XPost: alt.society.labor-unions, oh.chem, japan.town.yokohama   
   XPost: blgtn.education   
   From: mbroussard@yourname.here   
      
   The brainless Obama administration will call this a victory and   
   progress.   
      
   The world’s leading maker of computer chips is closing its only   
   factory in Massachusetts, eliminating up to 700 high-paying   
   manufacturing jobs in one of the largest job cuts to hit the   
   state in recent years.   
      
   Intel Corp. said on Thursday that its plant in Hudson is using   
   outdated technology to make older generations of computer chips   
   used in low-end applications, which do not generate as much   
   profit as its higher-end microprocessors that are used in PCs.   
      
   “The facility and the site do not meet the requirements that we   
   need,” said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.   
      
   The Hudson closing is a blow to manufacturing in the state,   
   which has undergone decades of downsizing to re-emerge as a   
   smaller but still highly competitive industry.   
      
   High-tech manufacturing accounts for nearly one in every three   
   factory jobs in Massachusetts, and many of those pay high wages   
   — $80,000 a year or more, according to a recent Northeastern   
   University report on the sector. And the Intel jobs would be at   
   the higher end of the industry scale.   
      
   “In terms of these people and their families, and the town of   
   Hudson, this is a major blow,” said the author of the   
   Northeastern report, economist Barry Bluestone, who noted that   
   overall job growth in Massachusetts has slowed in recent months.   
   “These workers who lose their jobs will not have an easy time   
   finding a job somewhere else.”   
      
   The plant closure also represents a setback to Governor Deval   
   Patrick’s major effort to build up manufacturing in   
   Massachusetts by supporting companies that produce sophisticated   
   products that are less prone to competition from low-cost   
   operators overseas. Until recently, manufacturing employment had   
   been stable in Massachusetts, with pockets of employers adding   
   jobs and some companies even complaining they were having   
   trouble finding qualified applicants to replace retiring workers.   
      
   The Patrick administration Thursday pledged to help any laid-off   
   Intel workers find jobs.   
      
   “While we are obviously disappointed by today’s news, we know   
   that our manufacturing industry is on the rise in Massachusetts   
   and will continue to play a significant role in the success of   
   our economy,” said Gregory Bialecki, the state’s economic   
   development chief.   
      
   Bluestone agreed that even though the 700 jobs are a big loss,   
   the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts is not facing   
   another period of contraction.   
      
   “Just because Intel is closing a shop doesn’t mean that we’re   
   turning into Detroit here,” said Bluestone.   
      
   Intel said it plans to close the Hudson facility by the end of   
   2014 but hopes to soften the blow by trying to find another   
   technology company that would buy the plant and continue making   
   chips there.   
      
   The company also operates a research and development facility in   
   Hudson employing additional 850 workers. It will not be affected   
   by the job cuts.   
      
   Home of former governor A. Paul Cellucci, Hudson is a former   
   mill town that in the 19th century attracted waves of immigrants   
   to work in its many shoe factories. In more recent years, it   
   prospered as the early computer industry grew up in suburban   
   Massachusetts around the old Digital Equipment Corp., based in   
   nearby Maynard.   
      
   The Intel plant was built in 1994 by Digital in its waning days   
   for $425 million to produce its highly touted Alpha chip, one of   
   the now-defunct company’s last-gasp efforts to keep up with a   
   rapidly changing computer industry. Though more powerful than   
   the best Intel processors of the era, Alpha failed to win   
   converts among computer makers because it was incompatible with   
   many common software programs.   
      
   The failure of the Alpha led to Digital’s exit from the   
   chipmaking business, and Digital sold the Hudson plant and   
   related properties to Intel in 1997 for $700 million. Digital   
   itself was acquired by Compaq a year later, ending a 40-year run   
   as one of the most storied names in the computer industry.   
      
   And now the Hudson’s factory run itself appears to be over.   
   Known in the computer world as a “fab,” short for fabrication,   
   the Hudson factory uses chip-making technology that’s more than   
   a decade old, putting it four generations behind the equipment   
   used in Intel’s more advanced factories. As a result, chips from   
   the Hudson plant are used in automotive entertainment systems,   
   factory automation equipment, and other relatively low-end   
   applications.   
      
   The Hudson plant does not produce Intel’s better-known and more   
   lucrative microprocessors, such as the Core, Xeon, and Atom   
   chips.   
      
   Mulloy, the Intel spokesman, said that bringing the Hudson plant   
   up to date would require building a facility twice its size and   
   that the lack of available land made this impossible.   
      
   “It’s not any reflection on the workforce there. It’s not any   
   reflection on the state of Massachusetts,” he said.   
      
   Nathan Brookwood, a chip industry analyst for research firm   
   Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif., said that among Intel chip   
   factories, “the Hudson facility was always the odd man out.”   
      
   Intel designs its chip plants from the ground up to be identical   
   to one another, so that each can produce any chip in the   
   company’s inventory he said; by contrast, it acquired the Hudson   
   plant after it was built and it has never fully complied with   
   Intel’s standards. Brookwood added that Intel normally builds   
   new plants alongside its obsolete facilities but that the lack   
   of open land made it more logical to simply close the Hudson fab.   
      
   Municipal officials in Hudson were hopeful that Intel would make   
   good on its promise to find a buyer who would keep it open as a   
   factory, even if it is full of obsolete equipment.   
      
   “They have some of the best real estate people, and they’re   
   going to try to market the portion of the facility that’s   
   shutting down to get the best value that they can,” said   
   Christopher Sandini, the interim executive assistant for Hudson.   
      
   Intel said its current plan involves laying off about 100   
   workers over the next three to four months, with the remainder   
   of the workforce staying on until the plant is closed. These   
   workers will be offered a severance package and given two months   
   to find other jobs at Intel.   
      
   Mulloy said the plant will run near full capacity until it is   
   closed, in order to fill existing orders and to build   
   inventories of obsolete chips that will no longer be made once   
   the Hudson plant is shut down.   
      
   http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/12/intel-close-hudson-   
   plant-lay-off/wBpsOao3dJp6wbHxgcTmiO/story.html   
      
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)