Williams Laying Off 10% of Workforce Ahead of Merger with ETE

| | | |
cutting jobsSomehow this bit of news escaped us a few weeks ago--perhaps because most of the impacts will happen in Oklahoma. Williams, the midstream giant that is currently being half-heartedly pursued by Energy Transfer Equity in a buyout/merger, is preparing for the eventual merger by laying off 10% of its workforce. Williams says they layoffs are due to "current market forces" and not because of the impending merger. Sorry--we don't buy it. We suspect the layoffs have a great deal to do with trimming down before the company is eventually sold. Williams employs 6,700 people in North America and in late March they began dumping 10% (~670) of them. Some 100 of those layoffs are happening in the company's Tulsa, OK headquarters. The others will come from across the country--including here in the Marcellus/Utica region...

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)