downsizing

i cant remember when, but way back 1990's my uncle was an employee from the universal Robina corporation.
i dont even know how many of them but several of them were cut-off from the payroll of URC. they were once a part of the downsizing of the said company. surprisingly, i was not only him and his fellow workers with the same rank but also hiss very own boss who ia also a family friend.
as far as i can remember they where removed from the company for some reasons about finance, or somehow there are to many people enlisted in the companies payroll. and after that they were replaced with new workers.

i've been looking for an article about this in the internet but unfortunately i found nothing. there are some but the infos are too poor.
im not so sure about the reason of the companies downsizing but im sure my uncle was a part of it.