John Hamman (pictured) joined fellow workers at a job fair Friday at the Sony Technology Center-Pittsburgh plant in East Huntingdon — the sprawling US television assembly plant that will close in April 2010. Hamman, 51, an electronic technician who has worked at Sony for 14 years, said there are jobs available for workers with his skills. He has the advantage of time over some Sony workers because he anticipates his job will not be eliminated until this fall.
“The thing is, how much of a pay cut (can you take). You don’t want to start out at the bottom again,” said Hamman, who wants to work at Sony as long as he can to earn severance pay.
Hamman and more than 200 Sony workers gathered yesterday to gather information about jobs and opportunities for additional education. The event featured about 40 employers with jobs in professional and manufacturing sectors, and several schools and training institutes. The job fair gave Sony workers a chance to line up another career before their current one is finished. About 105 employees with television assembly duties will be laid off in a first round of cuts in March. Another 35 are scheduled for layoff in June. About 90 were able to be transferred to other jobs refurbishing television sets, said Sony spokesman Michael Koff.
The plant closing is part of a global downsizing by Sony Corp., which will cut its work force by about 8,000. Closing the Sony Technology Center in Westmoreland County will eliminate about 560 jobs. Read more of this article at pittsburghlive.com.
