Alcatel (www.alcatel.com) will cut approximately 300 employees from its optical fiber site in Claremont, NC. The site employs 1,430 people.

Alcatel says the layoffs are being forced by the present downturn of the undersea network market and the slowdown of the optical fiber market, following the exceptional growth experienced by both markets during the past few years.

Changes to the workforce will be implemented in the French undersea network and optical fiber sites, and positions reduced in the undersea network site in Greenwich, UK. The decision also has been made to shift to standby mode the undersea cable production site in Port Botany, Australia, by mid 2002.

These measures, combined with the closing of the undersea cable plant in Portland, OR, announced in May, represent a reduction of 2,151 positions, or 48%, in Alcatel's undersea network activity worldwide workforce. They also correspond to a reduction of 887 positions, or 17%, in Alcatel's optical fiber activity worldwide workforce. In total, 3,038 positions will be reduced from a worldwide workforce of 9,320 in these two activities. Most of these measures will be completed by summer 2002.