Cartridges Are Us Cut 430 Jobs

Cartridges Are Us is not a company that many of you would have heard of, that is unless you happen to go through a lot of printer ink that is. Cartridges Are Us is a provider of generic ink cartridges for a wide range of devices. The company could once boast being the second largest employer in its home county. The company may lose that honor after the wave of layoffs that they are undertaking.

In the company’s Ithaca location there has been an announcement of a reduction of about fifteen percent of the over all staff. For those of you looking for an absolute number the company is going to be getting rid of about 430 workers on the whole. Though these layoffs are likely to come in stages, instead of all at once. The company already cut back on 64 workers late last week, so the rest need only wait and they will be out of a job. The company is blaming the loss of the jobs on a lack of a sufficient number of empty cartridges.

In addition to being a substantial portion of the companies work force this is also more than enough workers to qualify as a mass layoff action. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” Under the terms of a mass layoff workers are generally given more time to prepare for the loss of their job, and the community is given some to prepare for the loss of income to the area. In this case the loss of income will be great, unless a substantial amount of workers can find new positions before the layoffs go into effect. Give the current economy the chances of that seem low.

Interestingly enough the company was recently looking to expand its offerings by moving into a new and bigger facility. For those of you who do not remember that news here is a look at what a reporter for Media Web wrote about the new facility, “Ithaca-based Cartridges Are Us announced its decision today to expand its existing manufacturing operations in the South Ithaca Industrial Park / Renaissance Sub Zone in Ithaca, Gratiot County, Michigan through the purchase and rehabilitation of a nearby existing building, as well as the addition of new equipment and shifts at both facilities. Cartridges Are Us, a division of Illinois-based Clover Technologies Group, is a global remanufacturer of inkjet cartridges and has been in Ithaca since 2003. The company expects to create 75 direct jobs next year, and up to 186 within 5 years through its $1.6 million expansion project.” This event took place less than five years ago.