A pair of resource fairs are coming up next week for workers caught up in the latest round of layoffs at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis campus.

The Silicon Valley computer and information services company notified the U.S. Labor Department in August of plans to trim an estimated 300 local jobs in its inkjet printing and Web solutions divisions.

Because the layoffs were related to foreign competition, those workers may be eligible for employment and training assistance under the Trade Act of 1974.

The resource fairs, organized by the Oregon Employment Department and aimed at affected HP employees and their spouses, will take place next Thursday and Saturday at Oregon State University's LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W. 26th St. The meetings will run from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3:30 p.m. both days.

Trade Act specialists will be on hand to discuss the various benefits available, answer questions and help fill out eligibility applications.

Benefits available under the act include career counseling, outplacement assistance, cash allowances for job search and relocation, tax credits for health insurance and wage subsidies for older workers.

Job-training assistance is also available, as well as income support during the training period. Representatives of the Linn-Benton Community College work-force training division will be at the meetings as well.

Anyone interested in attending is asked to register by calling 800-436-6191.

Trade Act assistance is separate from unemployment benefits, and HP workers caught in this layoff may qualify for those too, said Craig Spivey, a spokesman for the state Employment Department.

"We will be encouraging all of those affected to file for unemployment insurance," Spivey said.

Workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own may be eligible for up to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits based on a percentage of their salary. Payments range from $113 to $482 a week, Spivey said.

To apply for unemployment benefits online, see www.workinginoregon.org or call 877-728-7970 toll-free.

Hewlett-Packard has so far not made public any details of the latest layoffs in Corvallis. Several sources have told the Gazette-Times, however, that the company was closing one of its three silicon-wafer manufacturing facilities in Corvallis and would lay off 300 to 400 workers as a result. Those layoffs reportedly began in August, about the same time HP applied to the Labor Department for Trade Act assistance.

Sources also told the Gazette-Times of an additional 115 information technology workers at HP's Corvallis and Vancouver, Wash., locations whose jobs were being relocated to an HP data center in Austin, Texas. Workers who chose to quit rather than move would not be covered by the Trade Act.

In September, HP announced it would cut an additional 24,600 jobs from its worldwide work force as it combines operations with Electronic Data Systems, a large technology services company it recently acquired in a $13.9 billion deal. It's not clear how those layoffs might impact HP's Corvallis operations.

Hewlett-Packard once employed more than 6,000 people at its Corvallis campus, making it one of the far-flung technology company's largest worksites.

Over the past 12 years, however, outsourcing and corporate restructuring have slashed HP's local headcount by more than 50 percent.

Today the company employs an estimated 2,500 in Corvallis.

At a glance

The resource fairs, organized by the Oregon Employment Department and aimed at affected HP employees and their spouses, are scheduled for Thursday and Saturday, Oct. 18 at Oregon State University's LaSells Stewart Center, 875 S.W. 26th St. The meetings will run from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3:30 p.m. both days. Anyone interested in attending is asked to register by calling 800-436-6191.

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.