Illinois : Companies warn of nearly 1,200 layoffs

Nine companies announced they may shed nearly 1,200 jobs in coming months.

The total comes in the state's January Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or Warn report. Some of the moves had been disclosed previously, including those by Sun-Times Media LLC and Best Buy Co.

The biggest possible job losses in the report are at Lyon Workspace Products LLC in southwest suburban Montgomery. The Aurora-based industrial workspace manufacturer, which makes products including steel lockers and storage racks, may lay off as many as 456 workers after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, saying it wants to sell itself while continuing to operate. A company representative did not immediately return a call for comment.

Elsewhere, Sun-Times Media, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and other suburban papers, warned that 274 jobs in north suburban Glenview, south suburban Tinley Park and west suburban Aurora may be eliminated as the company consolidates suburban operations in its River North headquarters.

The number of jobs cut depends on how many suburban workers agree by Feb. 25 to move to the headquarters, Ted Rilea, the company's vice president of labor relations and human resources, told Crain's.
Other layoffs:

• Walgreen Co., the Deerfield-based drugstore chain, will shed 65 warehouse employees in west suburban Berkeley.
• Kmart, part of Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holdings Corp., will lay off 98 workers when it closes a store in Naperville in late March or early April. More than a year ago, Sears Holdings announced it would close up to 120 underperforming Sears and Kmart locations.
• Georgia-Pacific Corrugated LLC said it would shed 108 jobs from its Chicago manufacturing site. The company is a division of Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, one of the world's largest manufacturers of tissue, packaging and paper.
• Cincinnati-based grocery store chain Kroger Co. will shed 65 jobs as it closes a store in downstate DuQuoin.
• Cardinal Health, the Dublin, Ohio-based health care services giant, will lose 63 jobs as it closes a medical equipment wholesale facility in Lake County's McGaw Park. Cardinal said last week that it would cut some 650 jobs in the north suburban Waukegan areaand put most of the MGaw Park property up for sale.
• Richfield, Minn.-based Best Buy will eliminate 58 jobs as it closes its store near Westfield Old Orchard shopping center in north suburban Skokie.

Illinois: Cardinal Health cutting 650 jobs in Waukegan

Health care manufacturing and distribution giant Cardinal Health Inc. is moving production out of north suburban Waukegan, a move that will cost some 650 local jobs. 

Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health disclosed Wednesday that it also would sell property in Waukegan, but the company will keep some operations there. Cardinal expects to incur a loss on the property sale, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cardinal will sell seven of the nine buildings at McGaw Park and consolidate Waukegan employees into the remaining two, a Cardinal Health spokeswoman said.

Cardinal's decision will leave about 700 employees in Waukegan, most of them professional jobs such as marketing, customer support and IT, according to the spokeswoman.

The production of surgical kits will move to South Carolina and Mexico, she said. The company is looking to sell a mix of office and industrial property totaling about 1.2 million square feet and will keep two office buildings totaling about 267,000 square feet, an executive said. He declined to disclose an asking price. The company also is planning a reorganization in El Paso, Texas, that will result in about 80 job cuts, according to Dow Jones, which reported Cardinal's moves Wednesday.