Humor : You're fired!

Chicago: Acco Brands trims 145 jobs

(Crain's) — Acco Brands Corp. trimmed about 145 jobs last month as it realigned one of its business units.

Eliminating the jobs, in direct sales and customer service, will result in a pretax charge of about $7 million for Lincolnshire-based Acco Brands, which makes office products under various brand names, including Day-Timer, Swingline, Quartet and Wilson Jones.

The decision to eliminate those jobs was unrelated to Acco's upcoming merger with a division of MeadWestvaco Corp., according to an Acco spokesman. That merger, announced in November, will give MeadWestvaco Corp. shareholders 50.5 percent ownership in the combined company.

"This is a completely separate initiative," the spokesman said of the job cuts. "The sales and servicing of large office equipment needed a refreshed business model."

The cuts, which primarily took place in the United States, represent less than 4 percent of Acco's workforce.

Acco said the job cuts should save the company a total of $8 million, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Illinois : jobs on the chopping block at 10 local companies

(Crain's) — Ten companies have notified the state they have cut or plan to cut more than 1,400 jobs in the coming months, with the majority of layoffs taking place by the end of May.

Near the top of the list is Archer Daniels Midland Co., which shed 207 employees at the end of February. Earlier this year, the Decatur-based company said it planned to trim about 1,200 jobs from its global workforce, many of which were tied to plant closings in Iowa, North Dakota and Texas.



The layoffs were reported in the monthly Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act report released by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Other job cuts in the report include:

• StarTek USA Inc., a Greeley, Colo.-based business process outsourcing company, will eliminate 258 positions at its Decatur office next month.

• Chicago-based frozen food manufacturer Appetizer's And Inc. will cease operations at its plant on April 26, laying off all 148 employees. Mark Shircel, the company's director of corporate human resources, said the closing was the result of a downturn in business.

• Insurance provider MetLife Inc., headquartered in New York, will shutter its MetLife Home Loans offices in Oak Brook and Itasca, cutting a total of 132 jobs. In January, the company announced it is getting out of the mortgage business, which accounts for a fraction of its overall operations, a spokesman said.

• Buffalo Grove-based Equable Ascent Financial LLC, a debt-acquisition firm, will also close, eliminating 131 positions.

• Alberto-Culver USA, which was acquired by European consumer products maker Unilever last fall, will shed 121 employees. In December, Unilever announced plans to shut down the Alberto-Culver plant in Melrose Park sometime in 2013, with about 800 employees expected to be cut or transferred.

• Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Central Garden and Pet, which manufactures lawn and garden products and pet supplies, will close its Elk Grove Village production site, eliminating 90 positions. A spokeswoman said the company is closing the facility because a second production site in Franklin, Wis., is under capacity. Two employees will move to a corporate office in Schaumburg, while the rest will be able to interview at the Wisconsin location.

• Playboy Enterprises Inc. will cut 56 employees when it moves its headquarters from Chicago to Los Angeles.

• Nike Inc. will temporarily lay off 160 employees at its Niketown location on Michigan Avenue during a renovation.

• And in addition to the 327 job cuts it announced in previous months, Olin Corp., a Clayton, Mo.-based maker of copper alloys and ammunition, will cut another 104 employees due to a relocation.

Humor: Don't take this the wrong way