Pocono News Section

Cinram to Reduce Workforce in Olyphant

Cinram to Reduce Workforce in Olyphant - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 04:06AM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday May 27 2010

OLYPHANT, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - The single largest private employer in Lackawanna County announced Thursday afternoon they are about to go through another round of layoffs.

Company officials confirm a total of 155 workers from Cinram Manufacturing in Olyphant will lose their jobs starting in August.

"Most of us are done August second, some of us in December, if they get more contracts, the people in December will stay a little longer," Al McConnell of Olyphant said.

McConnell has worked at Cinram for the last 24 years. He got the bad news Thursday.

"All these years here, it was a really nice place to work. Everybody helped each other. Now people are crying. They don't know what they're going to do," McConnell said.

Workers at Cinram manufacture and distribute DVDs and CDs. The company has been hit hard by internet downloading over the last few years.

"I don't know if there's too much work out there," Jim Bonacci of Archbald said. "You know what I mean with Netflix, downloading them right from your TV, that's it."

"I was hoping that I was gonna survive the cut but I was kind of expecting it. You know how it goes! Hope for the best. Expect the worst," Paul Schwenk III said.

Narda Loomis is one of the lucky ones who will stay. She says losing friends will be tough.

"We've been waiting for this. We've known something was gonna happen. A lot of people are just relieved that we finally know," Loomis said.

While many workers saw the cuts coming, others blame managers for not helping to get them more work.

"They should have fought for and tried to get us more work at the company, try to get more contracts but it was looking like the management had just given up," David Thomas of Scranton said.