Kodak Cuts 91 More Jobs

Kodak may be out to give its customers picture perfect images of the happiest moments of their life, but they are clearly not looking to do the same with their workers. The company is getting ready to let go of staffers, yet again, in a bid to make their company more profitable.

This time the folks over at Eastman Kodak Co. have announced plans to get rid of about 91 workers by the summer. The layoffs, which are expected to go into effect at some point during the month of June, will impact primarily workers at the company’s facility in Rochester, New York. Rochester houses the Eastman Business Park.

The June layoffs will go into effect in stages. Twenty-six of the workers will get cut free on the 17^th of the month and the rest, 65 jobs, will be let go three days later on the 20^th. No reason was stated for the three day staggering of the layoffs.

The layoff plans came to light when the company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act  with the  state of New York, an action they had to take because these layoffs will be large enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the guidelines of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Of course, this is not the first time that Kodak has cut back on jobs. Some of you may recall our earlier coverage about job cuts at Kodak. Oddly enough at that time, in early March, they were also laying off 91 workers, though from different facilities. For those of you missed out here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all:

“It looks like more job losses are coming to the workers of The Eastman Kodak company, and this time almost 100 workers are being given the boot as the company stops making a line of products. The products in question are digital cameras for computers, the kind that you might find in you local department store or discount retailer. The layoffs, which will happen primarily in the state of New York, will impact 91 of the workers from a variety of facilities. The bulk of the job losses will come from the Manitou Road facility, with eight cuts from the Eastman Park facility, 11 at the Kodak office on State Street and only two from the Kodak Research Labs on Lake Avenue.”

Before that the layoffs were coming to Ohio, here is an excerpt:

“Eastman Kodak Co. has informed the Ohio government that it will lay off 66 employees by April 19.

A letter dated Monday and carrying the information was sent to Ohio’s Department of Job & Family Services. The letter indicated that the layoffs would be permanent and would be followed with more layoffs later.

The letter, issued by Marva Cosby, the human resources director of the digital printing solutions division of Kodak mentioned, “Over the next few weeks, smaller layoffs are expected from other departments in Dayton, and we will keep you (the government) updated as they occur.”

The immediate layoffs include three engineering designers, four mechanical engineers and five manufacturing technicians among others.

In January, Kodak, which is one of the most respected American brands, initiated the process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to save itself from creditors. Earlier this month, a Kodak spokesperson told Dayton Daily News that at least 80 out of its 500 employees in Kettering were going to lose jobs. That amounts to about 16% of Kodak’s workforce in Dayton, and the first wave of job cuts following the company filing for bankruptcy protection.”

So, who knows what the fate of the Eastman Kodak company will be when all is said and done. These layoffs will most likely not be the last round of job cuts for this company. After all is said and done there may be many more job cuts, and several analysts are predicting cuts may get worse.