3M cutting 1,800 jobs around world in 4th quarter

The most important yet unsurprising – albeit shocking – news that was confirmed in the state of Minneapolis last week was the fact that the ever successful paper product company called 3M Co. has decided to put one thousand and eight hundred human jobs on the chopping block some time during the fourth quarter of this recession-plagued year. Aside from this, they have also urged and coerced most of the workers that were left to work in the company to make full use of their vacation time and also forget being paid for time off this coming last two weeks of the year. Many people were bracing themselves for such a move, and now that it has finally come more talk has been going on in an attempt to discuss the matter more thoroughly.

Forced Action to Survive the Recession Blues

Unsurprisingly, this was the announcement that was made by Jackie Berry, the spokeswoman for the company 3M Co. This is what she had mentioned to the newspaper Star Tribune when they pressed for news to be published last Friday. As mentioned, the company was forced to do this in order to deal with the worsening economy and that the current fiscal situation had propelled them to make the cuts. Spokeswoman Jackie Berry also mentioned in her statement that even she does not have a clue as to how much amount the company would be able to save from this job cutting action. To further highlight this issue, it is also postponing their merit pays for the following year.

Early Announcement of the Severance Chopping Block Last September

3M Co, as based in the Maplewood area of Minneapolis, also announced a one thousand job cut prior to the latest figure sometime during the third quarter of the year. The third quarter had ended last September 30, 2008. Following that, the one thousand and eight hundred new layoffs must then come from the United States, the western European nations and other such areas that have the company’s manufacturing plants. However, Spokeswoman Berry also did not reveal the specific areas of the company where the job cuts will be made.

Instead, the revealed that a couple hundred of those job cuts will be made in the different areas of the United States. Berry and the other spokespeople of 3M Co also were not able to return most of the phone messages that were sent to them by the press. With these job cuts, the company 3M will be able to urge their hundreds upon hundreds of workers left to forcibly take vacation leaves around a week or two this entire month of December just so they can make it through the year, according to the reports made by the newspaper.