GT Advanced Technologies to axe 727 jobs at Arizona plant
Just a few days after indicating its intention to wind down operations, GT Advanced Technologies on Thursday said it plans to eliminate 727 jobs from its sapphire manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona beginning next week.
AZCentral reports:
GT plans to permanently eliminate 727 jobs at the Mesa plant, according to a public notification sent to Mesa City Council members as required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
That includes 524 production workers, 108 technical positions, 70 management jobs and 25 administrative jobs, according to the notice signed by Linda Luman, vice president of human resources for GT.
When GT Advanced first filed for bankruptcy on October 6, Apple issued a statement conveying that it was surprised by the move and that it would remain focused on preserving jobs at the plant. Looking ahead, and barring some unforeseen event like a corporate buyout, it appears that Apple's partnership with GT Advanced is forever severed as GT Advanced continues to circle the drain.
And with GT Advanced's fall from grace, so too goes any hope that future iPhone models might feature sapphire coated displays. While other companies are more than capable of manufacturing sapphire, GT Advanced was unique insofar as it had developed advanced techniques for creating large panes of thin sapphire that could be used on smartphones. At the same time, it's believed that the sapphire manufactured by GT Advanced failed to meet Apple's technical requirements.
