Ingersoll-Rand sells Baxter Springs plant

Industrial equipment maker Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd. has agreed to sell its Waterjet assets, including the McCartney plant in Baxter Springs to Swedish machine-maker Karolin Machine Tool AB for $46.6 million, an Ingersoll spokeswoman said Thursday.

The McCartney plant, which employs 123 people, manufactures robotic equipment used in water-cutting, the use of high-pressure streams of water to cut material for industrial production tasks.

Torbjorn Backstrom, chief financial officer of Karolin Machine Tool, said the company had no plans to cut jobs at the Baxter Springs plant.

“We are not going to take any kind of rationalizing or restructuring measures in Baxter Springs,” Backstrom said. “We will proceed with the existing management and don’t see any reason to take any measures.

Tiremaker

Goodyear plans to cut another 500 positions

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said Thursday that it would eliminate about 500 salaried and nonunion jobs at its North American tire operations.

The reductions at the nation’s biggest tire maker will involve management and staff positions at most of its manufacturing plants throughout North America in a bid to cut costs. Goodyear has a plant in Topeka.

Each location is developing its own plan for how the reductions will be achieved by the end of September.

Earlier this year, Goodyear eliminated approximately 700 salaried positions, the majority of which were at its Akron, Ohio, headquarters.

Goodyear has been struggling financially, and its turnaround plan includes reducing costs by $1 billion to $1.5 billion by the end of 2005.

The company makes tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals at more than 90 plants in 28 countries. As of the end of the second quarter, it employed about 92,000 people.

Telemarketing

Deadline is Sunday for first do-not-call list

Consumers have until Sunday to add their phone numbers to the 41.7 million already on a list to block telemarketing calls starting Oct. 1.

K. Dane Snowden, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s consumer and government affairs bureau, said those who sign up for the do-not-call list after this weekend likely would have to wait until early next year before calls are blocked.

Consumers can register for the do-not-call list by calling (888) 382-1222 or visiting www.donotcall.gov.

Employment

TeleTech Holdings to add jobs in Topeka

Despite recent financial struggles, TeleTech Holdings Inc. has announced plans to add 100 jobs to its operations center in Topeka.

“The center is in the process of hiring 100 customer-service representatives,” said Carol Hahn, spokeswoman for TeleTech in Englewood, Colo.

Current employment of 650 would be increased to 750 to meet business needs, she said.

TeleTech employees assist customers with questions about billing, Internet access and phone service, according to former and current employees.