Tyco safety division sees more layoffs

January 22 , 2004 WESTMINSTER, Mass. - Manufacturing and administrative personnel at a Tyco Fire & Security location here will be cut by about 75 jobs by Friday, reductions that stem from a corporate edict issued last fall to slash more than 5,000 jobs. Announced late last week, the job cuts here will only affect less than about eight percent of the 986 employees working at the Tyco Safety Products plant here, a manufacturing arm of Tyco Fire & Security, according to Chris Woodcock, director, marketing communications for SimplexGrinnell. That company, which is also housed in the Westminster facility, will not lose any of its 400 workers in this round of cuts, Woodcock said. Instead, most of the cuts will be felt in the administrative, manufacturing and distribution areas of Tyco Safety Products, he said. As part of a massive cost-cutting effort, Tyco corporate officials said in November that the company would slash 7,200 jobs company-wide and close 219 facilities worldwide. Of those, 184 facilities - 15 of them manufacturing plants - would be in the Fire & Security division. Despite those forecasts, company officials said that the Westminster facility, which serves as a manufacturing, research and distribution center, is an important part of the Fire & Security fold. "While Tyco will not speculate about the future of any of its specific facilities, it is fair to say that the Westminster facility…is an important Fire & Security asset," Woodcock said in a statement. Officials said late last year that as part of Tyco's restructuring, some locations would be consolidated, such as in Charlotte, N. C., where three SimplexGrinnell locations were combined into one new location. Fire industry analyst Lee DeVito of FirePro said that the layoffs were likely the result of consolidating the company’s many acquisitions.