Dell to Shut North Carolina Plant, Cut 905 Jobs
Posted 10/09/09 at 11:50:57 AM by Paul Lilly
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Dell said on Wednesday that it plans to close its desktop computer manufacturing plant located in North Carolina by the end of January. The announcement comes just two days after the plant celebrated its fourth year in operation.
The shuttering will put 600 workers in the unemployment line next month, and about 905 employees will be cut by the time the plant closes in January 2010. Dell said it will provide affected employees competitive severance packages, including severance pay, incentive payments, benefits continuation, and outplacement services.
Severance packages come as little consolation to employees who may have been put on the chopping block as a result of a dispute over a $280 million incentive package to open the plant in North Carolina. In 2004, the state agreed to give Dell $280 million in tax breaks, build roads to the factory, and open Dell repair classes in local colleges. In exchange, Dell agreed to invest $100 million in the factory and create 1,500 jobs within five years. But the agreement prompted a lawsuit claiming that using tax revenue to fund grants for private companies goes against the state's constitution.
Dell made no mention of the lawsuit when announcing plans to shut the plant, and instead pointed fingers at the economy.
"This is a difficult decision, especially for our North Carolina colleagues, but a necessary one for our customers and our company," said Frank Miller VP of Dell's Public Business Unit Supply Chain.
desktop PC market is basically dying.
Submitted by teknohed on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 2:50pm
the other part of the problem is that desk top PCs have reached critical mass for most users.
My wife still uses the desktop we bought from deel four years ago. I updated some components to the point where the mother board was "maxed out" meaning it had hte best processor and ram that the morther board would support.
It's everything she needs for web browsing, watching videos, playing the games she plays (i.e. diablo 2, peggle, puzzle quest). Etc. She has absolutely no need to upgrade this machine. Maybe ever. The only reason I could see her wanting to upgrade is if she really needs a software application that for some reason was not compatible iwth her current hardare config.
I mean, yeah sure. Five years from now...that thing will be pretty slow, but whereas I couldn't imagine using hte same PC for five years in the 90s and early 00s, now I can say that for her it's all she needs.
I think the next big growth industry for tech will be laptops and smart phones.
I'm not suprised Dell is closing this plant. They should, I don't think they'll see sales growth like they did until the recession is over and businesses start upgrading their office machines.
It's the same with Micron. The advances in RAM basically killed them. the average user doesn't need more than 4GBs of RAM. there just isn't the turn around there used to be. I used to upgrade ram every six months and it was expensive. I haven't upgraded ram since I maxed out her machine and even then I bought 4GBs and it was about 50 bucks.
Do you.....
Submitted by XOPN on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 8:19pm
Do you "PC is dying" guys just troll around the net waiting for stories like this to come along? I SWEAR! I mean you're almost as bad as the FIRST assholes.
Submitted by XOPN on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 8:19pm
Do you "PC is dying" guys just troll around the net waiting for stories like this to come along? I SWEAR! I mean you're almost as bad as the FIRST assholes.
Submitted by MRrelabled on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 2:07pm
That's because Dell is run by a bunch of fools, In order to sell to the U.S. market the U.S. market needs employment. It's not that difficult to understand the more cuts a company makes the more than likely the less productive it's going to be and unless you're going to take over and ruin another company the less profit you're going to make.
Submitted by kemcho12345 on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 11:18am
Unfortunately, there is no minimum wage law in China (even if there is one, it is lot less compared to US). Why do you think PC's used to cost over $2K and now around $200? It is easy to say then actually spending over $2-3K for a PC...
Submitted by Muerte on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 10:58am
I bet there are 900 people there that disagree.
Submitted by damicatz on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 9:23am
I am a North Carolina taxpayer. Not only was this deal illegal and against the entire function of government but Dell didn't even honour their end of it.
Unfortanatly for Dell, I am not some simple "consumer" that maybe only orders a single new computer every few years. I happen to be in charge of purchasing for an IT department. We currently use Dell but if Dell doesn't repay back everything they stole, I'm more than happy to switch to HP.
I agree. -Santos
Submitted by DBsantos77 on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 9:08am
I agree.
-Santos
Submitted by Vegan on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 8:46am
Probably relocating it to China or something. Grr
I really wish we MADE STUFF in America. I would be happy to pay extra.
Submitted by arkweld on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 11:51am
There are lots of consumer goods made in the USA, a lot of which are expensive and hand assembled.
So how much would you pay extra? Would you for example pay $1500 for an office chair over your $80 Staples special from China?
That makes one of you.
Submitted by Tekzel on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 11:31am
That makes one of you. Unfortunately, that isn't enough to move the manufacturing jobs here. No one here is willing to work for the slave wages it would require for us to be competitive.
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