At the beginning of November, Hewlett-Packard reported they had donated $1 million to charity, for the fiscal year which ended October 31.
Now, according to a Boise TV station, HP employees called and reported a major layoff at the HP Boise operation was in the works.
KBOI says they contacted HP officials. The officials stated they are still working on the details of a forthcoming press release, which will explain the layoffs.
In the name of efficiency, and international competition, J.R. Simplot is building a new potato processing plant. It will use only 250 employees. The problem is that the new highly efficient Simplot potato factory will replace three existing plants (in Nampa, Caldwell & Aberdeen), resulting in 800 Idahoans losing their jobs. That’s a net loss of 550 jobs.
East Idaho doesn’t have a big population so the job loses will hit hard: “It’s going to have a negative impact on Nampa and Caldwell and the whole country. We’re encouraged that they will remain in Caldwell, but certainly concerned about the overall impact of job loss.”-Steve Fultz, Caldwell Economic Development Council
J.R. Simplot officials say it’s necessary to build such an efficient factory, because global competition in the food market is getting tougher. In fact potato prices for this years potato season have fallen to the point that Idaho farmers will be lucky to break even.
At least Simplot employees have been given a decent heads up; it’ll be at least two years before the new super efficient potato processing plant will be completed.
J.R. Simplot has been streamlining operations in Idaho since the 1990s. Simplot’s corporate headquarters used to be in Chubbuck, Idaho. But they closed it down and moved to Boise right after I moved to Chubbuck.
Their Chubbuck HQ was replaced with the TJ Maxx/IHOP strip mall.
Former location of J.R. Simplot Corporate HQ, Chubbuck, Idaho
The metal awnings/canopies covering the Simplot HQ entryway can now be seen in front of the Pocatello City Hall.
Ex Simplot Chubbuck HQ canopies adding charecter to the otherwise drab Pocatello City Hall
The computer chip maker Micron Technology is in big trouble, and since 2009 isn’t even the second biggest employer in Boise, Idaho. Yet, Idaho real estate agent web sites, which encourage out’a staters to move to Idaho, continue to list Micron as the top employer. Other web sites, and blogs, list the number of Boise Micron employees at 15,000! Even a check of Wikipedia’s section on Boise still claims that Micron is the top employer.
Micron hasn’t been the top employer ever since 2009, after lay offs cut their Boise work force down to about 5,000. And that’s according to a September 2011 Idaho Statesman report. Also, the Idaho Statesman says Micron’s peak Boise employment of about 15,000 happened a decade ago!
To make matters worse, Micron is losing money. They lost $135 million in the third quarter of this year. On top of that they’re about to get hit with a court judgment for price fixing. That judgement could be as high as $11.9 billion.
Micron recently told investors that such a fine would further degrade future operations, and, they admitted they don’t even have any money to pay such a fine!
So why are Idaho real estate companies, web media sites, bloggers, and even Wikipedia still promoting Micron as the top employer in Boise? Conspiracy, or incompetence?