LONDON (AP) -- The British arm of U.S. electrical goods giant Black & Decker said Thursday it is cutting 950 jobs and transferring some operations to the Czech Republic in order to help the company compete with low-cost goods from the Far East. The job cuts represent about 61 percent of its United Kingdom staff.þþAbout 550 production and office jobs will be cut at the company's factory at Spennymoor in northeast England by the end of 2003, and contracts of 400 temporary workers employed to manufacture goods for seasonal demand will not be renewed, the company said.þþIt added that because of increasing numbers of low-cost imports from the Far East it was transferring assembly and packaging operations from Spennymoor to a new plant at Usti in the Czech Republic.þþThe product transfer will begin this month and is expected to be complete by the end of next year, the company said.þþBlack & Decker, whose international headquarters are in Towson, Md., said it hoped all job cuts would be voluntary, but any workers forced to depart would be offered help in finding other jobs.þþThe cuts will leave about 450 people at the Spennymoor plant, which makes a wide range of products from drills to grass cutters. It will now focus on the manufacture of motors and components, as well as the design and engineering of new products.þþThe company currently employs a total of 1,250 full time staff in the United Kingdom, plus 400 temporary contract workers. It employs 400 full time staff across Europe.þþ``Black & Decker is a global business, and as a world-class design and engineering center the Spennymoor plant will continue to play an important role in its future,'' said Barry Bloomer, manager of the Spennymoor plant.þþ``We will maintain our manufacture of motors and components for plants around the world and will remain the home of European purchasing, supply and reconditioning operations.''þþBlack & Decker's factory at Maltby in Yorkshire, northwest England, and its British headquarters in Slough, near London, will not be affected by the cuts.þþJohn Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, said the announcement was ``devastating'' for workers and for British manufacturing.þþ``Once again, we see a British company unable to compete with foreign competitors because they are effectively attempting to do so with one hand tied behind their backs,'' he said.þþ
Source: NY Times
