SWOPblogger

One if Intel’s great secrets – besides hiding behind a clean industry myth – has been their ability to pit communities against each other to lower their labor costs and maximize the “incentives” they receive from local, state, federal and other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies.

In the 1990's Intel received what was then the largest tax giveaway in the history of the United States from Sandoval County, New Mexico, according to the New York Times. Since then Intel has gone on to receive sweetheart deals wherever they set up shop. The amount in tax breaks across the country, and world for that matter, must be staggering. Billions in New Mexico alone.

The one thing they promised other than that they’d “eat their children” in their quest for a smaller, faster microchip: Jobs.

That’s right, subsidized jobs.

Brought to you by the good citizens of Arizona, Oregon, California and New Mexico. And worked by dedicated and loyal employees.

Now with AMD on their heels, Intel is looking to layoff a healthy part of their workforce – and no locality is safe. There are estimates in the tens of thousands. Anything short will hurt stock value at this point.

USA Today has even begun to speculate. (Read the comments!)

Fred Marsh sent us following email last month:

Yesterday's Oregonian:

"Intel says it's not done reorganizing, and nearly all industry watchers agree more job cuts are on the way. Estimates run as high as 15,000, but others expect the number to be much smaller.

"Although Intel wouldn't provide the job titles of any workers being laid off, there are apparently no top-level executives among them. That frustrated laid-off workers I spoke with on Friday. They complained that the people whose leadership put Intel in a tough spot dodged the ax, which fell instead on the rank and file."

“I think many former Enron employees would recognize the way top managers are protected, no matter how much damage they do,” wrote Marsh.

So there you have it, folks.

I suppose many would say that nothing’s guaranteed in the business world, particularly one as cut throat as Intel’s. But it just isn’t true. The tax cuts they’ve received from governments all over the country have been, up to this point, guaranteed.

So what’s Intel top management's message to their employees, stockholders and to the taxpayers of the states they do business in?

‘Let them all eat chips. Micro-chips.’

# posted by karlos @ 11:06 PM