Timesizing® Associates

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

10/31/2000  3 downsizings reported, totaling 2,126 lost jobs globally -

1. Pep Boys closes 38 [unprofitable] stores and 2 distribution centers, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Pep Boys-Manny, Moe & Jack, a major retailer of auto parts and service, closed...about 6% of its total [stores], and 2 distribution centers as part of a restructuring plan to cut costs. About 1,500 jobs were eliminated, 1200 at the closed stores and warehouses and 300 by reducing the number of supervisors and consolidating store-support centers....

2. Prudential closes a unit, Bridge News via NYT, C10.
   Prudential Securities [is] closing its institutional fixed-income business, but [will] keep its retail business intact, in a move expected to result in 400 layoffs....

3. Raytheon says it will lay off 226 Massachusetts workers, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, E5.
   ["There they go again!"]
   ...The third-largest US defense contractor said it plans to lay off...abaout 2% of the company's work force in Massachusetts on Friday. The laid-off workers are members of Local 1505 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and are employed throughout Massachusetts.... They can be recalled to their jobs for up to four years....
   [Oh that's a big relief!]
   Raytheon...still plans to fill 79 positions at its plant in Andover.... The Lexington [Mass.]-based company makes the Patriot and Hawk missiles, and military radar systems....

1. CVS moving jobs to R.I., AP via Boston Globe, C1.
   ...The nation's second-largest drugstore chain..\..is moving up to 100 jobs tied to its online pharmacy [in Seattle?] to its corporate headquarters for the online business in Woonsocket [Rhode Island]. The company is moving its Seattle headquarters [there] over the next two years. The online pharmacy, CVS.com, now employs about 200 people....

2. American Homestar Corp., NYT, B3.
   ...Houston, will temporarily close its plant in Burleson, Tex.
   ['Close its plant' doesn't sound 'temporarily.']

1. York International Corp., NYT, C4.
   ...York, Pa., a maker of heating and refrigeration systems, [will] cut up to 1,500 jobs, or 6% of its workforce as part of a plan to save up to $60m a year starting in 2002.

2. Nextera [Enterprises] fires 114, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, D6.
   ...A consulting firm...fired...15% of its workforce because of reduced demand for Internet consulting services. The jobcuts include consultants and administrative staff [and] are primarily in its interactive unit, which helps companies do business over the Internet.... Lexington [Ma.]-based Nextera...expects annual savings of $15m from the cuts....

3. Alcoa to lay off workers because of slow sales, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...The producer of aluminum will lay off as many as 90 workers at a Pennsylvania plant because of slowing sales to truck makers and other customers. The workers are among 1,162 employees at the plant in Cressona, which makes parts for trucks and tractor-trailers. The layoffs will begin in November and last three months.... On Tuesday, Alcoa fired 77 workers at a plant in Mississippi. [See below, 10/25].

4. City guide service calls it quits, by Catherine Greenman, NYT, C8.
   Scout Electromedia, which introduced...the Modo.net city guide service in early September, shut down after running out of money.... The service had several thousand users....

1. Matushita to cut work force in Wales, Bloomberg via NYT, W1.
   The Matushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan, the world's largest maker of consumer electronics [plans] to cut about 40% of the workforce at its Panasonic plant in Cardiff, Wales, where the pound's strength against the euro has eroded profitability. Matushita, based in Osaka [will] eliminate 700 of the 1,800 permanent jobs early next year through voluntary resignations. The plant exports TVs and other appliances throughout Europe....

2. Matushita to cut work force in Wales, Bloomberg via NYT, W1.
   ...[Another] large Japanese manufacturer...the Sony Corp., the world's No.2 maker of home electric appliances, said last week that it would eliminate 400 manufacturing jobs..\..in Wales...to cope with the weaker euro....
   [unreported then]

3. Crown Crafts to cut about 250 jobs at North Carolina unit, Reuters 13:41 10-25-00 via AOLNews 15 Oct 2000 13:42:29 EDT via RadioTony 25 Oct 2000 17:44:19 EDT.
   Home furnishings maker...expects to lay off about 250 of the 392 employees [64%] at a North Carolina facility as part of a move to shift its focus to marketing and distribution..."in order to be competitive"..."and to outsource most manufacturing."
   [Quotes from Crown Crafts CEO Michael Bernstein.]
   The company said the layoffs at its Timberlake [NC] facility would occur Dec. 29..\..
   [Well, Happy Holidays to you too, Michael!]
   Shares of Atlanta-based Crown Crafts were unchanged....

4. PNV announces downsizing - Steps to accelerate path to profitability, PRNewsWire 10/25/2000 16:02 EDT via AOLNews 25 Oct 2000 16:21:45 EDT via RadioTony 25 Oct 2000 17:44:37 EDT.
   In a move designed to cut back expenses and improve the long-term prospects for the company, PNV (Nasdaq: PNVN)...effective immediately is downsizing nearly 15% of its workforce.
   [What about morale, boys?]
   Additionally, PNV is re-aligning its personnel around strategic initiatives.... "Today's necessary business decision...
   [No downsizing is necessary when you could have cut hours instead of jobs and morale.]
   "...is based on PNV not meeting its financial objectives since our IPO in November 1999....
   [Well that's a problem with top management and with too small a market, not with employees, and it can't be solved by cutting your own best boosters and the flattening national consumer base.]
   "...Employees separating from the company as a result of job reductions will be provided with severance packages and outplacement counseling and support to help with the transition," Said Bob May, president and CEO.
   [Thanks for the "treat," Bob, and happy hallowe'en.]
   The reduction in staffing includes approximately 50 employees in selected field operations and administrative support areas....
   [Oh it's the old "fire the secretaries" routine!]
   Also, similar to other trucking industry suppliers who have felt the impact of rising fuel prices and a slowdown in the industry,...
   ["Honest, it's not just us! - Everybody's doin' it!"]
   ...PNV is making cutbacks across the board to streamline operations.

5. Daewoo Motor to lay off managers, Bridge News via NYT, W1.
   Daewoo Motor of South Korea [will] lay off 30% of its upper management as part of its reorganization plan. ...Daewoo has been afflicted with liquidity problems after the Ford Motor Co. withdrew from a takeover deal in Sept. About 40 members of the mgmt staff will be affected...including 22 top-ranking officials, Daewoo said. It also said that it had failed to pay its employees this month....
   [Compare the Hyundai layoff of 63 execs 2 days ago (10/24, see below).]

1. Tenneco Automotive to dismiss 700, 16% of work force, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...The largest maker of shock absorbers [will] eliminate as many as 700 jobs...as 3d-quarter earnings fell 67%. The company expects to take a charge of as much as $60m in Q4 for jobcuts, which so far total 285 in North America. The moves are expected to save $45m annually along with other cost cuts. Profit from operations slid to $9m...from $27m...a year ago.
   [So they're still in profit, yet they're still cutting their skillset?]

2. Alcoa Inc., NYT, C4.
   ...Pittsburgh, the biggest maker of aluminum,...fired 77 workers, or about one-fifth [20%] of its 350 workers at the Hernando, Miss. plant that makes aluminum parts, because of a slowdown in construction.

3. Rocket company pins demise on NASA, by David Chandler, Boston Globe, A4.
   One of the best-funded new makers of private rockets in the world...the Texas-based company, Beal Aerospace..\..closed Monday, accusing NASA of undercutting its effort to win part of the commercial satellite launching business.... Beal Aerospace [at its height] employed 200 people and was privately financed by its founder..\..multimillionaire banker Andrew Beal....
   [Additional clues come from a Monday webstory, "Beal Aerospace shuts down," by Jeff Foust, special to Space.com, 2000 Oct 23 2:32 pm ET via atabiadon 23 Oct 2000 21:59:36 +0200 - "The announcement from the company...comes a month after the company laid off 80 employees - over half its workforce." Searching our Sept. layoffs, we find a story on 9/30/2000 which reveals that "the company laid off about 80 employees [53%] Sept. 22, leaving approximately 70 employees with the Dallas-based company." That means current jobcuts now are 70.]

1. Printer maker to cut jobs, AP via NYT, C8.
   Lexmark...plans to cut as many as 900 jobs, or 8.2% of its workforce, as part of a companywide restructuring [despite the fact that] it reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter.... The company...employs 11,000 people worldwide....

2. Stamps.com lays off 240, by Laurie Flynn, NYT, C8.
   An Internet postage-stamp company...of Santa Monica, Calif. [will] cut 40% of its workforce, or 240 full and part-time employees, to reduce its costs to try to become profitable.... The announcement of layoffs comes just two weeks after the resignation...of the company's chief executive....

3. International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., NYT, C4.
   ...New York, the maker of products used to enhance foods and cosmetics, plans to take a Q4 charge of about $21m related to an early retirement program. About 145 of the company's employees are eligible for the voluntary program.
   [Let's assume 100 are smart enough to take the program, cuz when a company starts this kind of nonsense, the program only gets worse as the money dries up.]

4. Hyundai Engineering layoffs, by Samuel Len, NYT, W1.
   An affililate of Hyundai Group, South Korea's largest conglomerate...plans to lay off about 25% of its top executives in response to mounting pressure to reduce its debts. The affiliate, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, the nation's largest contractor [will] lay off 63 executives, close two local and four overseas offices, sell parts of its business and spin off 10 other units.... The company has about 20,000 workers....
   [Nice they're nailing the executives for once.]

5. BKN will close down its media services unit, by Stuart Elliott, NYT, C6.
   BKN Media of Chicago, the media services division of BKN, is being closed.... Most of the 40 employees...will be laid off....

• General Electric buying Honeywell in $45B deal, by Sorkin and Deutsch, NYT, front page.
  ...Honeywell, based in Morristown, NJ...will close its 550-employee headquarters, though 1,750 other [employee]s in various businesses and laboratories on its leased Morristown campus will stay where they are for now. GE does expect the deal to yield significant cost savings [ie: employee "savings"], but the companies have not determined how many members of [their] combined workforce of 460,000 might lose their jobs....
  [With that many to start with, it could be a BIG figure.]

• Eve.com ceases doing business, Bloomberg via NYT, C12.
  ...A seller of cosmetics and beauty products over the Interent...founded in June 1999 \has\ fired most of its 164 employees, closed its New York office and ceased operations.... It has not filed for bankruptcy \but\ will sell all of its assets....
  [So rounding down, let's say at about 160 layoffs.]

1. Owens-Illinois to close 2 glass container plants, AP via NYT, B3.
   ...in 2 states, eliminating about 570 jobs, or 1.5% of its overall work force, as part of a revamping effort. The company, which is based in Toledo, Ohio, said the closings, announced Thursday, resulted from declining use of glass containers, excess capacity and the need for cost-cutting.
   [Again, that mark of depression - "excess capacity" - ultimately caused by multiplying output with technology while insufficiently multiplying markets by cutting hours and raising pay.]
   About 380 workers at the company's plant in Brockway, Pa., and about 190 at its plant in Lakeland, Fla., will lose their jobs. Owens-Illinois reported a Q3 loss of $449m Wed. because of asbestos claims and a revamping program that eliminated 350 jobs.
   [So we've got 570 jobcuts coming up on top of 350 jobcuts already done, for a total of 920 lost jobs and if 570 jobs are 1.5% of its workforce, its total workforce is (570/1.5)x100= 38,000 and 920 jobcuts are 920/38000= 2.6% of its total workforce goin' down.]

2. Lund, auto parts maker, plans to cut about 70 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   Lund International Holdings [is] cutting about 70 jobs as it stops making fiberglass at a plant in Minnesota. Lund will contract out fiberglass manufacturing to another company.... As part of a plan to scale back manufacturing to 5 plants from 8, Lund [is] moving a distribution center to Lawrenceville, Ga., from Anoka, Minn. Lund will also move its corporate HQ to Duluth, Ga., from Anoka. The Anoka distribution center employs 137 people.
   [Here we go again. These long moves we count as layoffs because few people can just pack up and move across country. So, we've got 70 jobcuts in fiberglass, plus 137 'move or else' jobs in distribution, plus unspecifed 'move or else' jobs at corporate HQ, for a total of 207 effective layoffs, plus unspecified.]

3. LaCrosse Footwear to cut work force by 200, or 21%, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...at its plant in LaCrosse, Wis...to reduce escalating costs. The employees' last day will be Dec. 18, said Robert Sullivan, the CFO. [The maker of] footwear under the brands LaCrosse and Danner has about 950 employees. Expenses for Q3 rose 23%...from...a year earlier, in part because of higher distribution costs at its plants.

4. Drugstore.com lays off 60 workers, AP-NY-10-20-00 1735EDT via AOLNews 17:36:56 EDT via RadioTony 18:23:48 EDT.
   ...or 10% of its work force.... Although drugstore.com recently raised an additional $63m in backing in August, CEO Peter Neupert said the layoffs were necessary to keep the company going. "We believe these cost-cutting steps are prudent and appropriate actions that are consistent with our stated strategy of achieving sustainable growth, while conserving cash on hand." Company officials said that employees who are laid off will receive a minimum of a month's pay plus extension of their medical benefits.
   Drugstore.com has struggled to keep costs down in the high-priced pharmaceutical business. Over the past year, it has introduced a variety of health and beauty products to increase sales volume....

5. News Corporation cuts jobs at Internet operation, TheStreet.com via NYT, B3.
   News Digital Media, the online media unit of the News Corp., has dismissed about 20% of its New York news staff and has told all New York sports staff members to move to Los Angeles or lose their jobs. The employees were informed late Thursday and Friday, a day or two after Rupert Murdoch, the company's chairman, told investors at the Australia-based company's annual meeting that he was not confident in the business models of Internet companies that rely on advertising revenue. Separately, 12 of the 82 New York-based news editorial staff members were laid off.
   [This one's poorly written. Seems we're losing 20% of an unspecified news staff, all of an unspecified sports staff ("move across the continent or you're gone"), and 12 of an 82-member news editorial staff. So our total has to be 12 + unspecified lost jobs.]

1. Cooper Tire says it will cut 1,100 jobs and close plants, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   The Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. [will] eliminate...4.8% of its workforce, and close, sell or consolidate 18 plants and offices to cut costs. Cooper will take a charge of $35-40m in Q4 tp cover the closings and job cuts. The announcement came as Cooper['s Q3] net income fell 32% [from] last year. Sales rose 59%...primarily from its acquisition of the autoparts maker Standard Products.
   [How in the world did they manage to drop 32% in net income when sales rose 59%? Could they have paid too much for the acquisition perchance? Ifso, this is another takeover-downsizing connection.]
   The company will close plants immediately in Luzerne and Mio, Mich., and in Rocky Mount, NC. It will also [i.e.: later?] close the Olive Rubber plant in Dallas.

2. Natsios planning to trim 140 positions at the Pike - 'We're going to change the culture, we're going to change the structure, we're going to change the staffing levels', by Thomas Palmer via Boston Globe, A36.
   Taking on [i.e., acceding to!] critics who claimed the agency was bloated under his predecessor, Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Andrew Natsios yesterday said he will eliminate 10% of his staff over the next year. Trimming 140 positions through attrition, employee buyouts and anticipated resignations will save $35m over the next 5 years for an agency long considered a magnet for political patronage jobs.... When the staffing reductions are finished, the authority will reach the consultants' recommended size of 1,260 employees. Natsios plans to eliminate the jobs of all 18 toll plaza supervisors because they are duplicative....
   One prominent early departure is that of Joe Gill, who as chief engineer had recently crossed swords with Natsios over the details of a critical report on the Fast Lane automatic toll-collection system. Natsios said Gill's position overlapped with that of another employee..\..
   Natsios said state lawmakers he had recently briefed on his plan to cut the payroll had been generally supportive, even though legislators and members of the administration have often used agencies like the Turnpike as places to reward friends with jobs.... Natsios said patronage and poorly structured management at the Turnpike apparently go back decades. "A little bit of managerial revolution is healthy," he said..\.. The reduction of the authority's size was one of the recommendations in a consultants' report released yesterday that concluded that Mass. Pike employees have "a sense of entitlement about jobs" and a "'not my job' attiitude"....
   [Well, a sense of entitlement about jobs is fine - in a less backward era we'd call that "job security," but a "not my job attitude is not fine, especially in a public employee who deals with the public.]
   Natsios said the $45,000 study of the Turnpike by InteCap Inc. found overstaffing in some areas, poorly drawn lines of authority, and managers with overlapping duties. However, the study noted that the Turnpike does not have enough staff lawyers and pays too much to outside firms - nearly $4m last year.
   [You mean like $45G's for a study to find overstaffing? Only the public sector would bother with a study to find that these days!]
   The Turnpike will offer a buyout program in which selected employees...
   [- they make it sound sooo nice -]
   will be offered $1,500 a year for each year of employment, up to 15 years. Most of the reductions will be done voluntarily, through buyouts, attrition, and reassignments, Natsios said. "There's enough turmoil [that] people are getting the message," he said. "I think when we get done with downsizing, most people who shouldn't be here will be gone," he said.
   [And maybe a few who should be there now they see the political vulnerability.]
   The move to shrink the Turnpike Authority comes as Natsios tries to replenish the agency's cash reserves, which were tapped in an attempt to cover $3.2B in Big Dig cost overruns. The agency has about $53m in its reserves, less than half of what Natsios says is needed.
   [Ah, the Big Dig is still going on, vacuuming money. Isn't it kinda dumb to replenish tappable reserves already?! Better to run them down to zero right now so the Turnpike don't get "tapped" any deeper.]

3. Boycott costs Smith & Wesson 125 jobs, AP via NYT, A23.
   ...[in layoffs], blaming slumping sales and a boycott by buyers angry about its gun-safety agreement with federal, state and city governments. The workers, including some managers, will be laid off in the next week in Springfield, home of 725 Smith & Wesson employees.
   [So let's see, 125/725= a 17% layoff.]
   "Some of the damage has been done by the pro-gun side," a spokesman for the company, Ken Jorgenson, said today. Smith & Wesson...angered competitors and buyers when it agreed in March to demand background checks on buyers of firearms at gun shows, install safety locks and work to develop high-technology guns than only owners can fire.
   ["Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake...." Matt.5:10.]
   In exchange, officials agreed to drop the company from lawsuits against the gun industry. The company is the nation's oldest [and most principled, it seems] maker of guns and was its biggest handgun manufacturer for years.
   [It behooves all intelligent beings to now patronize Smith & Wesson, since the unintelligent beings have stopped.]

4. UCAR [International] to shed 70 workers, Dow Jones via NYT, C10.
   ...The country's largest producer of graphite electrodes...used to generate heat in the production of steel..\..said [yester]day that it would lay off 70 workers at its North American plants because of reduced demand for its products...and added that the weak euro had also hurt its results..\.. Last year, UCAR had more than 4,400 employees..\..
   [So if it still had 4400 employees before these layoffs, we're talking about a 70/4400= 1.6% layoff here.]
   The company, based in Nashville, [will] reduce its inventory....
   [Hmm, the mark of a depression.]

5. Red Herring layoffs, Reuters via Boston Globe, C2.
   Red Herring Communications interim CEO Christopher Alden said the publisher laid off about 7% of its staff as online advertising has failed to grow as much as expected.... He added that the online business revenues have grown four times this year from 1999.
   [And that's not as "much as expected"? What did this SOB expect??? And so now, employees have to suffer for his wild expectations, remarkable success notwithstanding? (And CEOs are always trying to accuse their employees of "declaring class warfare"!?)]
   ..\..The publisher of Red Herring magazine and operator of Redherring.com cut about 25 jobs as a result of the integration of its recent purchase of StockMaster.com and the combination of its online and print editorial teams....
   [Again, the takeover-downsizing connection.]

6. Textron to close plants, cut jobs, AP via Boston Globe, C5.
   ...The Providence holding company..\..plans to close or consolidate about 20 manufacturing sites worldwide due to declining sales in some industrial businesses.... It did not say how many jobs will be cut [but] it has a workforce of about 68,000 in 30 countries [to cut from]..\.. The restructuring plan will cost about $200m through the end of 2001.... The company has 4 main divisions: aircraft, automotive, industrial, and finance....
   [We did not use the NYT's version of this baby - "Textron to close plants and cut jobs over next year," Bloomberg via NYT, C4 - because it doesn't even specify the total workforce.]

1. Ingersoll-Rand to lay off 4,000 workers, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...and close 51 sites by the end of 2001.... 18 of the sites are manufacturing plants, and the rest include sales offices and administrative centers.... The company did not say where the cuts and closings would occur, pending notification of employees. ...The layoffs would be spread "pretty well across the board, across the globe."
   [Not of course across the "board" of directors - they're immune as is top management - not the most sensitive feedback system for good cybernetics.]
   Some of the cuts are a result of Ingersoll-Rand's $1.55B purchase of Hussman International, a maker of commercial refrigeration products based in Bridgeton, Mo. [where] the cuts would eliminate duplication.
   [Again, the lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]
   The layoffs and closings were disclosed in the company's quarterly earnings report [which told of] a 2% drop in net earnings.
   [So what % of their workforce are they laying off and what % of their sites are they closing??? We can get one of these answered from the Globe's version of the story today, "Ingersoll-Rand plans to lay off 8%," AP via Boston Globe, C2. 2% revenue drop and 8% workforce cut? Why the extra 6%??? Plus the Globe tells us that the -]
   Industrial equipment manufacturer...'s shares fell....

2. International Paper to cut 2,500 jobs, AP via Boston Globe, C2.
   ...The world's largest paper and forest products company, which employs more than 117,000 people..\..plans to cut up to...2% of its workforce, and close mills in 3 states as part of a restructuring designed to streamline operations.... It is shutting mills in Mobile, Ala.; Lock Haven, Pa.; and Camden, Ark. The Purchase, NY company also..\..said it was planning to idle some machines at its Courtland, Ala., facility. [It] also reported a Q3 loss of $135m...in large part due to charges on the planned sales of 2 businesses...compared with earnings of $142m...a year ago.... IP shares rose....
   [Again, the fatal takeover-downsizing connection, but this time from the other side - the side of a company selling off chunks of itself for takeover by somebody else. Seems CEOs have figured out how they can use layoffs as a condiment to be sprinkled on practically everything they do. And this time shares rose. Well, keep it up boys - no ocean is big enough that it can't be polluted, and no consumer base is big enough that it can't be strangled by downsizings.]

1. Firestone announces production cutbacks in 3 plants and layoffs, by Keith Bradsher, NYT, C1.
   Acknowledging that sales had fallen after reports of more than 100 deaths linked to the failure of Firestone tires now being recalled, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced [yester]day that it would lay off indefinitely 450 workers at its factory in Decatur, Ill., and would close the Decatur factory and two other plants [in La Vergne, Tenn. and Oklahoma City] for two to four weeks....

2. Williamette will close a plywood plant, laying off 246, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   The forest products company [plans] to close its plywood plant in Ruston, La.... The company, based in Portland, Ore., said plant operations would be phased out over the remainder of the year with an estimated closing date of Jan. 15, 2001.

3. Trinity Industries, NYT, C4.
   ...Dallas, a major manufacturer of products used in transportation, construction and other industries [will] close three railcar and parts manufacturing plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina and fewer than 200 workers would be laid off.

4. iPIX to cut staff by 20%, Reuters via NYT, C8.
   The online imaging company Internet Pictures, or iPIX, [is] cutting 175 jobs...as part of a plan to focus on the fastest-growing segments of its business. The company, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., has not yet achieved profitability....
   [A meaningless statement unless you tell us how long it's been in business....]

1. [again, the fatal takeover-downsizing connnection -]
   Westchester County frets over what the loss of Texaco would mean to the region - Fears of a loss of jobs as well as a substantial reduction in tax revenue, by Robert Worth, NYT, C14.
   ...The company has not determined how many of the 800 employees based \in\ Harrison, NY...will be laid off..\..after Chevron announced on Sunday that it would acquire Texaco and consolidate the headquarters staff in San Francisco.... The new company, to be called Chevron Texaco, plans to eliminate 4,000 positions [7%] out of its combined worldwide workforce of 57,000, saving $1.2B a year. The company would not allow reporters to speak to employees about potential moves or layoffs.... There were no visible signs of distress at the Texaco headquarters, a low-lying stone and glass structure surrounded by lush lawns....

2. Weiner's [Stores] closing 44 stores and filing for bankruptcy, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...A 75-year-old chain of retail clothing stores... in Texas, La., Miss., Ark., and Ala.\..is filing for bankruptcy and closing...44 underperforming stores: 16 of them in La., all 4 of its Little Rock, Ark., outlets and 24 in Texas..\.. The company has about 3,750 people working at 141 stores..\.. About 1,100 employees [29%] will be affected by the closings. While some will be able to move to other stores, it is unclear how many will lose their jobs....
   [With this kind of employee-dissing company, we'l just go with the 1,100 number.]

3. Horizon Pharmacies reports eliminating 260 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...[A] company [that] operates an online pharmacy and 48 retail, 2 mail-order and 5 institutional pharmacies \has\ reduced its workforce by 26%, or 260 employees, as part of its plan to cut costs. Horizon, which is based in Denison, Tex., now employs 740.... Most of the cuts were not effective until the middle of the quarter....

• Federate will cut 550 jobs at Fingerhut unit, AP via NYT, B3.
  After months of trying to reduce losses at its Fingerhut subsidiary, Federated Department Stores Inc. [will] cut...about one-quarter of the 2,300 positions at..\..the electronic retailing unit to save $40m annually. [The cuts will involve] Fingerhut's headquarters in Minnetonka...its data center in Plymouth...and its electronic-commerce operation in Edina, [all in] Minn.  Federated, operator of the Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, bought Fingerhut in March 1999 for $1.7B in hopes of jump-starting Federated's direct-to-customer sales business [but] announced in July...that bad-debt problems at Fingerhut would cost $150m against Q2 earnings.
  [Deathwish American management strikes again - bites off more than it can chew, ruins it and shrinks it. It's the lethal "takeover-downsizing connection" again - and it's their own best markets and marketers they're cutting = their own employees. We have an entire top-management class of ... self-destructive morons.]

1. Unisys cuts jobs as profit slumps, AP via NYT, C5.
   ...The computer equipment company..\..which announced earnings that fell for the third consecutive quarter, [will] cut as many as 1,500 jobs in the U.S. by the end of the year. ...It [will] offer early retirement packages to 1,500 employees, or about 8.3% of its U.S. work force, and...consider other options, including layoffs, if not all accepted....
   ["Walk the plank, or else!"]

2. [Again, the takeover-downsizing connection -]
   NiSource to cut 800 jobs after Columbia acquisition, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...Owner of Indiana's largest utility [will] eliminate about 800 jobs to cut costs after it completed its $8.5B purchase of the natural gas supplier Columbia Energy Group. The job cuts are part of a plan expected to result in savings ranging from $100m next year to $175m in 2004.... The cuts, which will be made beginning Dec. 1, represent about 5% of the combined work force. Some workers will be offered early retirement while the rest will be laid off or will leave though "voluntary separations"....

3. With profits down, Hasbro to cut 5% of its work force, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   Hasbro Inc. cut its Q3 earnings forecast yesterday [will] reduce its work force by about 5% in the face of softening demand for Pokemon and Star Wars toys. Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, RI, plans to cut 500 to 550 jobs and close offices in Cincinnati, San Francisco and Napa, Calif....
   [Let's split the diff and call it 525 jobcuts.]

4. Urbanfetch.com to close its Web site, pointer digest (10 A28), NYT, C1.
   ...The online delivery service that was started in New York less than a year ago to compete with Kozmo.com, announced that it was shutting down its Web site and would lay off more than 160 employees. Urbanfetch officials said they would continue operating its business courier company.

5. Times Co. withdraws plan for online unit's [tracking] stock offering, by Felicity Barringer, NYT, C4.
   ..."The marketplace...," Martin A. Nisenholtz, the chief executive of New York Times Digital, said..."went from irrational exuberance to unqualified pessimism."...
   The Times Co. made its announcement on the same day that another large media company,
   the Tribune Co., announced it was eliminating 80 jobs at its Tribune Interactive group, laying off 34 people, 20 of them at LosAngelesTimes.com. The move was made to consolidate "operating efficiencies" possible because of Tribune's acquisition of the Times Mirror Co....
   [Another takeover-downsizing connection.]

• Daewoo reform plan, by Samuel Len, NYT, W1.
  Creditors of South Korea's ailing Daewoo Motor Co. will consider making [$402.1m in] additional loans to the carmaker after receiving the company's self-rescue plans.... While Daewoo Motor said it would submit a rescue plan soon, 135 executives at the carmaker resigned in a gesture to aid the company's restructuring. Daewoo was placed under a debt workout program in August 1999.

• Open Market cutting 150 jobs - Software maker facing bigger loss, Bloomberg via Boston Globe, D2.
  ...The company's Q3 loss widened and sales trailed forecasts. The firings account for about 23% of the workforce, Harland Lavigne, interim chief executive, said yesterday..\..
  ["Interim CEO" - boy, this company is toast!]
  Open Market Inc., which sells software that delivers content on the Internet...will take a Q4 charge of $6-7m for the firings, which will cut the staff to 500.
  "Profitability is something this company has not obtained previously," Lavigne said. "To achieve that, we had to reduce costs."
  [Sure, buddy, but ya don't hafta "cut off your nose to spite your face." Just trim hours&pay a little bit for everybody, including you, and keep everybody employed, earning, spending time surfing the Internet, and buying software.
  [Funny how these guys never think about how they're getting rid of their best markets and marketers when they stoop to mass layoffs. Making dough on the Internet ain't easy. They could use a lot of free time to get creative ideas about how to do it. There are so many people "givin' it away" on the Internet, it takes a bit of creativity to actually charge for stuff and make some money. It's like trying to make a living being an actor in the Boston area, where every college is putting on productions in which students are acting for free. Yet these guys all want to treat the Internet as a regular business proposition. Like genetic engineering, it seems the Internet is getting "prematurely commercialized." (See last of today's 'glimmers.')]
  Open Market's chief executive, Ron Matros, left in July after the firm's Q2 loss widened. The firm has three "very viable candidates," Lavigne said....
  [We doubt it. These guys just don't know how to optimize their human capital. They don't know how to make "every employee a manager", like Lincoln Electric.]

1. WestPoint Stevens plans to close two plants, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   WestPoint Stevens Inc., the biggest maker of bedding and towels in the United States, said it would close two plants in North Carolina and South Carolina and lay off 565 workers as it consolidates manufacturing to cut costs. One plant, which makes towels, is in Roanoke Rapids, NC. The other, which makes bed pillows and mattress pads, is in Union, SC.... WestPoint Stevens will have 32 factories after the plant closings, which are part of a revamping plan announced in June. The company said then it would also seek to contract with other manufacturers to make some of its products.

2. LTV, No. 3 steel concern in U.S., is giving up 2 plants, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   The [Cleveland-based] LTV Corp. [will] hand over two plants to USX-U.S. Steel Group, suspend its quarterly dividend and buy back shares. ...The transaction [will] cost it about $95m in pensions, severance and other employee expenses. It plans to close one of the plants, in Aliquippa, Penn., that makes tin-coated steel for use in food cans, and to lay off 400 workers. It will keep open a similar mill in East Chicago, Ind.... The company is selling and shutting businesses to focus on steel making and processing after having losses for seven quarters, largely, it says, because of competition from low-price imports.

1. Siemens to cut 1,800 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C2.
   MUNICH - ...Germany's biggest electronics company [will] eliminate about 1,800 jobs in two units to increase competitiveness amid concerns that rising interest rates might slow economic growth and corporate earnings. About 1,200 jobs, including 550 at home...
   [i.e., employees telecommuting from home?? ifso, then how about translating it just "home workers"]
   ...will be cut in the large-drives division of its Automation and Drives Group. Poor business conditions were blamed Wednesday for 600 job cuts at the Shared Medical Systems Corp. which it bought this year.... The European Central Bank raised interest rates again today, an action that may slow demand further.
   [Again, the takeover-downsizing connection. And also the connection with our current very-stupid inflation control mechanism = arbitrarily and artificially raising interest rates. Until we offset the devastating effect of higher interest rates on employment and implement an employment-neutral inflation control mechanism, such as that embodied in Timesizing, or identify a more stabilizing fundamental variable to determine the dependent variable of interest rates than inflation fears, the determination of interest rates should be taken away from the tiny arbitrary minority of people within central banks and put to the general population affected, in the form of regular repeating referendums. Future economists will heap scorn on the intelligence of today's economic "scientists" whose "cure" for inflation (raising interest rates) is usually worse than the disease, because it generates unemployment and costly dependency or crime, and harder-to-measure fear and reduced creativity.... Don't get us started.]

2. Priceline dropping gasoline, groceries - Licensee's collapse ends part of website's name-a-price service, by Stephanie Stoughton, Boston Globe, C1.
   ...A licensee that ran those services announced its impending collapse.... Priceline.com, based in Norwalk, Conn., formed WebHouse Club Inc. last year as a separate, private company to run the gas and grocery services. Priceline...known for its TV ads featuring William Shatner...
   [How did nice Canadian actor Bill Shatner alias sky-mountie Capt. Kirk get mixed up in an over-marketed outfit like this?]
   ...hoped to shield its own investors from the risks. Nevertheless, WebHouse's announcement rattled Wall Street investors already nervous about the dot-com company's future. Priceline's share price plunged...to a record low of $5.81.... WebHouse executives decided to shut down their business after \acknowledging\ that Connecticutt's attorney general [& he's a good guy = Richard Blumenthal] was investigating consumer complaints about its gasoline and airline ticket programs [and] realizing it would be difficult to raise additional funding. The Greenwich, Conn. company will wind down operations over the next 90 days, eliminating about 375 jobs.
   As many as 2m gasoline and grocery customers, along with 7,200 supermarkets and 6,000 stations, will be affected.... Another Priceline licensee [offering used merchandise], Perfect Yardsale Inc., also announced it would go out of business.... Priceline received $361,000 in royalties from WebHouse and Perfect Yardsale in Q2. Yesterday's announcements do not affect other Priceline.com offerings such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, home mortgages, and long-distance service.
   [But are they far behind?]

3. Polo Ralph Lauren says it plans to close 23 stores, AP via NYT, C3.
   ...all 12 of its Polo Jeans Co. stores and 11 of its Club Monaco boutiques in a bid to retool the retail side of its business. ...The moves [are] part of its increased focus on selling luxury products in the stores it owns.
   [Yet another company focuses in on the luxury markets and snuggles up to the rich - who, as depression approaches, increasingly become the only people with discretionary spending power. We saw this first several years ago in terms of Chase Investments dropping accounts of less than $1m. It has happened in hundreds of cases since. Maybe if we stay this stupid and put ourselves through several more business cycles, this luxury-market focusing process can be developed into a fair measure of how far away is the major stock-priced cascade that finally breaks through the insulation of the power elite and introduces the realization that "depression is here" to the blockheaded cheerleaders of the major media.
   [Eventually the desperate targeting of the rich will begin to play a factor in their willingness, in some cases eagerness, to explore systemic and automatic reinvestment mechanisms that prevent the concentration of wealth from reaching the epic proportions of today (and the self-destructive proportions of tomorrow).]

1. Gulfstream eliminates 2% of its workers to cut costs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   The Gulfstream business jet unit of the General Dynamics Corp. laid off about 200 employees...last month as part of a plan to cut costs and increase efficiency.
   [That last phrase should be boilerplate by now.]
   Most of the workers were in management and administrative positions at Gulfstream's headquarters in Savannah, Ga.... The layoffs came as demand for business jets was declining from recent record levels and competition was increasing....

10/04/2000  5 downsizings reported, totaling 485 + unspecified lost jobs -

1. Grand Union files for Chapter 11 for the third time in 6 years, by Leslie Kaufman, NYT, C2.
   ...The grocery chain...said the filing, in US Bankruptcy Court in Newark, would permit it to conduct business as usual and to pay suppliers and employees while it continues to look for a buyer. Grand Union, which operates 197 stores in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont [faces] a highly competitive market increasingly dominated by national chains like Wal-Mart.... Based in Wayne, NJ...it filed for bankruptcy protection in 1995 and again in 1998....
   As a result of the banruptcy, the company said it expected to close a "small number" of unprofitable stores, but did not say where those might be. "We are in the process of reviewing and identifying those stores"..\..Grand Union's CFO, Jeffrey Freimark, said.... He added, "It is possible there will be layoffs in conjunction with a limited number of store closings." In August, the company laid off 170 employees, mostly from its headquarters.
   [Hmm, those weren't mentioned in the Times till now.]
   The company has 13,000 employees....
   [So it laid off 170/13170= 1.3% of its workforce.]

2. Layoffs at Missouri plant, Dow Jones via NYT, C19.
   Mallinckrodt Inc. [will] close its oxygen concentration operations in St. Charles, Mo...lay off 140 employees [and] stop making its Puritan Bennett 590 series oxygen concentrators. The move is part of a manufacturing and distribution agreement with Invacare..\.. Mallinckrodt...based in St. Louis, makes and distributes health care products....

3. A maker of chassis for motor homes fires 100 workers, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Spartan Motors Inc. [has] laid off 100 employees, or 17% of its workforce, and [will] discontinue its Carpenter Industries school-bus unit. ...The layoffs were part of a consolidation that includes closing one of four operations at its headquarters in Charlotte, Mich., because of a slowdown in the recreational vehicle chassis market. The company could lay off as many as 200 additional workers, unless the Carpenter unit is bought....
   [What English word, from French, is spelled exactly the same in the singular and plural, but is pronounced quite differently?]

4. Anicom Inc.,, NYT, C4.
   ...Rosemont, Ill., a maker of wire and cable for computer equipment...cut 60-90 jobs though terminations and job attrition as part of a plan to reduce costs and increase profitability....
   [Anicom doesn't know within 33% of only up to 90 people how many jobs it has cut?! Guess employees are real important to them. Let's split the diff and call this 75 jobcuts.]

5. Elias Brothers Corp.,, NYT, C4.
   ...Warren, Mich., a franchiser of Big Boy restaurants [will] close two restaurants in St. Clairsville, Ohio, and three in New Martinsville, Moundsville, and Clarksburg in West Virginia.
   [Doncha love the homey town names of still-surviving rural America? Moundsville's the best.]
   The company will try to find jobs in other Big Boy restaurants for some of the workers in those affected restaurants.

1. Tower to cut jobs in Michigan and Wisconsin, Dow Jones via NYT, C4.
   Tower Automotive Inc. [will] phase out its heavy truck rail [huh?] manufacturing in Milwaukee by March and close its stamping operation in Kalamazoo, Mich. The moves will affect "fewer than 800" employees.... The company, which had 12,000 employees last year, [wants] to put more focus on its light vehicle and modules businesses....
   [Let's see, 800/12000= 6.7%.]

2. Girls site closing, by Laurie Flynn, NYT, C12.
   Kibu.com, a 5-month-old website for teenage girls that received an impressive first round of financing [$22m] early this year, said yesterday that it was shutting down and returning its remaining capital to investors. Despite signing on some notable sponsors, the company, based in Redwood City, Calif., said it could not drum up enough corporate support ....

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prior to Sept. 30/98.

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