Timesizing® Associates

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Downsizings in January/2000
[Commentary] ©2000 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080

1/29/2000  4 downsizings reported, totaling 950 cuts + unspecified jobs -

1. Big consumer finance company to cut 750 jobs, AP via NYT, B3.
   The Associates First Capital Corp., one of the largest U.S. consumer finance companies, said on Thursday that it would cut 750 jobs [which] will occur as the company phases out its financing of mobile homes.... Associates said 220 of the lost jobs would be at its headquarters in Irving, Tex....

2. Shares fall after Amazon.com announces first layoffs, AP via NYT, B3.
   The stock of...the leading online retailer fell sharply yesterday [$5.25 to $61.6875] after the company said it was laying off 150 people, the first time it has reduced its work force.... Amazon, which added more that 5,000 people to its payroll in 1999, announced the layoffs at a company meeting on Thursday night. The cuts represent about 2% of Amazon's total work force, a spokesman, Bill Curry, said.... Mr. Curry said the layoffs were unrelated to seasonal staff adjustments. Most of the cuts will be at the Seattle headquarters.

3. Apogee Enterprises, NYT, B3.
   ...Minneapolis, a maker of replacement windshields and glass products, plans to close 40 of its auto glass stores and cut more than 50 jobs to reduce costs by at least $10m a year.

4. Scientific Games Holdings, NYT, B3.
   ...Alpharetta, Ga., the biggest maker of scratch-off lottery tickets in the U.S., will close a printing plant in Gilroy, Calif., in June, cut an unspecified number of jobs and consolidate its printing operations to reduce costs.

1. Farmland plans job cuts, AP via NYT, C10.
   KANSAS CITY - Farmland Industries...the nation's largest farmer-owned agricultural cooperative..\..will eliminate 320 jobs, or 2% of its worldwide work force, in an effort to...cut costs \and\ revive a failed merger with Cenex Harvest States...the second-largest cooperative.\.. Farmland...plans most of the job cuts in the Kansas City area. It employs 17,000 people worldwide....

2. Lockheed Martin to cut jobs and consolidate, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...The military giant is eliminating at least 2,800 jobs as it streamlines its troubled aeronautical and space businesses. The plans for a 2% reduction in a work force of 140,000, announced yesterday, follow a series of disappointments and losses in those sectors....
   [This is 300 more cuts than we counted two days ago.]
   ...The layoffs announced yesterday are in addition to 2,000 at the Marietta facility announced last year....
   [This last factoid from the Bloomberg via Boston Globe (C2) coverage today, "Lockheed will cut another 2,800 workers."]

1. Coca-Cola to cut fifth of workers in a big pullback - Blow to popular image - Nearly one-half of employees at headquarters in Atlanta are among 6,000 to go, by Constance Hays, NYT, front page.
   Humbled by a year of problems at home and abroad, Coca-Cola said yesterday that it would cut 6,000 jobs, or a fifth of its global work force of 30,000, in the biggest reductions ever by the company.... About 2,500 employees, or nearly half the people at Coke's gleaming downtown [Atlanta HQ] complex, will be let go.
   "There was a lot of crying today," said one employee as she left through the iron gates of the company compound. "A lot of people are packing up." The company, which has been known for generous benefits, job security and unflagging optimism about its future, said some employees were notified yesterday, and others would be by the end of the month. The last time Coca-Cola laid off workers was in 1988, when 200 people lost their jobs.
   The impact on the Atlanta economy is not expected to be severe....
   ["Not expected to be severe"?! There's only two things in Atlanta - Coke and Delta! This is like the stewards on the Titanic going around saying, "Don't panic. Don't panic." This is like Levi's layoff last spring, or Eaton's of Canada last summer. This economy is in unadmitted fragmentation.]

2. Ikon to cut up to 5% of its work force in restructuring, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Ikon Office Solutions Inc., the No. 2 U.S. supplier of copiers to companies, said yesterday that it would cut 1,500-2,000 jobs, or about 5% of its work force [so let's say 5%x39400= 1970 jobcuts]. The cuts are in addition to the 1,000 sales jobs eliminated last year [we didn't catch that story]. Ikon, based in Valley Forge, Pa., has 39,400 employees and 950 operations in the U.S. and 7 other countries. The company said it would close or consolidate 140 facilities and make changes to 65 others to cut costs and improve profits....
   [Yeah but how to you grow the business by shrinking?!]

3. Norfolk Southern offers managers early retirement, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...The 4th-largest U.S. railroad..\..said yesterday that it would offer early retirement to as many as 1,180 managers, a fifth of the total, as its Q4 profit fell 81% on higher costs. The company...based in Norfolk, Va..\..said it expected 800 people to accept the offer, made to nonunion workers older than 55 with more than 10 years of service. A spokeswoman...declined to discuss the severance costs. Norfolk Southern has been trying to cut costs since it began integrating part of the former Conrail Inc. system. The company...and CSX Corp. bought Conrail in 1998 for $10B....
   [Another merger-linked downsizing.]

4. Quintiles to take $55m charge in restructuring, Dow Jones via NYT, C4.
   ...A drug research company...based in Research Triangle Park, NC..\..said yesterday that it would cut 800 jobs and take a...charge in a restructuring intended to save up to $50m a year.
   [We got news for you boys - SOMEbody's gonna have to employ people for there to be any market left. Your employees are your customers' customers. Lay them off and you cut your customers' business - and your own. Downsizing is a last-ditch emergency measure that corporations start using first in pre-depression eras. In fact, it doesn't get to be a pre-depression era without this self-fueling death spiral of downsizing.]
   The job cutbacks would represent about 4% of the 19,000-employee work force it will have after it sells its Envoy Corp. unit to the Healtheon/WebMD Corp....

1. Venator cuts work force and closes stores, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...The retailer formerly known as Woolworth...
   [What idiots they were to let that famous name lay fallow!]
   ...took another move yesterday aimed at reorganizing its business by cutting about 3,700 jobs and closing 358 underperforming stores. In recent years, the company has shut thousands of stores and sold many of its noncore divisions as it shifted its focus primarily to sporting goods. The retailer will cut about 30% of its sales and corporate employees in the U.S. and Canada, including about 600 corporate staff members and 3,100 store employees. Venator also will close 123 Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker stores; 27 Champs stores; and 208 Northern Group clothing stores. That disposes of all the Northern Getaway and Northern Element stores in the U.S.
   [So why did these morons buy all these businesses if they're just going to destroy them instead of making them work?!]

2. Lockheed to auction units, mull job cuts, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, C2.
   ...The world's number one defense company..\..will begin an auction this week of four businesses and will consider cutting 2,500 jobs as the [firm] works to reverse a profit slump.... [Bethesda, Md.-based] Lockheed will provide competitors such as Northrup Grumman...documents outlining the assets for sale.... The company's board also will meet tomorrow to mull the job cuts.... Sanders of Nashua [Mass.] with 4,000 employees...is the major unit for sale [plus] Infrared Imaging Systems in Lexington [Mass.], Fairchild Systems in...Syosset and Yonkers [NY] and Milpitas [Calif, plus its] space electronics business in Manassas, Va.

3. Schein to cut work force and explore sale of company, Dow Jones via NYT, C4.
   Schein Pharmaceutical Inc. said yesterday that it expected to report a pretax loss for the 4th quarter because of narrower margins of profit in its generic pharmaceuticals business. As a result, it said, it planned to cut its work force by 15% and explore a sale.... Schein, which is based in Florham Park, NJ...employs 1,625 workers....
   [Let's see, 15% of 1625 is 243.75 so say 244 layoffs.]

4. Osmonics Inc.,, NYT, C4.
   ...Minnetonka, Minn., a maker of water purification and fluid filtration products, said it planned to close its plant in Phoenix by September, cutting 50 to 100 jobs.
   [So let's take the median, 75 jobcuts.]

5. Music mergers herald a shift to the Internet, by Neil Strauss, NYT, B1.
   ...when the newly created AOL Time Warner further consolidated its pop power by announcing plans this week to merge with EMI Group.... With industry executives talking of further consolidation among major labels...the traditional six major recording companies have already been reduced to four and perhaps even fewer in the coming year.... The music business is cocooning. The big labels are contracting as a vast Web is spinning around them.... There is hardly a single popular label recording artist who will not be affected by these consolidations. The industry is bracing itself for broad staff layoffs and canceled recording contracts that could number in the hundreds. (Both were the results of the Universal-Polygram merger.) If the past is prologue, even bands that are retained by the new megacompany will have to worry about their releases and their corporate relationships getting lost in the transition....
   [Besides] the Internet, the consolidation is also a result of a maturing [or decaying] falling into the general business pattern of growth through acquisition and consolidation, a trend that has set the radio and concert industries reeling in recent years....
   [In short, "growth" through shrinkage? Yeah sure. This is the screwy idea that always infects the gray matter of our management class before a huge depression. Gee, do you think it might possibly cause the huge depressions? Naaa - "there's no easy explanation" - of course.]
   Though some see the urge to merge as a well-thought-out plan, it is also motivated by...fears [of] being left behind in a new era, being too small to compete, and being unable to show growth to shareholders....
   [Keep consolidating and downsizing and there won't be anyone left with money for music. And remember, the more consolidation of wealth, the less circulation of wealth.]

1/21  3 downsizings reported, totaling 700 additional cuts + unspecified -

1. [We won't count these here because we already counted them in Sept. in with their overall 8000-job cut on 9/15/99.]
   Seagate will lay off 2,900 workers in Thailand, AP via NYT, C3.
   The U.S. disk drive manufacturer...said yesterday that it would lay off 2,900 employees in Thailand as part of a worldwide work force reduction announced last year. The company said in Sept. that it would reduce its work force of 77,000 by 10% through attrition and voluntary separation packages where possible. A Seagate spokeswoman in Thailand said many employees had responded to the offer of a severance package, and she did not expect there to be any involuntary layoffs.
   [Huh? With nearly 3000 positions to cut??? Well if you believe that, we'll get the tooth fairy to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.]

2. ACX Technologies Inc.,, NYT, C3.
   ...Golden, Colo., a consumer-product packaging maker, will close 2 Graphics Packaging Corp. unit plants in Saratoga Springs, NY and Boulder, Colo., affecting as many as 400 jobs.

3. Cuts at Network Equipment, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   FREMONT, Calif. - ...A maker of telecomms networks said today that it had cut about 300 jobs, or 30% of its work force, as it reduces costs and focuses on new products. More than half the job cuts were at the company's headquarters here, with the rest at [its] European operations....

1. United Technologies Corp., NYT, C4.
   ...Hatrford, said job cuts under a restructuring program announced last year [9/23] would be 500 more than it had planned, for a total of 15,000.
   [This is a company that started last year with 142,500 employees and finished with 128,000. So these 500 represent 0.4% of the survivors.]

2. Beyond.com says its chief has quit, Bloomberg via NYT, C14.
   ...An Internet retailer...based in Santa Clara..\..said yesterday that its chief executive [Mark Breier ex Amazon.com] had quit and that it would cut 20% of its staff, as the company shifts from consumers to focus on business and government sales. The company will cut 75 jobs, move workers from its consumer division and consolidate offices.... [It] struggled to attract shoppers even after spending an estimated $82m last year on sales and marketing. The company stopped advertising to consumers at the end of the 3rd quarter to concentrate on the business-to-business market....
   [Betcha we're going to be hearing from a slew of companies like this. Thanks to the Boston Globe for slapping a more informative headline on this story else we would never have noticed it: "Beyond.com CEO quits; 75 jobs to be slashed," D2.]

3. Jones Lang Lasalle Inc., NYT, C4.
   ...Chicago, the world's largest real estate management company, said it was cutting 4% of its U.S. work force as part of a plan to save $20m.

4. Total Renal Care to close some units and take charges, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...The second-largest worldwide provider of dialysis services...based in Torrance, Calif..\..said yesterday that it would take as much as $190m in fourth-quarter charges as it [closes] all its operations outside the continental United States....

1. ABN Amro set to trim 10% of work force - A Dutch bank moves to enhance its online operations, by Andrew Sorkin, NYT, C4.
   LONDON, Jan. 18 - The Dutch banking giant, ABN Amro Holdings NV, said today that it would eliminate...2,500 of [its] 24,000 workers over the next five years..\..as part of a sweeping reorganization program aimed at cutting costs.... The bank also plans to shut 150 of its 900 branches..\.. It would upgrade its online banking operation to replace the branches that would be closed....
   [Again, business cuts jobs while government tries to create them. Government should just give up until the shrinkage in the consumer base, or the violence of the suffering, gets too much for business and its media to continue ignoring.]

2. Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc., NYT, C4.
   ...Carlsbad, Calif., which develops antisense drugs, will cut its work force by almost 40%, or 140 jobs, after a key drug failed clinical trials.

3. Dynamics Research to eliminate 100 jobs, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, C9.
   ...The Andover [Mass.] company, which provides information technology services for the Dept. of Defense and various state agencies..\..said it will fire about...6% of its workforce as part of a plan to return the...company to profitability.... [It] said the restructuring plan and an employee-retention program [HUH?!] will result in a $1.3m 4th-quarter charge....
   [Now the private sector is getting as self-contradictory as the public sector - remember subsidizing tobacco farmers while requiring warnings on cigarette packages? Here we have demoralizing downsizing instead of just timesizing, and an "employee-retention program" to offset the demoralization. "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" (Puck)]

1/15  Again, 2 more downsizings reported, totaling 1093 lost jobs -

1. 600 jobs on line as Quaker Oats to close cereal plant, AP via NYT, B3.
   ...Quaker, which is based in Chicago..\..announced yesterday that it planned to close its cereal-making plant, costing 600 jobs. [It] has been studying plant closings since September as it concentrates on its popular Gatorade sports drink. The plant, in St. Joseph, Mo., is more than 70 years old [and makes] Cap'n Crunch, King Vitaman and Toasted Oatameal cereals, instant oats and grits..\..
   [So where are these going to be made now, or are they discontinuing???]
   The company said it would negotiate the closing date with the United Cereal Workers Union local that represents about 490 of the 600 workers affected.... Shares fell....

2. Ames Department Stores plans layoffs and new hiring, Dow Jones via NYT, B3.
   ...The discount retailer [based in Conn.] said it planned to cut 493 jobs at three distribution centers...Columbus, Ohio; Leesport, Pa.; and Mansfield, Mass., and to add [100] employees in Westfield, Mass. [It] said that it was restructuring the four centers into one network by eliminating duplication of processes and that it expects to increase productivity and reduce shipping expenses. The company operates 455 stores in 19 states.
   [This story indicates no attempt on the part of Ames to transfer the 88 doomed warehouse workers (data from today's Boston Globe story, C1) the 85-90 miles from Mansfield to Westfield in Mass. This seems to be too challenging for today's executives. Anything beyond treating employees as replaceable ciphers seems too challenging in an age of gross, growing and vehemently denied labor surplus. So we'll treat them as a downsizing of 493 and a separate upsizing of 100, rather than a single reduced downsizing of 393.]

1. SCI to lay off 1,141 workers, AP via AOL via radiotony, NY-01-13-00 1638EST.
   HOUSTON - Service Corp. International...the world's largest funeral and cemetery company..\..said it will lay off 1,141 employees.... Analysts say SCI and other funeral companies expanded too aggressively by buying up independent operations.
   [So again, the fatal takeover-downsizing connection.]
   The layoffs, announced Wed. night, will cost SCI $151m in severance pay. Of the workers to be fired, 385 are based in North America. Many of them are former owners of independent funeral homes and cemeteries bought out by the company.
   [The more fools, they!]
   They had been kept on as employees, hired as consultants or signed to noncompete contracts. Another 715 international operations employees will be released, many of those from the company's offices in France. The company said the corporate office in Houston will lose 33 workers, and eight executives will be laid off. SCI plans to sell about 50 funeral homes or cemeteries and approximately 45 parcels of undeveloped cemetery property or excess land....

2. Brunswick Corp., NYT, C5.
   ...Lake Forest, Ill., a maker of recreational products like bowling balls, Bayliner boats and Igloo coolers, said it was halting bicycle production in North America and cutting 1075 jobcuts.

1. PacifiCare Health Systems to cut work force 5%, Dow Jones via NYT, C3.
   ...[A] Santa Ana, Calif., managed care company..\..said yesterday that it would cut its work force by about 450...of its approximately 8,300 workers. The cost-reduction plan will immediately result in 90 layoffs. About 160 other employees will be let go in the next 12 months.... About 200 additional jobs will be eliminated through attrition. PacifiCare...expected to record a restructuring charge of $7-8m for severance and related employee benefits in the first quarter. Shares...closed...down....

2. [Here's a case that suggests UNtakeovers like this corporate "cell division" are not always a Good Thing in terms of more jobs in our current climate of massive global labor surplus.]
   Bell & Howell to split in two, cut jobs, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, C14. [Boy, they sure tucked this one away - page 14 indeed!]
   SKOKIE, Ill. - ...A database and information-services provider plans to...cut as many as 340 positions, or 5% of its 6,800-person work force, to focus on the strengths of each business and get access to more capital....
   [If we hadn't noticed this story by accident in the back pages of the Globe's business section, we would have put it in our Glimmers of Hope section, because the Times, relying on cheerleader Dow Jones, mentions only the spinoff and nothing whatsoever about layoffs.]

1. International Paper to cut 2,000 more jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   [A classic. This downsizing has all the lethal signs -]
   ...North America's biggest paper and wood-products maker said yesterday that it would eliminate...about 2% of the company's work force \in a\ cost-cutting move [that is] in addition to the 1,600 jobs that International Paper eliminated last year after buying the Union Camp Corp. in April.
   [Sign #1 - the fatal follow-on to a merger.
   [Sign #2 - the repeat downsizing "additional" to the one last year that was then excused as a one-time emergency measure.]
   The company also expects to close unprofitable plants or ones that make products already in excess supply....
   [Sign #3 - the mention of that Great Depression hallmark, "excess supply." Why? Because when downsizing becomes a common management strategy, it automatically tips the economy into a self-accelerating death spiral where the ongoing effect is a shrinking consumer base.]
   The company has informed its workers of fewer than 25% of the cuts...said..\..an IP spokesman, Jack Cox....
   [Sign #4 - disrespect for employees (dubbed "workers" as if they're communists instead of essential components of America's shrinking domestic markets): they're the last to know - hell, they can read about it in the newspaper.
   [The problem with employers at this point in the business cycle is that they have totally forgotten the connection between their own employees and their own markets. They're laying off their own best customers, or if they're wholesalers or industrial suppliers, they're laying off their customers' customers. They're actually inducing depression. And the non-war alternative to this self-destructiveness is to share the work (and the spending power) by cutting hours a bit for all, not jobs completely for a few, and a few more, and a few more.... We've packaged it up as "Timesizing, Not Downsizing."]

2. Community Newspapers plans cuts - Fidelity unit to end 150 jobs, eyes growth, by Mark Jurkowitz, Boston Globe, D1.
   ["Eyes growth"??! - again the insanity of trying to get bigger by making yourself smaller -]
   Calling it part of the challenge of operating more than 100 local papers under one roof...
   [- Then why did you buy them all, morons? You think people want to read "community" newspapers that are published by the 100s under one roof God knows how many miles away?]
   ...Fidelity Investments' Community Newspaper Co. yesterday said it will eliminate about 150 positions scattered throughout the operation.
   The company, which has about 1,300 full-time staffers, notified 73 employees that their positions had been terminated and eliminated another 47 jobs that had been vacant. Approximately 30 more positions are expected to be eliminated by June 1. President Kirk Davis was unable to say how many of those lost jobs were editorial positions. Nervous staffers at the Needham headquarters were being paged over the loudspeaker yesterday and then informed that their services were no longer required.
   ["Paged over the loudspeaker" for execution??!  Clearly Kirk Davis has attended Catbert's Advanced Course on the Most Efficient Techniques for Demoralizing your Employees.]
   Davis portrayed the layoffs and cutbacks not as evidence of financial problems...but as the byproduct of a necessary restructuring.
   [The usual B.S.   Now check out why we're supposed to sympathize with him -]
   "Here we are an organization that for many, many years bought a lot of newspapers and then endured the challenge of integrating all these newspapers," he said....
   [We repeat, "Then why did you buy them all in the first place, you morons?" A "challenge" is supposed to be stimulating, not something to be "endured."]

• Chart House to close 11 restaurants, cut 500 jobs, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, D2.
  ...Chicago-based..\..Chart House Enterprises Inc. said it will [close] 11 unprofitable steak and seafood restaurants. The company will close 1 location in Newport, RI and 3 total in New Haven, Chester, and Greenwich, Conn., as well as 7 others within 60 days, leaving 39 of its namesake restaurants. [It] plans to open at least 5 new Angelo & Maxie's steakhouse restaurants and 2 new Chart House units this year....

1. Goodyear says it will cut 650 jobs at British tire plant, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...about 38% of the work force \and\ stop making Dunlop truck tires...there as it seeks to reduce costs after forming joint ventures with Sumitomo Rubber Industries of Japan.... The world's largest tire maker [will move] production of truck tires...to other plants, though the Birmingham plant..\..which employs 1700...will keep making passenger and racing tires.
   [Hm, looks like even joint ventures can reduce employment>wages>spending>consumer base.]

2. Pennzoil-Quaker State to close Pennsylvania refinery, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...and packaging plant...in Rouseville, Pa..\..cutting about 300 jobs, and is trying to sell its refinery in Shreveport, La.... The company said that oil production at the refinery would cease on Jan. 31 but that the making of waxes derived from oil would continue until June. Pennzoil has had a refinery at the site since the 1880s.
   [Another glimmer on the map of rural America winks out. These dinosaur executives, parasitic on what's left of our vanishing rural consumer base, should be following Nucor's lead in keeping rural America alive.]

3. Guilford Mills Inc., Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...Greensboro, NC, a fabric producer, plans to shift dyeing and finishing operations at its Greenberg, NC, plant to a new plant under construction near Tampico, Mexico, early in 2001, eliminating more than 200 jobs.
   [Perot's "giant sucking sound" continues, as America jobs sweep across to Mexico. Keep potshotting at the American golden goose, CEOs, - you'll kill it yet!]

4. [And then here's the standard takeover-layoff connection -]
   Village Voice drops weekly, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Two days after a new group bought The Village Voice, they said yesterday that they had ceased publication of The Long Island Voice, one of their eight weekly newspapers.... The 20 staff members were being interviewed for jobs with the Village Voice or offered severance packages, a company official said.
   [So does that mean Long Island no longer has a voice? Or does this "new group" happen to have a weekly there that may now pick up circulation?]

1/05/2K  3 downsizings reported, totaling 2700 jobs -

1. Deutsche Bank to cut jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C3.
   [Their] retail banking unit...said it would cut 1,200 jobs and invest in Internet services as the bank, Europe's second biggest, tries to generate more profit from the German market. The unit, Deutsche Bank 24, said it would spend...$262m as it cuts the number of branches to 1,300 from 1,500 and slashes 6% of its staff.
   [Yesterday the Japanese. Now the Germans have the 'American sickness' - the notion that you can get bigger profits from a smaller workforce, less service, fewer branches. These guys must believe in the Tooth Fairy.]

2. Budget [Rentacar] to slash 1,000 jobs, take big charge, Reuters via Boston Globe, C3.
   LISLE, Ill. - Budget Group Inc. said yesterday that it would take a Q4 pretax charge of $90-95m and cut...20-25% of employees..\..from areas outside of customer service.... The company will also exit the car sales business and consolidate the HQ and field operations of its Ryder TRS unit into its North American vehicle rental division. It also plans to sell any remaining non-core assets [and convert] 99 of..\..its Premier Car Rental...locations to Budget outlets and closing 39 redundant or unprofitable locations in Q1. At the same time, Budget will [continue] to rebuild its network in Germany and [add] 150 agency and licensee locations by year-end. Budget entered Germany in October.
   ["The grass is always greener...." Maybe Budget should talk to Deutsche Bank (see previous story) before they shrink their US operations and pin their hopes on Germany. Maybe they could learn something from the kid on the news last nite who took a deep dive into a shallow pool.]

3. Beth Israel plans $20m in cuts, hundreds of layoffs - Hospital moving to reverse severe losses, by Steven Wilmsen, Bos Globe, C4.
   Financially strapped Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center plans to slash $20m from its payroll, with several hundred layoffs expected to come in mid-February.... As part of a cost-cutting plan meant to reverse severe losses in recent years, the cuts will come mostly in administrative and overhead positions such as finance, information systems, and human resources.... Nurses who work directly with patients won't be affected [and of course, in the class system of American medicine today, we don't even mention doctors don't even come up in this context].... While the precise number of job cuts hasn't been yet determined, officials said layoffs are expected to total less than 500 [= 9.6%] of the hospital's staff of 5200....
   The 6.5% reduction in payroll is among the first major cost-cutting moves by Beth Israel's new chief executive, Dr. James L. Reinertsen.... The former top executive, Dr. Herbert Y. Kressel, wasn't moving fast enough with financial [and presumably staff] cutbacks....
   [6.5% of 5200 is only 338 jobs, so maybe the 6.5% applies to the '$20m' in financial cuts, not to the 'less than 500' in staff cuts.]
   Cuts in consulting services and spending on new equipment are likely to follow.
   [No mention of cuts in executive pay. But then, why should there be? They're only the guys that made the mistakes.]
   ..\..Beth Israel, like other teaching hospitals, has suffered dramatic losses from escalating medical costs with cuts in federal funding as a result of the Balanced Budget Act....
   [Well, the private sector, including the healthcare industry, wanted to get government out of the economy, didn't it? And now the government's getting out and they're realizing how much they needed it after all. Gripe, gripe, gripe.]

1/1/2000  1 New Year's Day downsizing report -

1. American Architectural Products Corp., NYT, B4,
   ...Boardman, Ohio, a maker of windows and doors, said it would close an unprofitable plant in Youngstown, Ohio, and dismiss most of the 100 workers there.
   [Readers interested in hidden prophetic meanings and numerology should have a field day with this short item, quoted verbatim from page B4 of today's NY Times.]