Sony furloughs temporary employees
A sour retail economy and disappointing holiday sales have forced Sony at New Stanton to lay off most of its 800 temporary employees. “During our peak season before the holidays we bring in lots and lots of temporary employees who usually stay through the end of January,’ Mike Koff, manager of corporate communications and public affairs for Sony Technology Center, said.
“What happened this year was that our peak season started a few weeks earlier, in July rather than in August, and ended largely because of the economy, earlier than anticipated.
“As a result we have laid off, and are continuing to lay off, most of those temporary employees,’ Koff said.
“The number varies from day to day, but at the peak we have about 800 temporary workers,’ he added.
Koff said this time of year is also traditionally, “our slow period,’ which was made worse by disappointing retail electronics sales over the holidays.
“I think when you look at what retail sales were like over the holidays, you see that it wasn’t what retailers were expecting. It was lower.
“Some of those retailers have some pretty large inventories of consumer electronics. So, when you work backwards from that, their orders are down now, so our production is also down.
“We are looking at balancing our inventory before our new fiscal year starts in April,’ he said.
Koff said the company has about 2,800 full-time workers on the job at present.
When asked if anything new is planned in its product line, Koff said, “No new products that I can talk about at this time.’
In August 2001, Sony also laid off about 115 of its full-time workers, the first such layoff in its history at the New Stanton facility, because of a downturn in the global economy.
Sony Technology Center consists of the electronics factory, which produces consumer electronics including color TV sets; American Glass Video, which manufactures picture tubes for Sony TVs; Sony Chemicals and Display Systems Service.
The company took over the vacant Volkswagen auto manufacturing plant in November 1990.
In October 2002, Marianne Horinko, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assistant administrator presented Komei Kusuda, American Video president, with an award for voluntary waste minimization.
Since beginning production five years ago, the company cut its lead waste disposal by 18,000 tons or more than 95 percent. It saved the company more than $560,000 in raw material and waste disposal costs.
“That, despite a 25-percent increase in its production,’ David Allard, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) deputy secretary, said.
American Video Glass produces front glass panels for Sony’s trademark Trinitron and Wega television sets and funnel glass for the Trinitron cathode ray tubes.
The plant employs about 550 people, part of the more than 2,800 who work at the technology center.
The award was presented to American Video Glass for being one of five charter members in the federal EPA’s new Waste Minimization Program.