International

Reebok: Reebok's laid off about 300 workers globally, including 100 at its headquarters in Canton. According a Boston Herald report, the majority of the layoffs were in the company's sales, operations and marketing departments. Globally, more than 8,500 people are employed with Reebok, including 1,700 in Massachusetts. Reebok has four facilities in Massachusetts. Offices in Stoughton and Lancaster were unaffected by the cuts, officials said.

Day4 Energy Inc.: Day4 Energy Inc., a solar electric technology developer and manufacturer of superior performance solar modules, recently announced the company has implemented a reduction in its overall headcount affecting approximately 95 people primarily at its Burnaby production facility. Day4 Energy will provide its employees affected by the workforce reduction with severance and human resource support to assist with outplacement. We expect there will be an associated restructuring charge of approximately $0.7 million recorded in 2009. Day4 Energy Inc. is Canada's largest manufacturer of high performance photovoltaic (PV) modules for residential, commercial and utility scale installations around the world.

KEMET Corporation: KEMET Corporation announced that it is taking several initiatives to minimize the impact of the downturn in the world economy. The company currently expects that net sales, excluding the wet tantalum assets which were sold in September 2008, will decline approximately fourteen to seventeen percent in the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2008, as compared to the second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2008. The company is eliminating approximately 1,500 manufacturing jobs representing approximately 14% of the company's total workforce. The job reductions will begin immediately.

Western Forest Products Inc.: Western Forest Products said recently its three Nanaimo-area operations are closing indefinitely, the biggest single lumber closure since the U.S. housing market collapsed two years ago. The indefinite closures put another 720 sawmill workers and loggers out of work, adding to the countless thousands of people who have already lost their jobs in the two-year-long forest industry downturn. The loss of the mills marks the start of what many in the industry fear could be forestry's darkest quarter yet. Western, the largest forest company on the B.C. coast, shut two sawmills and a remanufacturing plant at Nanaimo. It also shut down logging operations at Port Alberni, the Sunshine Coast and Queen Charlotte Islands.

ASML Holding NV: ASML Holding NV, a Dutch supplier of lithography systems for Samsung, IBM and other computer-chip makers, laid off 40 temporary workers this month at its manufacturing plant in Wilton amid a global slump in orders. The company also plans to shift to a four-day workweek for part of next year to trim costs, said the vice president of manufacturing for ASML. He said it employs 760 people at 77 Danbury Road in Wilton. ASML said it will reduce its total workforce by more than 10 percent, or about 1,000 employees. The company said most of the job cuts will be at its headquarters in Veldhoven, the Netherlands; in Wilton; and at its training site in Tempe, Ariz., which will close.