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Sega faces unfair labor practice complaint for planned mass layoff of union members
Sega intends to lay off 40 percent of its unionized workers' bargaining unit, according to the charge.
WSJ: BlackBerry expected to cut up to 40 percent of its workforce by year's end
BlackBerry hasn't been hiding the fact that it's cutting back on its workforce, but a new report from The Wall Street Journal today suggests that another particularly big round of layoffs could be in store. Citing people familiar with the matter, the paper says that the company is preparing to cut up to 40 percent of its workforce by the end of the year, with the layoffs expected to "cut across all departments" and "occur in waves." As the WSJ notes, the most recent tally of employees the company has disclosed is 12,700, which is already down from 17,000 two years ago. This latest news also comes after an report earlier this month that at least some BlackBerry board members are pushing for a speedy sale of the company, which reportedly could happen as early as November. For its part, BlackBerry isn't commenting on the specific number of layoffs, telling the WSJ only that "organizational moves will continue to occur to ensure we have the right people in the right roles to drive new opportunities in mobile computing."
RIM reportedly firing up to 6,000 in $1 billion savings drive
The Waterloo Record is reporting that RIM is laying off a portion of its workforce as part of its cost-cutting review process. It's believed that between 2,000 and 6,000 employees could be let go as the troubled company attempts to save $1 billion by the end of the fiscal year. Company watcher Martin Chmiel took to Twitter to say that the manufacturing team had been hardest hit, with hundreds of people departing in the past 24 hours.
THQ and Kaos defend 6 month 'crunch' for Homefront
Accusations of an exhaustive "crunch" at Homefront developer Kaos have been met head-on by parent company THQ and the studio's general manager David Votypka. Develop is covering all sides of the issue, including Votypka's acknowledgement that the studio has been crunching for the last six months, with 10 hour days. He notes, "If this seems unique or abhorrent, I would have to suggest that any assessment regarding a 10 hour work day would need to consider a much larger segment of the American workforce." The anonymous employee also wrote up their own piece for Develop expressing fears about "THQ publicly [saying] things that glorify crunch time." The source feels that management shouldn't have put the team on a schedule that created this extended, "seven day a week crunch mode." "Crunch," loosely defined as the overtime-intensive period before a game ships, is an industry standard. The issue certainly gets sensitive whenever brought up, and it always seems like the specter of EA Spouse is watching the conversation.
AT&T's job cuts to be offset with hires in Mobility unit
As we mentioned earlier, AT&T has announced plans to cut 1.5 percent of its workforce of 309,000. Sad times ahead for the company? Not quite. Apparently the 4600 jobs will be harvested from managerial spots in its flagging wired home phone business, so no worries, wireless types. Now here's where it gets interesting: word has it that AT&T also expects to hire back that same number of employees into the fold -- the wireless fold, that is -- keeping the total headcount nice and steady. We'd wager that we'll see more cuts like this in the coming months and years, so if you were pondering that job as a switchboard operator, time to retrain. So yeah, turns out it's business as usual for the number one carrier after all -- unless you happen to be in the 4600-strong group of obsoleted folks, that is.[Via mocoNews]
Apple cuts 30% of sales force in Taiwan
It sounds like Apple's products aren't making as much of a splash in Taiwan as other parts of the world, as Apple has just cut 30% of its sales workforce there. The former managing director of Apple Taiwan, Kong Yuk-loong, called it quits at the end of June, with a slew of managers and executive following in his footsteps soon after. DigiTimes has more details on the report, including a citation of declining iPod sales being a factor in the cutback.Of course, Apple declined to comment on the story.[via MacMinute]
