Semitool shuts down for 3 weeks

Semitool Inc. workers learned Tuesday that the company will effectively shut down for three weeks and be cut back to a skeleton production crew.

The company-wide shutdown tentatively will go from Dec. 15 to Jan. 5, although dates for the reduced hours are a moving target, Human Resources Manager Vicki Billmayer said.

"Customer orders will be the bottom line," Billmayer said. "We're looking at it every day."

Lagging customer orders prompted the Kalispell company's cost-cutting measure.

"During this continuing economic crisis many companies across the nation are using this holiday time to reduce production hours," the company announced in a prepared statement Tuesday morning.

"Many of Semitoo's customers have traditionally closed their factories during the Christmas holidays. This year Semitool will be maintaining a skeleton crew over the next three weeks to continue to fill year-end customer orders but use this holiday time for reducing hours."

Assemblers and security personnel will be among workers on the skeleton crew.

All non-revenue-related operations will be shut down.

Company officials also specified that each worker must take 80 hours off work during the fiscal quarter that ends on Dec. 31.

Billmayer said this is not the first time the company has reduced operations over the holidays.

"I can't tell you exactly what years, but we have done reduced hours especially during the holiday time," she said. " It makes more sense that way because a lot of our customers are shut down."

Billmayer said workers can cover some of their wages by applying unused vacation or sick time, or by applying for a Job Service program called job-attached unemployment.

Job-attached unemployment covers some of the gap between the employee's reduced paycheck and what he or she would have made if working full hours, but doesn't require a weekly job search. The worker also must meet certain Job Service criteria, which Billmayer said some Semitool workers will meet.

If these three options are exhausted, workers must take the time off unpaid.

Tuesday's announcement comes just one month after Semitool announced layoffs of 100 workers in its Kalispell and Libby production plants.

The Nov. 10 layoffs left 700 people in the company's Montana work force. They were part of a plan to cut about 170 from its 1,300-person work force worldwide.

Semitool, the third-largest employer in Flathead County, is a leading manufacturer of wafer processing equipment for the semiconductor industry. Its global headquarters are in Kalispell.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com