Patrick said the company gave the Commonwealth "no opportunity to compete for these jobs."
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick meets with Eliezer Shkedi, CEO of El Al , not seen, at Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, March 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)Weighing in from England on Fidelity Investment’s recent announcement that it would shift 1,100 jobs from Massachusetts and close its Marlborough office, Gov. Deval Patrick issued a statement Wednesday saying he was “frustrated” by the lack of notice the company gave the state.
“I am disappointed and frustrated with this news. Massachusetts has been good to Fidelity just as Fidelity has been good to Massachusetts. Their leadership was in my office recently and is in frequent touch with Secretary Bialecki, and yet they gave us little notice of this decision and no opportunity to compete for these jobs,” Patrick said.
The governor, who has been traveling abroad for more than a week on a trade mission intended to shore up Bay State business opportunities, was criticized Tuesday and Wednesday for being out of the country rather than in Massachusetts fighting to retain the Fidelity jobs.
The initial response from the administration came from Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray, the acting governor while Patrick is away, who said he and the governor were “disappointed” by the news, but still happy with the progress made over the past year putting people back to work.
In his statement, Patrick pledged to prove to companies like Fidelity that doing business in Massachusetts still has its advantages.
“We stand ready to show Fidelity or any other company the competitive advantages of doing business in the Commonwealth,” Patrick said.
Fidelity indicated that the driving factor behind its decision to relocate 1,100 jobs to New Hampshire and Rhode Island was the need to consolidate real estate space around a diminished workforce and maintain a strong presence in all three New England states.
Fidelity will still employ about 7,300 employees at its Boston headquarters when the Marlborough closure is complete by the end of 2012.
The Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee, chaired by Sen. Mark Montigny, announced plans Wednesday to investigate the factors behind Fidelity’s decision to relocate jobs