Pittsfield company lays off more than 16 workers

PITTSFIELD – Norman Mitchell, who has worked for Edwards Systems Technology in Pittsfield for 30 years, knew what was coming Wednesday when a supervisor walked into his office.

Mitchell and more than 15 other top-ranking supervisors and office personnel were laid off permanently. This followed a seven-day, without-pay layoff of 60 full-time workers last week.

EST is Pittsfield’s largest employer, with 400 workers. The company manufacturers fire alarms and other warning systems.

Mitchell and his entire customer service team – three people with a combined 68 years of experience with EST – were part of a top level cut that was orchestrated last weekend at a meeting in Connecticut.

A company spokeswoman wouldn’t confirm the exact number of people laid off.

Although EST’s parent company, SPX of Muskegon, Mich., is blaming the shake-up on “properly sizing the business,” Mitchell said the layoffs are an indication of the shifting priorities at large corporations.

“Service and years of hard work just don’t cut it anymore,” said Mitchell. “The bottom line is the buck.”

Mitchell said to remove that many experienced employees from one plant will definitely have a negative effect on the facility.

Tom Parilli, EST’s plant manager, said Wednesday he could make no public comment regarding the layoffs. He referred all questions to SPX.

SPX spokeswoman Tina Betlejewski said the layoffs were “basically just a sizing issue.” She said company officials “see a softening in the economy and made these changes to maintain the status of the company.” She would not address the issue that many of those terminated were veteran employees.

“The 15 people most impacted were nonmanufacturing employees,” she said.

Mitchell said the layoffs “cut pretty deep. They are shaking the place up” by affecting office staff and supervisors, he said. “A few were cut in the shipping area,” he said. Mitchell said the layoffs were not unexpected.

“We knew what was coming when the year ended,” he said. “We were not at the economic place that SPX wanted us to be.”

He said what bothered him most was that there were other areas where SPX could have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, “and they chose to eliminate people.”

“I knew we were fair game,” said Mitchell. “Over the past years, the management at EST has changed. Our holding company has changed. It kind of goes with the territory. Does it hurt any less? No.”

Betlejewski said that all laid-off workers were offered a severance package and outplacement services. Workers will be meeting in Waterville today with a Portland-based placement firm. Betlejewski said similar cuts were made at EST’s other facilities. Four were laid off at Cheshire, Conn., 16 at Sarasota, Fla., and two from a field group.