Praxair plans to cut 60 positions at Tonawanda site
Just two weeks after posting record quarterly earnings, Praxair is cutting 60 jobs at its research and development center in the Town of Tonawanda as it prepares for leaner times.
The cuts represent 5.4 percent of the company’s workforce of 1,100 at the Praxair Technology Center, which houses the company’s research and development, engineering, information technology and other functions.
Spokesman Nigel Muir blamed the “current economic downturn in the U. S. and globally,” which prompted the world’s largest industrial gases company to make “some fairly significant cuts in its planned spending” for the fourth quarter and 2009. Officials are still working on the final numbers, which are confidential, he said.
As a result, he said, the company is reducing staff across all functions to keep costs in line with its slimmer operations “as we go into next year.”
Muir said the affected researchers, engineers and technology workers will remain on the payroll through the end of the month, and will get severance pay and outplacement assistance.
The company already tried to place workers in other jobs requiring their expertise, but they can still apply for any other jobs available as well, Muir added. Besides the Tonawanda facility, Praxair also has a gas-producing plant in Niagara Falls.
Muir said there will also be job losses in other parts of the company globally, including larger concentrations at some sites, but they are still being finalized. He said he did not have a total figure available.
On Oct. 29, Praxair reported record third-quarter profits of $355 million, or $1.11 per share, up 16 percent from $305 million, or 94 cents per share, a year ago. Sales rose 20 percent to $2.85 billion, with growth in every geographic region led by South America and Asia. Operating profit rose 18 percent to $544 million.
Founded more than a century ago, Praxair is a Fortune 500 company that produces and supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gases and related services. The Danbury, Conn.-based company employs 28,000 globally, with operations in 40 countries.
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