Micron to lay off up to 2,000 in Boise

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: KTVB Idaho

BOISE - Micron Technology is shutting down its 200 millimeter fabrication plant in Boise – and as many as 2,000 people will lose their jobs in Boise.

The company says the poor economy and decreased demand for the so-called “specialty DRAM” products led to the decision. Five-hundred people will lose their jobs in the near-term, with another 1,500 being laid off by the end of its fiscal year in August.

“We remained hopeful that the demand for these products would stabilize in the marketplace and start to improve as we moved into the spring. Unfortunately, a better environment has not materialized, and we are at a point where we wanted to let our employees and the community know in advance what will occur later this summer,” Micron CEO Steve Appleton said in a prepared statement.

Micron will continue to operate its other Boise-based operations, including research and development, and other operations. The latest cuts are not related to a workforce reduction announced last year where more than 1,000 employees were laid off in the Treasure Valley - and more in operations around the world.

Read more: http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-feb2309-micron.45a480bf.html

[thunder rising]

1. 2000 more jobs headed off shore.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. No.

Plant closing due to lack of demand. Opening another plant elsewhere for a product nobody wants would be foolish.

[thunder rising]

12. scuse me ... a plant can't be retooled? .. no these jobs will reappear on another shore

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. No, a chip fab can't be easily retooled.

And the cost of reestablishing the plant somewhere else would be prohibitive. This is one of those cases where the physical capital in the plant is worth enough that outsourcing doesn't make any sense.

[Tesha]

16. In Micron's business, a 200 mm fab is obsolete; 300 mm is where the business has gone.

And as you observe, there's a *BIG* difference between the older styles of fabs
and a 300 mm, highly-automated fab.

Tesha

[CatholicEdHead]

2. Ouch, MPC down the tubes and some more American computer jobs

Lenovo mentioned recently about opening a new plant in Mexico and move the old IBM plants from North Carolina.

[DallasNE]

3. Technology Is One Of Hardest Hit Areas

In this steep recession. For the most part that is not due to consumer demand falling off. Yes, consumer demand has fallen off but this is mostly corporations that see technology as one of the easy places to cut. A smart company would look at gaining a competitive advantage over those companies that will fall behind attempting to get by on old products. Today my company announced that they were suspending for 1 year their management trainee and like operations. No MBA's for them this year. This is the first time since their inception in 1961 that they have suspended this program. When you see this kind of news you know that the economists are still wrong on GDP forecasts that foresee actual growth in the 3rd quarter of 2009. The first quarter decline will be steeper than the 5% drop they are now forecasting -- more like 6.6%.

[DissedByBush]

4. I only know the tech aspect to this

200mm plants are not cost-efficient anymore. You can't compete if you're not doing 300mm because RAM is too cheap to make any profit at 200mm unless you're in China using slave labor. It costs almost as much to build a new 300mm plant as it does to transition to it from 200mm. So not wanting to invest the billions to build a new 300mm plant, last year Micron found a way to get 300mm on the cheap by investing $400 million in a joint venture in Taiwan.

[happygoluckytoyou]

5. IDAHO.... ahhh yes.... big BUSH supporters up there.... w00h00!!!

[Political Heretic]

8. Go fuck yourself.

Love,
Hard fighting hard working liberal Idahoans.

[IDemo]

9. Thanks from a fellow liberal Idahoan

:thumbsup:

[Political Heretic]

11. You're welcome. That was an unbelievably insensitive comment to some of us with jobs on the block

I'm glad the mods haven't deleted my, in my opinion, fair response.

[xchrom]

7. recommend

[IDemo]

10. I interviewed at Micron Friday morning

After being laid off from HP last month, it has been the only tech interview I have been able to get.
The recruiter told me he had received hundreds of resumes for one position. Note - this was not for a
fab related job.

[Rob H.]

14. "...we wanted to let our employees and the community know in advance..."

That's a damned sight better than they did six years ago when I worked there and they had layoffs. We didn't find out until the day before that they were happening and even then no one would've known had The Idaho Statesman (the company for which I worked before I went to Micron) not published a scoop. My dad got laid off in February, 2003, but I didn't; I left on my own at the end of July.

Edited for punctuation.

[hamerfan]

15. They make the best RAM chips out there!

I have 4GB of their Crucial RAM in my Apple iMac right now. Best. RAM. Chips. Out. There.
Sorry to hear this and my heartfelt condolences to anyone directly affected by this.
Been there, just now getting back on my feet.....
hamerfan