"The electronics side of our business is alive and
well," Endicott Interconnect President and Chief Executive James J.
McNamara Jr. said Tuesday to about 165 Rotarians who attended this
year's Rotary International Inter City meeting at the Best Western
Binghamton Regency Hotel & Conference Center. McNamara was guest
speaker at the event.
McNamara counted among the company's accomplishments:
* Reducing waste by 20 percent in the past year through advan-ced
technical capabilities.
* Seventy-seven patent disclosures last year.
* Increasing its customer base and diversifying its business.
Since its incorporation in November 2002, the company has
increased its customer base from one client, IBM, to more than a
dozen as it continues to diversify its business base by targeting
the defense, automotive and medical-devices industries, among
others.
A product it is offering the homeland security market is an
explosives-detection machine called SureScan, a device the company
has teamed with Falls Church, Va.-based Ensco to create. The
Transportation Security Administration still must certify the device
before U.S. airports can use the product to screen baggage.
The SureScan project could create 700 jobs at the Endicott
facility over the next five years, company officials have said.
"The 700 jobs that were promised as additional jobs as part of
the SureScan project are going to be replacement jobs at lower pay,"
said Rick White, an organizer at Alliance@IBM in Endicott who
participated in the demonstration against Endicott Interconnect
management.
White and about 30 other demonstrators were at the corner of
McKinley Avenue and North Street in Endicott several hours after the
Rotary event. They were protesting the recent firings at Endicott
Interconnect and showing support for the affected employees and the
approximately 1,800 others still employed by the company.
"We want to send the message to the owners and the general
management of EI that we in the community are watching them and that
the firings and harassment of EI workers will not be tolerated,"
Alliance@IBM spokesman Lee Conrad said.
He said many of the affected workers are more than 40 years old
and had 20 or more years of experience at IBM before they were
transferred to Endicott Interconnect when IBM sold part of its
business to local investors in November 2002.
"We hear that these firings are going to continue throughout the
rest of the year," Conrad said. "They want to get rid of the
ex-IBMers, who, in EI management's opinion, make too much money, and
replace them with new hires off the street."
Conrad said the company is getting rid of the skill and expertise
it needs to help build the company.
But McNamara said Endicott Interconnect has the best interest of
the company, the employees and the community in mind as the company
addresses its future needs.
"We're going to do what's best for our company and our people,"
he said.
He challenged area Rotarians during the Rotary meeting to help
dispel negative attitudes that exist about the community.
"We've got to make our young people believe there's a future here
in Broome County," he said.
McNamara declined comment on the recent firings.
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