Demand for TV may help to avert Sony layoffs
Friday, March 31, 2006
Most of roughly 600 Sony Corp. workers in Westmoreland County who were expecting to lose jobs this spring may be keeping them instead, thanks to increasing demand for high-dollar, high-definition digital televisions made in East Huntingdon.
The Sony complex, which employs roughly 1,900 overall, is the only place in the company that makes the so-called silicon crystal reflective display TVs, called SXRDs for short, "and fortunately they've become very popular," said Michael Koff, Sony's senior manager for corporate communications.
In January, the company said it would be closing the 300-employee American Video Glass plant and a 45-employee warehouse and distribution center, both in Hempfield. That news came on top of last fall's announcement that Sony also was planning to close a 275-employee division of its adjacent TV manufacturing complex in East Huntingdon that makes older cathode ray televisions that are being discontinued.
The cathode ray division still will close today, Mr. Koff said, but virtually all of the hourly employees were offered the chance to continue on at the plant making the popular SXRDs.
About 200 employees accepted the offer, he said. At the American Video glass plant, which is scheduled to close in May, about 100 manufacturing workers also will be transferred to jobs making SXRDs.
Almost all of the remaining hourly employees -- many of whom are higher-paid technicians and support staff -- at the glass plant will be offered the opportunity to switch to manufacturing jobs at their current salary level for nine months, Mr. Koff said, and then will receive the highest salary in the manufacturing scale, which he declined to reveal.
Virtually all of the hourly workers at the Hempfield warehouse, which is scheduled to close in June, also will be offered jobs in East Huntingdon, Mr. Koff said.
The East Huntingdon plant makes 50- and 60-inch SXRD television screens, which sell for about $3,500 and $4,500, respectively. Mr. Koff said the company is planning to expand the product line for the fall.
Sony's SXRDs showed triple-digit growth in the last two quarters of 2005 and control more than half of the market for that type of television, said David Naranjo, vice president of consumer electronic market research at DisplaySearch, a market research company.
"They've done phenomenally well in terms of that technology and in terms of acceptance by consumers," he said.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Most of roughly 600 Sony Corp. workers in Westmoreland County who were expecting to lose jobs this spring may be keeping them instead, thanks to increasing demand for high-dollar, high-definition digital televisions made in East Huntingdon.
The Sony complex, which employs roughly 1,900 overall, is the only place in the company that makes the so-called silicon crystal reflective display TVs, called SXRDs for short, "and fortunately they've become very popular," said Michael Koff, Sony's senior manager for corporate communications.
In January, the company said it would be closing the 300-employee American Video Glass plant and a 45-employee warehouse and distribution center, both in Hempfield. That news came on top of last fall's announcement that Sony also was planning to close a 275-employee division of its adjacent TV manufacturing complex in East Huntingdon that makes older cathode ray televisions that are being discontinued.
The cathode ray division still will close today, Mr. Koff said, but virtually all of the hourly employees were offered the chance to continue on at the plant making the popular SXRDs.
About 200 employees accepted the offer, he said. At the American Video glass plant, which is scheduled to close in May, about 100 manufacturing workers also will be transferred to jobs making SXRDs.
Almost all of the remaining hourly employees -- many of whom are higher-paid technicians and support staff -- at the glass plant will be offered the opportunity to switch to manufacturing jobs at their current salary level for nine months, Mr. Koff said, and then will receive the highest salary in the manufacturing scale, which he declined to reveal.
Virtually all of the hourly workers at the Hempfield warehouse, which is scheduled to close in June, also will be offered jobs in East Huntingdon, Mr. Koff said.
The East Huntingdon plant makes 50- and 60-inch SXRD television screens, which sell for about $3,500 and $4,500, respectively. Mr. Koff said the company is planning to expand the product line for the fall.
Sony's SXRDs showed triple-digit growth in the last two quarters of 2005 and control more than half of the market for that type of television, said David Naranjo, vice president of consumer electronic market research at DisplaySearch, a market research company.
"They've done phenomenally well in terms of that technology and in terms of acceptance by consumers," he said.
