital Region Congressman Paul Tonko said he was concerned about the job losses in New York. In a statement to WAMC, Tonko says, “While Global Foundries will have 500 more jobs in the region than it did this time last year, any job loss in our community is a concern. It is my hope the region will continue to invest in an innovation economy that creates new jobs and new opportunities for these displaced workers.”
Hill says the new investments in Vermont show more than just the company’s commitment to the region.
“I think it says a lot about the region, that the region is committing to them as well as them committing to the region. A lot of this is public-private partnerships in order to establish brining population back to this region. And so GlobalFoundries has benefitted from this relationship but so has the region.”
