Job cuts are underway at Sun Microsystems as the company reaches its first deadline today in a massive restructuring effort to reduce its global workforce by 11 percent to 13 percent.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company employs 4,700 workers in Colorado, most of them at its operations along the Boulder Turnpike. If across-the-board percentage cuts are made, that could mean Sun’s Colorado operations would lose between 517 and 611 workers.
Some media reports Wednesday said Sun would chop 800 jobs, 15 percent of the local workforce, but a Sun spokeswoman denied that.
“It’s certainly not 800 in Colorado,” Sun spokeswoman Stephanie Hess said.
Sun, a network computing company and manufacturer of servers, software and storage devices, has 37,500 employees worldwide.
Hess said the company’s internal deadline means that if a business unit is making cuts, its managers will tell employees the news by today.
Job cuts began at Sun after a May 31 downsizing announcement by new chief executive Jonathan Schwartz. The layoffs of almost 5,000 employees are scheduled to be complete by the end of September in an attempt to cut costs and return to profitability.
Sources inside Sun’s Broomfield and Louisville campuses have said that “people are flying in from California” to meet with employees today, with another “D-Day” expected in August.
Hess said Sun would not release specifics on how many people would receive pink slips today or a breakdown of cities where cuts will occur. She said Sun would give investors and analysts an “updated head count” during its fourth-quarter earnings calls scheduled for July 25.
Officials at the Colorado Department of Labor said they had yet to receive notice of Sun layoffs. Under federal law, companies must submit information involving job cuts of more than 50 people, or a certain percentage of its workforce, Labor Department spokesman Bill Thoennes said.
“But companies can do it in a staggered fashion so they never have to file a … notice,” he said.
Hess said Sun is committed to Colorado, adding that the company decided not to move former StorageTek workers to its Broomfield campus after it purchased the Louisville-based storage company for $4.1 billion in June. In January, Sun said it would relocate more than 1,000 workers to its Broomfield campus.
A Sun worker, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that he and his colleagues have gotten used to constant layoffs.
“I’ve been there for eight years, and there have been layoffs for five years,” the worker said as he ate lunch at a fast-food restaurant. “We’ve been reorganized, so we don’t know where we’re going to land.”
Businesses frequented by Sun workers worried that a large layoff could affect the regional economy, especially the restaurant and hotel industry.
“This definitely isn’t going to help us at all,” said Jean Bax, special-events manager at the Dave & Busters restaurant at the Westminster Promenade, east of Sun. “I think it’s going to be a huge effect on us and surrounding areas with the dining and restaurants. I’m sure it’s going to affect the hotel business.”
She said Sun holds many of its after-work parties, team-building events and other gatherings at the entertainment venue.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-820-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Beth Potter can be reached at 303-820-1503 or bpotter@denverpost.com.
4,700
Sun Microsystems employees in Colorado following its June acquisition of Louisville’s StorageTek
5,000
Approximate planned layoffs throughout Sun Microsystems by the end of September
37,500
Sun Microsystems employees worldwide
