Two large American-held companies, Solectron Timisoara and Astra Trinity Arad, are preparing to make massive reductions in personnel. The reductions will entail the laying off of 1,400 employees due to a lack of orders.
“In the coming period, there will be new restructuring steps for Solectron. By March 28 almost 700 employees, largely assembly line workers, had been notified that they were going to lose their jobs,” Solectron Romania general manager Gianluca Testa told ZF Transilvania.
According to Testa, this is a natural process and the plant in Timisoara would not be closed down.
“This is an unpleasant, but necessary step. The period is not good for anybody. The market is oscillating at the moment. There are no five-year plans with ironclad contracts. The market is rising and falling, there’s no complete stability – this is capitalism and globalisation,” the general manager said.
He added that those laid off now will be the first to be rehired when the firm receives new orders thanks to their being already professionally trained and familiar with the company structure.
Sources close to Solectron explained that the Timisoara company had taken similar steps before.
“Last year, during a similar period, the firm also laid off 600 employees, but some months later hired 3,000 people to meet an order”. The US company Solectron is one of the top suppliers of services to the world’s producers of electronic equipment.
The trade union leader of Astra Trinity maintains that over 600 of its employees are also likely to be laid off in the coming months.