Texas Instruments to cut jobs

The Tucson jobs are on the company's manufacturing side and pay between $10 and $37 per hour, company officials said.

Employees will begin losing their jobs in June 2008, and positions will be cut in phases. Most employees will continue working until the second half of 2009, the company said.

The layoffs will halve the local Texas Instruments' workforce from the current 600, leaving it by 2009 with about 300 employees, primarily in product design.

The Tucson plant specializes in designing and manufacturing high-performance analog semiconductor chips, which are used in a variety of products, including broadband Internet applications, digital cameras, automobiles and other consumer products.

David M. Jones, a manager at the company's Tucson plant at 6730 S. Tucson Blvd., said employees in general reacted well to the announcement, since the jobs will be phased out gradually. However, he said there were several questions during employee meetings Monday.

Jones said Tucson will continue to be a vital site for the company, which has significant ties to the University of Arizona.

"It is not truly a surprise to me," Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup said Monday afternoon. "This is exactly what they told me they would be doing many years ago when I first met with the chairman of their board."

But Lamont Martin, another manager, said, "The news was a shock and surprising." Still, he said, the company was "fair and upfront with its employees" about the changes. He heard about it in a face-to-face meeting with employees, he said.

Texas Instruments came onto the Tucson scene in August 2000 when it bought Burr-Brown Corp. for an estimated $7.6 billion. Burr-Brown employed about 1,200 in Tucson at the time of the acquisition.

At that time, Walkup said, he spoke to Texas Instruments about moving all of its manufacturing to Tucson. He said the chairman of the board made it clear then that such a move would not happen.

"He told me they would probably move all their manufacturing to Texas, but assured me that research and development and the analog devices would always be in Tucson," Walkup said.

"I've kind of been expecting this for six or seven years" the mayor said. "They are not moving out of Tucson because of a negative environmental or workforce issue. It is a strategic business decision."

The company will be consolidating its manufacturing operations in Sherman, Texas, where it will add 200 positions. Employees who are laid off in Tucson will not be transferred to Sherman, though they may apply for the new positions in Texas, company spokeswoman Gail Chandler said.

"Tucson is going to remain an important long-term product design center," Chandler said.

A company press release says the consolidation will make more efficient use of the company's manufacturing capacity.

"TI is working to make this transition as smooth as possible for employees and their families," the release said.

All affected employees will be eligible for a severance package with pay, extended insurance benefits and job-search assistance if they don't accept another TI position and stay until their release date, Chandler said.

Walkup said he's hopeful the company will expand its product design division in Tucson. In the meantime, he doesn't think that in the current economy the laid-off workers will have much trouble finding other jobs.

Pima County's jobless rate hit a record low of 3.2 percent last month, down from 3.9 the same month a year ago.

"They are not moving out of Tucson because of a negative environmental or workforce issue. It is a strategic business decision."

— Mayor Bob Walkup