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Telecom Firm Dismisses 125

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Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
September
Year
1980
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Telecom firm dismisses 125

WEDNESDAY SEP 3 1980

A total of 125 employees of Northern Telecom Systems Corp.'s Ann Arbor facility have been fired, a corporation spokesman said today.

Several employees were notified of the layoffs Tuesday and the rest were to be given notice this morning, the spokesman said.

In conjunction with the layoffs, the facility’s prototype and pre-production center will be transferred to the laboratories of Bell Northern Research, Inc., in Ann Arbor, the spokesman said.

The plant, the former Sycor Corp., employs about 650 people in the manufacturing of computer terminals.

THE LAYOFFS are part of a corporation-wide staff reduction which will put about 400 of NTSC’s 5,300 employees worldwide out of work, the spokesman said. The layoffs will become effective over the next few months, he said.

The layoffs are expected to be permanent and are part of a plan to streamline marketing and consolidate production operations, the spokesman said.

The layoffs follow by less than a month a major restructuring of the American operations of the Canadian corporation Northern Telecom Ltd. Northern Telecom Ltd. purchased the operations of the former Sycor, Inc., located at 100 Phoenix Drive, in 1978.

Under the reorganization, the Ann Arbor facility — part of Minneapolis, Minn.-based NTSC -became part of Northern Telecom Industries, holding company for U.S. operations of the Canadian parent firm, Northern Telecom Ltd. The American operations will be headquartered in Nashville, Tenn.

As part of the restructuring, about 185 research and development employees in Ann Arbor were to be transferred to the Ann Arbor offices of Bell Northern Research, a company owned jointly by Northern Telecom Ltd. and Bell Canada.

Northern Telecom Ltd. is the second largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in North America.