The closure is expected to eliminate about half of the 240 jobs that were at the Falconer location. Mark Palmer, vice president of communications at Sysco, said in local news reports that roughly 50 percent of the Jamestown workforce will be offered job opportunities at the other two op-cos. Those who do take advantage of the offer will need to relocate, he said, noting that Sysco Corp. plans to work with those employees to ''make the transition as smooth as possible.''
Palmer said in a Jamestown Post-Herald report that all Sysco employees who remain on the job until the distribution center is closed will receive full pay and benefits for three months, even though the center will be closed sooner. If, during the transition period, an employee is unable to find another job for which he or she is qualified, or if they do not want to relocate, Palmer said those employees would be offered a severance package proportional to how long they have been employed with Sysco. Outplacement assistance will be offered, as well.
Palmer told the Post-Herald that the decision to close the distribution center is a direct response to the current state of the economy and Sysco's efforts to be more efficient. ''We have two very efficient operations in Pittsburgh and Syracuse that we can utilize,'' he said. ''This isn't a spur-of-the-moment decision at all. We've been very carefully watching the economy and considering how we can go about streamlining our operations.''
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