GlobalFoundries cuts more jobs in support roles

GlobalFoundries cut more jobs Tuesday as the early retirements offered in April failed to reduce costs sufficiently at the semiconductor plant in Essex Junction, a spokesman said.

Jim Keller said fewer than a dozen jobs were eliminated in support roles such as finance and legal. He said that unlike the cuts in April made through offers of early retirement, these job losses were "involuntary."

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"Overall we just needed to find ways to be more cost competitive," Keller said. "We're in a global industry. Yes, it does have ebbs and flows and we need to be competitive during all of that time."

Keller said the fab in Essex Junction "came close" to meeting its cost-cutting goals in April but that "unfortunately we have to lay off a handful of people today."

"We feel pretty confident about the program and targets we're trying to meet and we've now met them," he added.

GlobalFoundries acquired the Essex Junction fab from IBM in July 2015 in a deal that left many people scratching their heads. GlobalFoundries received a payment of $1.5 billion from IBM to take over the fab, which had been losing money. As part of the deal, GlobalFoundries agreed to be IBM's exclusive provider of semiconductor chips through 2025.

The Essex Junction plant employs about 2,600 people. GlobalFoundries also has fabs in Malta and East Fishkill, New York. Keller said the Malta fab avoided job cuts, but that several dozen jobs were eliminated in East Fishkill as part of the cost-saving measures. He described the East Fishkill fab as "underutilized."

Owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, GlobalFoundries has invested $72 million in the Essex Junction fab in the nearly two years it has owned the facility.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com.