(The Kansas City Star posted the following article by Diane Stafford on its website on May 7.)
KANSAS CITY — GE Transportation Systems Global Signaling is eliminating 100 jobs in the Kansas City area between now and June.
The company, which makes railroad signaling devices, also is outsourcing about 75 percent of its circuit board production that currently is done at its Grain Valley plant.
The business has area operations in Grain Valley, Warrensburg and Blue Springs.
Staff cutbacks, which will reduce employment from 775 to 675 workers, will be accomplished through a combination of permanent layoffs, early retirements and the elimination of unfilled positions, according to Jeff Caywood, communications leader for the company in Grain Valley.
“The industry is delaying major expenditures in response to the global economy,” Caywood said in explaining the cutbacks. “Today’s tough economic environment forces us to align staffing levels with current order rates.”
The company was known as Harmon Industries before it was acquired by GE in 2000 for $425 million. At the time of its acquisition, Harmon employed 1,070 workers. A year ago, the company had 875 area employees.
The local layoffs are part of the company’s worldwide staff reduction of 11 percent, announced Monday. Globally, the company will employ 1,300 people after this layoff round.
Because most of the global signaling business is concentrated in the Kansas City area, most of the impact of the job cuts is felt here, Caywood said.
The company did not make public the outside supplier that will make the circuit boards.
“The recent decline in the telecommunications industry has led to excess circuit board capacity,” Caywood said in a prepared statement. “With more than 100 global competitors, we can no longer remain competitive in the printed wire assemblies and circuit board manufacturing industries.”
Remaining production in the Grain Valley facility will be “specialized manufacturing of lower-volume parts” that go into the signaling devices, Caywood said.
The Warrensburg facility will continue to do the testing, final assembly and shipping of the company’s products. It no longer will manufacture circuit boards.
Employees let go are being offered severance pay based on years of service. The company declined to provide specific details about the length or amounts of severance pay.
Laid-off workers also are being provided with company-financed access to job transition counseling through DBM, a career consulting company, or the Missouri Division of Workforce Development.