Pocono News Section

Lackawanna Co. Community Braces for Ripple Effect of Cinram Layoffs

Lackawanna Co. Community Braces for Ripple Effect of Cinram Layoffs - Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 04:04AM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Thursday May 27 2010
OLYPHANT, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - Employees of Cinram in Olyphant say an unspecified number of workers were to meet with management Thursday afternoon to learn their fate. Cinram employees feared this day ever since learning the firm's DVD manufacturing contract with Warner Home Video would expire in July.

"If you got a phone call yesterday you got to go to a meeting that more or less means you're gone." said 13-year employee Butch Jacukowicz. He didn't get that call and figures his job in warehouse and shipping is safe for now unlike some on this nearly 13-hundred member workforce. He takes very little comfort in his own job security. "I'm stressed all the time."

The job losses at Cinram are felt more than by just the people who work here and their families. The layoffs create a ripple effect throughout the entire community. That includes Olyphant's tax base for a borough that just manages to meet its bills.

"Anytime there's a layoff in any business whether it be small or large, it definitely filters down into all the other businesses, the economy of the town," said Olyphant Councilman Jerry Tully. Meanwhile, Pavilion Square Deli Owner Tony Liparulo said, "Yeah, it's devastating. It's sad. Sign of the times."

Mr. Liparulo worked at Cinram for 5-years before opening his business in 1997 -- a business that's suffered with each round of Cinram layoffs. "It was great years ago and then they started laying off tons and tons of people and now we're hearing more bad news."

It's news that''s unsettling to businesses in a strip mall near Cinram along East Lackawanna Avenue. Shoppes at Rock Creek opened 4-years ago with a tobacco shop, beauty parlor and soon a new deli.

"We brought all the services to the park which is right in front of Cinram which we thought would be really great for people to have a place to eat, get a pack of cigarettes, get their haircut," said Rock Creek Properties Manager Judy Youshock.

Now job cuts at this major employer leave the community facing an unwelcome makeover.