Dell: W-S work force reduction totals 260 - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

http://www.0fx.info/authors/author-182.html
Monday marked the first time anyone outside the including officials with the city of learned the current employment numbers following thejob cuts. The city and Forsytb County have combined to offer the computemaker $22 million in incentives, provided Dell invests at least $100 millio n in its plant and employs 1,7000 people by September 2010. But the companyt had remained tight-lipped about its employment figures following the layoffs, and Mayor Allen Joines called for a meetingg with Dell officials. Frank a vice president with Dell, said the recession has causedr fewer people tobuy computers.
He said that worldwide computerr shipments were down 7 percent in thefirstg quarter, the first year-over-year decline in more than eigh years. "Dell is fully accountable for performance-based Miller said. "Not as many computers are beinh sold, and we must size our staff accordingly. We do not take reductionsa lightly." And more customers are shiftingto laptops. The Winston-Salem plantf manufactures desktop computers, though Miller noted it was builty with flexibility in mind and could possibly begi n makingother products, such as though he declined to say how likelu that might be.
Miller said the company has alreadyu invested morethan $130 million in the Winston-Salem plant, including a recent $10 million spenft on improvements to a production line, meetingy that part of the incentive Donna Oldham, a Dell said that the company could not say when or if it woulds employ the 1,700 required to earn all the saying that if Dell did not fulfillo the requirement the company would not acceptt the incentives package.
Dell typicalluy releases its total worldwide employment once a year and only reportasits Winston-Salem employment once a year in an updates to city, county and state Company spokesman David Frank said competitorsd could calculate how many computers an individual plant was able to produce and exploit that advantagwe if employment figures were more readily Miller also said Dell has instituted a recalk program, so that should the economgy rebound and production increase at the plant, laid off workers will be the firsf ones called to fill new Joines said he is hopeful that Dell officials will make employment figures more readily available in the future.