GTE Corp. said about 100 employees at its Northlake manufacturing facility will be affected by a joint venture set up Monday with Fujitsu of America Inc.
Under the joint agreement, GTE Communications Systems Corp. and Fujitsu of America will form a joint venture to develop and market voice and data business communications sytems in North America.
In a separate agreement related to the joint venture, GTE said Fujitsu Business Communications of America Inc. will manufacture its Omni private branch exchange (PBX) equipment under contract at Fujitsu`s Anaheim, Calif., plant.
The Omni product line, which consists of the Omni S1, S2 and S3, is currently manufactured in Northlake. It will be among the products marketed by the new company formed under the joint venture.
A spokesman for GTE said that about 100 workers are involved in Omni production and support in the Northlake plant, which has a total employment of more than 5,000.
He said some of those 100 employees may be offered jobs with Fujitsu, some may be offered employment in other parts of GTE, and some will be laid off. The transfer of manufacturing operations will be completed by the end of the year, he said.
''The number of employees who will be offered transfers to Fujitsu has not been determined yet, it will depend on the job skills Fujitsu needs at its plant,'' said a spokesman.
The new company set up by the joint venture will be called Fujitsu GTE Business Systems Inc., and will be headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., where it will employ about 900. It will being operations on April 1. Fujitsu America will own 80 percent of the joint venture and GTE Communications Systems will own the other 20 percent.