I.B.M. Finds Home In Bedford‐Stuyvesant
“This is a business entity operating with standard measures. It isn't, and never has been, anything related to charity.”
With these words, Halvan J. Lieteau, general manager of the International Business Machines Corporation's plant in the Bedford‐Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, described the philosophy of his three‐year‐old facility.
“What we've done, though, is constantly uplift the skills of our employes,” he added. “We're continually looking for new products to make here and we're hoping to be, building a complete terminal display unit by next year.” At first the plant, a part of the company's systems manufacturing division, was used to salvage cable ends for electronic data processing machines. With the skills of its employes upgraded in the last three years and productivity rates increased, it now turns out such components as internal and external cables, power supplies and printed circuit boards for J.B.M.'s 360 and 370 com
The Brooklyn plant, at the corner of Nostrand and Gates Avenues, was started with great fanfare In the spring of 1968 and has become a major employer in the predominantly black community where it is situated. More than 90, per cent of its 403 employes are members of minority groups, with 80 per cent of the 42 managers also being Negroes or Puerto Ricans. Mr. Lieteau himself is black.
