trouble at HP and Pfizer

Date: Monday, September 01, 2008 11:00 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1908 -- 9/01/2008 >>>>>

Hewlett-Packard in Boise, Idaho is having mass job terminations, but that's
not all that's happening. This mild statement in the article below triggered
my alarm:

The laid-off HP engineer said furloughed workers will receive five
weeks of pay and benefits, during which time they will train other
workers to pick up some of their duties.

Could it be that HP employees at Boise are being coerced into training their
HP replacements? Typically when companies do this they threaten their
employees with cancellation of their severance and/or pension benefits if they
fail to train their foreign replacement.

I asked the journalist who wrote the article if HP employees are being forced
to train their H-1B replacements. He said there are lots or rumors about this
happening but nobody has actually come forward and confirmed the rumors. This
sounds eerily similar to the forced training of H-1B replacements at Nielsen
in Florida.

In order to find out more, I posted a question on the message threads asking
if HP was replacing Americans with H-1Bs. For what it's worth, an anonymous
poster did confirm this.

This is definitely true, our group was asked to document and train
our Indian "backup" counterparts on how to diagnose, solve, and
test product defects based on our years of experience. I refused to
do this and later left voluntarily under a severance offer. Right
before I left, I found a copy of a current H1-B visa justification
form (forgot the actual form number) that someone had left on the
copier. At the same time they were trying to purge US workers, they
were claiming shortages and trying to import more H1-Bs.

It is also been repeatedly reported by previously employed
applicants that anyone who took a severance offer from HP is no
longer allowed to be rehired without personal approval from VJ.
That is certainly one way to guarantee a shortage of 'qualified'
workers and justify H1-B visa requests.

There are also rumors that hundreds of workers at Pfizer in Connecticut are
being forced to train their H-1B replacements. Those claims seem exaggerated
at least in terms of the sheer numbers, but unfortunately even less
information is available about what is going on at Pfizer. Three short blogs
are included below with scuttlebutt about Pfizer.

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http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/482932.html

August 26, 2008
Layoffs resume at Hewlett-Packard in Boise The company is tight-lipped, but
workers believe up to 25% of Imaging and Printing staff worldwide may lose
their jobs.
Hewlett-Packard began issuing layoff notices Monday that could mean "hundreds"
of lost jobs among Imaging & Printing Group workers at the company's Boise
campus, according to sources who requested anonymity.
A software engineer who got the bad news Monday said company employees believe
up to 25 percent of HP Imaging and Printing employees worldwide could lose
their jobs, though the number in Boise is unknown. HP employs an estimated
3,400 workers at its campus on Chinden Boulevard, between Five Mile and
Cloverdale roads.

HP's layoffs come amid fears of more layoffs at the Treasure Valley's other
big technology employer: Micron Technology. Micron's failure to start
construction on a previously announced fabrication plant has raised concerns
that the company may be planning to reduce the manufacturing in Boise of
memory chips on older, 8-inch wafers.

Neither HP nor Micron has said much. HP said only that "parts of IPG's
business will experience reductions," and Micron hasn't commented.

"It just doesn't end, does it?" Boise economist John Church said. "The
slowdown in the U.S. economy has caught up with Idaho and especially with
Boise lately."

The laid-off HP engineer said furloughed workers will receive five weeks of
pay and benefits, during which time they will train other workers to pick up
some of their duties. The laid-off workers will be able to look for other jobs
inside HP. If they don't find jobs, HP will provide an additional four weeks
of pay and benefits, though the employees will have little to do and will not
be required to be on site.

"As long as you don't go to work for a direct competitor, they don't care,"
said the engineer, who asked not to be identified citing possible reprisals
for HP employees who talk to reporters.

Clayton Cramer, an HP research and development engineer who lives in Horseshoe
Bend and is among those being laid off, wrote on his blog that he is applying
within HP for jobs in Boise and elsewhere.

"In the meantime, I am sending my resume around," Cramer wrote. "There are a
few jobs here in Boise (and gobs of competition from other soon to be ex-HP
employees)."

In an e-mail to the Idaho Statesman, the wife of another HP employee wrote
Monday that workers believe the layoffs will reach "20 percent here in Boise,
but 50 percent company-wide in the IPG division. The employees met with their
new supervisors this morning and were told whether or not they had a position
within the new organizational structure."

A 20 percent reduction among 3,400 Boise workers would amount to almost 700
lost jobs.

Companies that lay off more than 500 workers are required to notify state
officials under federal law unless the workers receive at least 60 days'
notice or 60 days' pay. HP's nine-week layoff plan would pay workers for 63
days before they lose their jobs. The Idaho Labor Department said it had
received no word from HP.

An HP spokeswoman could not provide the total number of Imaging and Printing
employees worldwide. Before its March 2005 layoffs, HP said it had 151,000
Imaging and Printing Group workers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

After the nine-week period, laid-off workers will receive severance packages.
However, the amount each worker receives will be reduced by the initial five
weeks of pay, the engineer said.

HP remained tight-lipped on how many workers would be let go, restricting its
comments to a statement in which it said:

"As part of the HP Imaging and Printing Group's (IPG) continued Print 2.0
transformation, the business announced plans in June 2008 to realign and
streamline its organization by reducing the number of its global business
units from five to three customer solutions-oriented businesses. The
realignment of IPG's business entails shifting resources from slower-growing
businesses to new business opportunities. In some cases, parts of IPG's
business will experience reductions while investments will be made in high-
growth segments of the business. These decisions will be made at the level of
the global business unit and are not specific to HP sites. Consistent with its
transformation, IPG will continue to proactively manage the challenges of the
current market and consider changes that will position the business to win
today and in the future."

The early signs of layoffs in Boise began in July when it was learned that 30
HP employees had been informed at the end of May that they would lose their
jobs on Aug. 22.

For furloughed HP workers to find jobs with smaller high-tech outfits in the
area will be problematic.

Bradley Wiskirchen, CEO of Keynetics Inc., Idaho's largest privately held
high-tech company based on revenues, said he has an opening for just one
software developer.

Courty Gates, CEO of Clearwater Analytics, a local Web-based provider of
investment portfolio reports, said he had jobs for five software developers
immediately, and one a month for the next 12 months.

The impact of hundreds of lost jobs will be felt throughout the economy, with
already financially strapped consumers cutting back even further on spending,
and retailers refusing to add payroll heading into the Christmas holiday
shopping season, Church said.

Moreover, the potential for hundreds of homes suddenly finding their way onto
a glutted housing market would "push recovery way out," he said.

Mike Pennington, a residential specialist with John L. Scott Real Estate, said
the market could absorb the shock if many of the HP workers find other jobs in
the Valley or are nearing retirement age.

"This isn't as bad as it could be," Pennington said. "But if you have another
big Micron layoff, that would be devastating to the (housing) market."

Micron has laid off about 1,100 workers in the last year.

Meanwhile, news of HP layoffs is surfacing elsewhere.

The Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times, reported last week that managers planned
to shut down one of three silicon wafer fabrication facilities at HP's local
Corvallis site and that up to 45 percent of the 850 employees who work in the
fabs were to be laid off. That would amount to as many as 300 lost jobs, the
Gazette-Times reported.

Joe Estrella: 377-6465

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/07/pfizer-to-layoff-more-scientists-in-the-fall/

Pfizer To Layoff More Scientists In The Fall?
8 Comments
By Ed Silverman // July 2nd, 2008 // 4:04 pm

That s the scuttlebutt making the rounds and also dutifully noted on In The
Pipeline today. The drugmaker, which continues to grapple with a thin pipeline
and looming patent expirations, is believed to be targeting chemists at its
main R&D facility in Groton, Connecticut.

Of course, by eliminating the employees who are chartered with finding and
developing drugs, Pfizer may just lessen the chance that its own R&D team will
find the next big thing and end its troubles. This is, however, part of a
trend we have noted previously. Total US employment in R&D fell by 3.9 percent
in 2006, the last year for which data was available, to 79,856, according to
PhRMA.

So what might this mean? Perhaps it signals an intention to buy other, smaller
companies. Glaxo took such a step recently by cutting 40 percent of its
research staff at some sites, just as a deal was announced to pay $720 million
for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a fountain-of-youth pill.
This comes down to betting more on someone else s science than your own.

We asked Pfizer for a comment and will update you when one arrives. UPDATE:
A Pfizer spokesman sent us this comment: A leading R&D organization must
evolve, continue to build on its strengths, capture competitive advantage
wherever possible and be realistic about what it will take to return Pfizer to
growth. What I can assure you is that if and when there are organizational
changes, those decisions are never taken lightly. Our guiding principle is
that colleagues hear about important Pfizer news from company leadership first
and are treated with the utmost respect.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2008/07/02/more_pfizer_layoffs.php

July 2, 2008
More Pfizer Layoffs?
Posted by Derek

Unfortunately, I m getting reports of significant chemistry layoffs coming
this fall at Pfizer s Groton facility. Rumors of all sorts seem to be going
around: one indication is that this is going to hit both PhD and associate
chemists, as opposed to some earlier reorganizations there which mostly seemed
to let lab heads go. The timing is also uncertain, but September/October seems
to be the average of what I m hearing. I assume that biology and other areas
will feel the tremors, too, but I have no information about them. There's
nothing on the news wires about any of this, so it's not at the official
announcement stage, but people seem to be getting braced.

I m not happy to hear about this kind of thing, but I can t say that it s a
surprise, either. Pfizer is going to be having a rough time of it for years to
come, what with the Lipitor patent expiration coming closer.
And as fate would have it, the company will get to feel that one about as hard
as possible, because the various things that were going to cushion the blow
haven t worked out so well.

Think about it -- Celebrex was the whole driving force for the
Pharmacia/Upjohn acquisition, and just look at it now. Compared to what it was
supposed to be by 2008, it s in terrible shape. Then you have the gigantic
failure of torcetrapib, the CETP inhibitor that was going to extend the
Lipitor franchise and make it even bigger. That was in late 2006, and the
echos have not died away even now. And then there s the ruinous failure of
Exubera, the inhaled insulin that was going to be a runaway best seller all
its own. (Oh, it really was, although it s hard to remember that - a reader
sent me a 2006 analyst report (Hambrecht) which is just giddy with
expectations -- Pfizer s 1.2 billion sales projection is clearly way too low,
you see, and the brokerage s own 2.5 billion might be conservative. Heck, 5
billion in sales is "very achievable" by 2010, so you d better load up now,
because the ship is sailing, the train s leaving the station, and so on. .
.ah, Wall Street.)

So, Pfizer s buffers are exhausted, but the big beaker of fuming nitric acid
is still going to unload on schedule. It s going to be a tough place to work,
and it s going to be a tough stock to own. If you have a chance to do anything
about either of those situations, I d look into it.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.biofind.com/Rumor/Default.aspx?ID=184002

Pfizer's 2nd Quarter 10-Q Filing
9 August 2008 14:19
From the 1st quarter 10-Q filing:
[quote]
Through March 30, 2008, Employee termination costs represent the expected
reduction of the workforce by 21,200 employees, mainly in manufacturing, sales
and research. Approximately 13,700 employees were terminated as of March 30,
2008.
[/quote]

From the 2nd quater 10-Q filing:
[quote]Through June 29, 2008, Employee termination costs represent the
expected reduction of the workforce by 21,300 employees, mainly in
manufacturing, sales and research. Approximately 16,200 employees were
terminated as of June 29, 2008.[/quote]

So 2500 employees have been terminated between March 30th and June 29th?

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