Corning has reportedly laid off 21 local workers at its optics manufacturing plant in Keene, New Hampshire, US. Approximately half of the people affected were hourly workers and half were salaried workers, and most were involved in production at the plant.
Corning Inc., the glass and fabricated materials company that operates an optics manufacturing plant in Keene, has reportedly laid off 21 local workers. The layoffs were announced at the plant in mid-January, Joe Dunning, a spokesman for Corning said.
Approximately half of the people affected were hourly workers and half were salaried workers, and most were involved in production at the plant, he added.
They were a result of “the cyclical nature of the industries the business serves,” Dunning said. “At any given time we’re hiring in one area and maybe having to reduce in another based on the markets where we do our business,” he added.
Employment numbers at Corning’s plants depend on demand and the strength of the market for the company’s optic and imaging equipment, Dunning said.
“The workers were offered compensation packages, and an outside agency is offering displaced workers job placement assistance,” Dunning said.
“The plant is carrying on with its business operations.”
Dunning said the last time the Keene plant experienced a major workforce reduction was approximately two years ago.
Corning Inc., based in Corning, N.Y., manufactures glass, ceramics and other materials for industrial and scientific uses. It also builds components for display and environmental technologies, such as glass parts for LCD flat-screen televisions and computer monitors, telecommunications systems, life sciences products and specialty materials.
It has two other US plants in Canton and Fairpoint, N.Y., and six locations in Germany, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.