WARN report: amidst 600 layoffs, state picks phone favorites
Nearly 600 Illinois workers will be laid off come 2015, according to notices filed in accordance with the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN. Among the layoffs – which include 123 workers at Dixon, Illinois-based Anchor Coupling Inc.; 82 workers at plastics products-maker Pp Il LLC; and 58 workers at Jim’s Formal Wear,...
Nearly 600 Illinois workers will be laid off come 2015, according to notices filed in accordance with the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.
Among the layoffs – which include 123 workers at Dixon, Illinois-based Anchor Coupling Inc.; 82 workers at plastics products-maker Pp Il LLC; and 58 workers at Jim’s Formal Wear, which is closing its service center in Ottawa, Illinois – was a notice from Microsoft and Nokia Inc., which will be handing pink slips to 91 workers at their Chicago office.
Perhaps they should have lobbied harder.
Another major cell-phone company, Motorola Mobility, struck a deal with the state in 2011 worth $100 million in tax breaks over 10 years. After firing workers in 2012, that amount was reduced, but the company still receives millions in tax credits.
In this case, the WARN report revealed what happens when the state plays favorites with cell-phone companies.
In July, Illinoisans saw the effects of the state playing favorites with candy companies when Illinois lost 66 jobs with the closing of a Jelly Belly plant but gained 75 new jobs in exchange for a $2 million tax incentive for a Skittles factory.
The corporate welfare system that tilted the playing field in both cases is called the Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, program. EDGE tax credits are doled out to politically favored companies at the expense of others, and should be eliminated altogether.