Timesizing® Associates - HOMEPAGE

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Downsizings, January 16-31/2001
[Commentary] ©2001 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 117, Harvard Square, Cambridge MA 02238 USA (617) 623-8080

1/31/2001  7 more downsizing reports in the NYT & Boston Globe, totaling 3,774 lost jobs -

1. Amazon, facing slowdown, cuts 1,300 jobs, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C1.
   Faced with a sharp downturn in its sales growth, Amazon.com [will] close two operations centers and lay off...15% of its workforce. With those jobcuts, Amazon's biggest layoffs ever, the company [expects] to show an operating profit in Q4 of this year.... It was the first time the company promised investors a profit of any kind....

2. More restructuring by ING Group, by Suzanne Kapner, NYT, W1.
   ...The ING Group [will] sell the U.S. operations of ING Barings, the investment bank it bought in 1995, to ABN Amro...
   [So the whole point of the purchase would be???]
   ...[and] fold the remaining ING Barings operations outside the U.S. into its European commercial banking division. As a result, 1,300 employees of ING Barings in the U.S. will transfer to ABN Amro; an additional 1,000 people will be laid off, including 500 employees in London....

3. Pitney Bowes issues earnings warning and will cut jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...[A maker of] postage meters \will\ eliminate 700 to 800 [say 750] jobs...because the country's economic expansion is slowing and the company's technology is changing.
   [Oh but according to legion's of conventional economists, "Technology creates more jobs than it destroys." Yeah sure.]
   Pitney Bowes...based in Stamford, Conn..\..expects a Q1 profit of 52-53 cents [a share] and a profit for the year of $2.35-2.37, its chief executive, Michael Critelli, said.
   [There it is again. A CEO with so little respect for his own employees and his own markets that he cuts jobs when in profit. Such companies deserve nothing but bankruptcy.]
   ...The jobcuts...represent about 3% of its nonsales staff....

4. Container maker to close plants and eliminate jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   The Sonoco Products Co., which makes containers for food and consumer products [plans] to cut 487 jobs, or 3% of its workforce, and close some plants to reduce costs. The company, which employs 19,000, won't fill some vacancies or replace retirees.... Sonoco will eliminate 235 of 4,000 salaried positions and 252 hourly jobs.... Sonoco, based in Hartsville, SC [will] close or [has] closed plants in Shepherd MI, Jacksonville FL, Spokane WA, Jeffersonville IN, and in five overseas locations. It also will close its can plant in Benicia, Calif.

5. IronBridge [Networks] lays off 170 after it fails to secure $100m, by Peter Howe, Boston Globe, C3.
   ...A 3-yedar-old Lexington [MA] company developing a super-high-speed Internet router [has] laid off all but 20 of its 190 employees....

6. Sports site shuts down, AP via NYT, C4.
   MVP.com, the online retailer of sports and outdoor equipment backed by...John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky...is closing. ...The remaining 43 employees [will] lose their jobs over the next several months. The company made its debut a year ago....

7. Epinions cuts staff, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   ...An online product review site that became one of the most celebrated Internet start-ups [has] laid off 24 people, or about a quarter of its staff [saying] it was forced to cut its expenses, even though its business [has] grown rapidly.
   [And if enough companies start using this screwy logic, their business will all start shrinking rapidly.]

1. Daimler to reduce Chrysler work force by 20%, by Keith Bradsher, NYT, C1.
   AUBURN HILLS, Mich... - The Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG announced today that it would reduce its work force by 26,000...over the next three years, mainly by not hiring replacements for retired workers but also by laying off thousands of employees. Dieter Zetsche, the former Mercedes executive sent from headquarters in Germany two months ago to become Chrysler's CEO and president, said the job cuts were necessary to restore Chrysler to profitability even as the auto market slows with the weakening of the American economy.
   [Again, the toxic takeover-downsizing connection. It seems some European CEOs are just as stupid as ours, even though they have France shrinking hours to keep everyone employed.]
   "The markets are shrinking...
   [Yeah, because you guys are downsizing! What the hell do you THINK the markets are going to do?!]
   ...competition is brutal, we are under pressure from imports and an incentive war is on," Mr. Zetsche said at Chrysler HQ here [yester]day.... Executives said the layoffs would include 3,100 factory workers in Mexico and South America, 2,500 white-collar employees in the U.S. and Canada and 1,800 white-collar contract workers, mainly here, in the northern suburbs of Detroit. Up to 3,000 factory workers in the U.S. and Canada [with] less than a year of seniority will also lose their jobs.... But a contract with American and Canadian labor unions, signed in September 1999 at the height of Chrysler's prosperity, will shield most blue-collar workers there from the brunt of the job cuts....

2. Xerox reports [Q4] loss and plan to eliminate 4,000 jobs, by Kenneth Gilpin, NYT, C7.
   ...to help cut costs....

3. OfficeMax to close 50 stores and cut 1,200 jobs, Bridge News via NYT, C4.
   ...50 poorly performing ones that it will close within three months.... The retailer blamed lower consumer spending in the United States for the loss.
   [And we consumer spenders blame you myopicCEOs for lowering payrolls (and markets) even when you are in record profit! Followup - apparently the number of stores to be closed dropped to 40 some time in the next year because a future article, "Officemax reduces planned store closings," AP via 1/29/2002 NYT, C4, states, "Officemax Inc. said it would close 29 stores instead of 40 because same-store sales improved in the fourth quarter."]

4. WestPoint Stevens to close plant and cut 468 jobs, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A leading maker of bedding and towels [will] close a plant in Seneca SC...at the end of March..\..as it consolidates manufacturing to reduce costs.... Some employees will be offered jobs at nearby WestPoint plants.... The cuts affect about 2.9% of the more than 16,000 people WestPoint employs....
   [See also their previous downsizing on 10/07/2000.]

5. Disney, in retreat from Internet, to abandon Go.com portal site, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C1.
   The Walt Disney Co...decided to abandon the...site that was once the centerpiece of its plan to conquer the World Wide Web. With spending on Internet advertising slowing down, Disney thought it was not worth trying to compete with the leading players, AOL..., Yahoo and...MSN.... Disney will...lay off 400 of the 2,000 employees in its Internet group, mostly in its Sunnyvale, Calif., office, which will close. The remaining employees will work on other Disney online properties....

6. Convergent [Communications] fires 160 workers, Bloomberg via NYT, C6.
   ...A provider of Internet and network services [has] dismissed...22% of its workers and closed five offices after selling its telephone unit...on Friday to...Inter-Tel...and planned to focus on data networking and Internet services rather than telephone systems and equipment.... Convergent...closed offices in Boston, Omaha, Portland OR, Seattle, and Tampa as part of the cuts. The company [will] hire about 70 new employees to sell data-networking services.
   [If they had half a brain, they would train 70 of their targeted layoffs for these jobs and retain some morale. At any rate, we're only going to count 160-70= 90 layoffs here instead of doing a separate UPsizing.]

7. PolyOne to close four plants and lay off 65 workers, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A chemical maker created last year by the merger of the M.A. Hanna Co. and the Geon Co. will close four plants...Conroe TX, Denver, Glen Rock PA, and San Fernando CA..\..to save about $6m a year.... The plants make plastic, vinyl and color additives.

1. Layoff of 10,000 employees said to be in the works at WorldCom, by Simon Romero, NYT, B1.
   ...or 13% of its worldwide work force of 77,000 in an effort to cut costs at some of its slow-growing businesses, people close to the company said yesterday. The company, the second-largest long-distance telephone carrier after AT&T, is facing slower growth in businesses like long-distance, wholesale and dial-up Internet service. Some job cuts would occur in those areas as well as in human resources, finance and sales....
   [Cutting sales when your business is slowing? Where do these guys learn these suicidal "strategies"?]
   The layoffs...are part of a downsizing wave in the communications industry....
   [And every other industry except the luxury trade, as usual in the onramp to a depression.]

2. Hewlett-Packard to cut 1,700 positions in revamping, Reuters via NYT, B3.
   The computer and printer maker [will] cut less than 2% of its approximately 88,500 workers in a long-planned restructuring.
   [Having it planned for a long time doesn't make it any more intelligent or less suicidal.]
   ...A company spokeswoman, Suzette Stephens, said...the cuts, communicated to employees in a memo this week, would be in the marketing division, and would take place by the end of April, although employees affected would have options including applying for other positions in the company.
   [Again, cutting marketing in a downturn - what a brilliant idea - not. And there's a woman, Carly Fiorina, heading up this company, so if you think things would be better if women ruled the world, don't be too sure - Carly is acting just as stupid as male CEOs. There goes HP's unique esprit de corps, the feeling that they were special. Now "teamwork" there is just as meaningless as it is at almost every other American company.]

3. Computer Learning Centers to liquidate assets, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...A chain of 25 vocational schools ordered last month by the Education Dept. to refund $187m in federal payments...for illegally paying commissions to school admission officers..\..has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate its assets.... The school suspended classes for more than 3,800 students in big cities from Los Angeles to Boston and laid off 1,200 employees earlier this week.
   [Unreported in NYT or Boston Globe until now.]

1. Penney says store-closing plan will cut 5,300 jobs, AP via NYT, C3.
   The J.C. Penney company...based in Plano, Tex. \will\ cut 5,300 jobs, or 2% of its work force of 290,000...5,000 store jobs and 300 jobs in HQ and field offices..\..and close 47 [of its 1,100] stores ...44 department stores and 3 catalog outlets....most...in the first half of the year \as part of a\ plan that is intended to increase profits.... An undisclosed number of store employees could be offered other jobs. Penney's stock fell....

2. Standard Register to lay off 28% of its work force, AP via NYT, C3.
   ...A business forms printing company [plans] to lay off 2,400 workers, or 28% of its work force of 8,700, as part of a reorganization that calls for more investment in potential high-growth areas. ...Layoffs would be across the board and would probably be phased in over a year.... Standard...has operations in 31 states....

3. Phelps Dodge says energy costs may force layoffs, Bloomberg via NYT, C3.
   ...The world's No. 2 copper producer warned yesterday that it might reduce production and lay off as many as 2,350 employees at mines in New Mexico [Chino and Tyrone] and Arizona [Sierrita] because high energy costs in California had spilled over into nearby states.
   [Reminiscent of Colorado's informal motto in the early 1970s - "Don't Californicate Colorado!"]
   Those mines accounted for ¼ of the company's copper output last year....

4. Visteon says it will close electronics plant in Canada, Bloomberg via NYT, C3.
   ...A leading maker of auto parts [will] close an electronics plant in Ontario within two years because it was selling its business that makes air-bag sensors. The company employs about 1,200 workers at the plant in Markham, Ont....

5. Brunswick to close 4 plants and lay off 650 workers, Reuters via NYT, C3.
   ...The world's largest maker of pleasure boats [will] close 4 plants and...eliminate 650 jobs, or 7% of the workers in its boat group, when the plants are closed at the end of March. The announcement came as the company..\..based in Lake Forest, Ill...posted a 4% increase in its Q4 profit.... Its shares fell....
   [Here's a case of a triply suicidal company. (1) It's in rising profit, but it's not spreading the profit to its markets via its own employees' pay, for example, by giving a 7% pay increase to everyone by cutting the company workweek an almost unnoticeable 7% (34 mins. a day) without a paycut. (2) On the contrary, it is deactivating 650 of its own best customers by eliminating 650 jobs. (3) This dumb company is a leisure-industry company - it makes pleasure boats, for which you need more leisure, more free time - but instead of cutting 7% of its workweek and providing more of that leisure so its own workforce can demonstrate and spread what it's all about, it's cutting 7% of its workforce and showing a distinctly non-laid-back face. Dumb dumb dumb.]

6. Online grocer's loss narrows, by Chris Gaither, NYT, C2.
   The Webvan Group...based in Foster City, Calif..\..one of the last remaining online grocers, [will] reduce operating expenses, lay off 150 employees and cancel planned expansions into the Baltimore-Washington area and northern New Jersey..\..as it seeks profitability....

7. The Pantry Inc., NYT, C3.
   ...Sanford, NC, owner of Lil' Champ Food Stores, is closing the company's administrative offices in Jacksonville, Fla., eliminating 125 jobs, in a move to consolidate operations in North Carolina.

8. AMC says it will close up to 20% of its movie screens, Reuters via NYT, C3.
   ...A leading operator of movie theaters...based in Kansas City, Mo. [will] close as many as 548, or 20%, or its 2,774 screens.... It had identified 307 poorly performing screens for disposal, and was considering closing 241 others.... It had already shut 184 screens in the 9 months ending Dec. 28..\.. AMC Entertainment...became the 2nd theater operator this week to scale back operations.... On Monday [see 1/23 below], Loews Cineplex Entertainment, the No. 2 theater operator, said it would close 675, or 23%, of its 2,967 screens.

1. Lucent announces a Spartan strategy to put itself right, by Seth Schiesel, NYT, C1.
   Struggling to regain its former glory, Lucent Technologies announced a broad revamping yesterday that included eliminating 10,000 jobs - about 9.4% of its workers....
   In addition...Lucent said that 6,000 employees, mostly in Columbus, Ohio, would soon be working for different companies as Lucent tries to sell all or part of their factories by the end of September.
   Lucent has already said it intends to spin off its microelectronics and optical components businesses into a new company called Agere, which will take with it about 16,500 workers. That spinoff, comibined with the job cuts and factory sales, would shrink Lucent's payroll from about 123,000 workers today to about 90,500 by the fall....

2. Sara Lee to cut jobs, sell divisions, Knight Ridder, Boston Globe, E2.
   Sara Lee Corp., as part of an ongoing retooling of its hodgepodge of consumer product lines, will eliminate 7,000 jobs worldwide and shed more businesses....

3. Whirlpool plans to eliminate 6,000 jobs in 2001, AP via NYT, C4.
   The Whirlpool Corp...said yesterday that its global restructuring plan called for cutting up to...10% of Whirlpool's 60,000 workers [for] annualized savings of $225-250m..\.. It expected to trim more than 2,000 jobs worldwide in the first phase....
   [Here's hoping its wonderful "global restructuring plan" also calls for producing customers out of thin air as layoffs domino through the economy.]

4. Sony to lay off 500 at San Diego picture tube plant, AP via NYT, C4.
   Sony Electronics said yesterday that it planned to stop making picture tubes for computer monitors in the United States and would lay off 500 workers. Sony will stop producing tubes at its plant in San Diego by April 1.... The layoffs represent a 14% cut in the workforce at the plant, which will continue to make picture tubes for televisions....

5. Publisher to lay off 130 and close offices in 3 cities, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   Hungry Minds, the [NYC-based] publisher of the "For Dummies" instructional books and Cliffs Notes [will] lay off about...19% of its employees, to cut costs.
   [If they can't make it, nobody can.]
   ...It would save $10m in 2001 as a result of the layoffs and $16m annually after that. [It] said demand had fallen in its computer book business and sales had slumped on its Internet sites and in retail bookstores.... [It] also said...it would close offices in Chicago, San Francisco and Foster City, Calif.

6. New York area has a cushion, economists say, by David Leonhardt, NYT, C1.
   Last week, Jupiter Media Matrix joined the list of Internet companies in Manhattan's Silicon Alley planning to cut jobs.

1. Textron cutting 3,600 jobs in plant closings, AP via NYT, C4.
   ...A maker of helicopters, jets and industrial products [will] cut more than...5% of its workforce...to save $100-120m a year starting in 2002..\..as it revamps its automotive, fastening and industrial divisions.... The layoffs were announced as Textron reported a loss of $218m...in Q4 in contrast to a profit of $201m...in the period last year..\.. The company said in October that it planned to close or consolidate about 20 plants because of declining sales....

2. Merger over, the new AOL will lay off 2,000 workers, by Schiesel & Rutenberg, NYT, C1.
   ...The job cuts - representing slightly more than 2% of the company's 85,000 workers - come less that two weeks after America Online, the No. 1 Internet provider, completed its acquisition of Time Warner, one of the giants of traditional media.
   [Again, the lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]
   The cuts come atop the 400 jobs the company said last week that it would eliminate at its cable news network, CNN.
   [See 1/18 below, 4th item].
   Besides cutting jobs, AOL Time Warner also intends to shut down or sell its 130 Warner Brothers retail stores. If the stores are sold, the roughly 3,800 people who work in them would become employees of another company. If the stores are simply shut down, those jobs would be eliminated....

3. Restructuring at Norfolk Southern includes job cuts, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   One of the nation's largest railroads [plans] to cut up to 6% of its workforce, reduce its dividend and get rid of 12,000 freight cars as part of a restructuring plan. The company, based in Norfolk, Va., said it would eliminate 1,000-2,000 [say 1500] jobs over the next 12 months, noting that the cuts would be in addition to previously announced layoffs. Norfolk Southern has about 33,000 employees....

4. MarchFirst to cut 550 more jobs, by Andrew Sorkin, NYT, C4.
   ...The new-economy [ha!] consulting company [based in Chicago will] cut an additional 550 jobs and close offices just two months after cutting 1,000 workers. The moves are meant to stem losses as part of a larger revamping.... The job cuts will drop the company's employee total to 7,600; the office closings will be in Pittsburgh and Montreal.

5. Excite@Home to lay off 250 employees, by Matt Richtel, NYT, C4.
   Blaming in large part a slowdown in Internet advertising, [the Redwood City, Ca.-based provider of] high-speed Internet access and [operator of] several Web sites..\..yesterday announced layoffs of...8% of its workforce. [It] also said it planned to close its offices in Seattle and Austin, Tex.... The layoffs [are] concentrated among employees who work on content at Excite Studios, the unit that operates the company's Web sites.

1. Converse [Inc.] files Chapter 11; will move production to Asia, AP via NYT, C4.
   The sneaker maker...plans to close its three North American production plants, which employ about 1,000 people, and shift production to Asia.... The 97-year-old company...plans to close plants in Lumberton NC, Mission TX, and Reynosa MEX by April....
   [Here's a switch. Now Mexico is getting a taste of what they've done to US. "What goes around, comes around."]

2. Demise of Vitts Networks seen near - DSL access provider expected to fire 300, close by March 1, by Peter Howe, Boston Globe, D3.
   ...The Manchester NH company is reportedly shutting down \and\ is apparently the latest company in the region to join what is now being called the "DSL death march."...
   [In "Vitts undecided on rehiring workers," by Peter Howe, 2/01/01 Boston Globe, D9, we get specific numbers: "It has made no decision about rehiring the 270 of its 340 employees it fired last week."]

3. Drugstore.com's losses narrow, by Judith Berck, NYT, C5.
   An online retailer...based in Bellevue, Wash..\..reported a loss yesterday that was narrower than expected for its fiscal Q4, but projected continued shortfalls for this year.... The company also said that it would eliminate 125 jobs and that its CFO, David Rostov, would resign.

4. Equistar Chemicals, NYT, C4.
   ...Houston [will] shut down its Port Arthur, Tex., polyethylene plant, which employs about 125 people, by Feb. 28.

5. Dura [Automotive Systems] pares its earnings forecast and will reduce staff, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...A maker of brake pedals and other auto parts lowered its Q4 earnings forecast by more than half on slower auto and recreational-vehicle parts sales and [will] reduce its work force of about 21,000 people and close plants in Elkhart IND, East Jordan MICH and Chard UK. Dura would not say how may jobs it would cut....

6. Loews Cineplex mulls bankruptcy, Reuters via Boston Globe, D2.
   ...The number two US movie theater operator...plans to shut about 675, or about 23% of its 2,965 screens in the US and Canada, and...may file for bankruptcy....
   [Compare AMC Entertainment on Friday, above 1/26.]

7. Students left in limbo as CLC shuts doors, by Diane Lewis, Boston Globe, D2.
   ...Computer Learning Centers Inc., a [[Manassas] Va.-based chain, abruptly suspended operations in 25 cities.... The telephone was disconnected, an operator said....

• Slew of job cuts signaling slowdown, by Diane Lewis, Boston Globe, J2.
  Pink slips are proliferating. US employers slashed 133,713 jobs from their payrolls in December. The layoffs, the highest number recorded for that month since 1998, are clear indication of a slowdown, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm that monitors layoffs....
  What industry had the most layoffs?
  • The retail sector. It accounted for 30% of all cuts last month.
  • Meanwhile, the auto industry laid off 85,231 people,
  • financial services pared its payroll by 54,632 jobs, and
  • the service sector reported 36,376 reductions.
  "It is no wonder that retail had lackluster holiday sales," Challenger added. "Consumers watched the stock market fall, heating prices rose, and then, to top it all off, employers launched a year-end job cutting spree."...

1. Potash [Corp.], a fertilizer maker, announces some cutbacks, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...The largest fertilizer maker...suspended most production at a plant in White Springs, Fla.; furloughed 300 workers indefinitely; and dismissed about 75 workers to copy with declining prices and demand for products used by corn and wheat farmers. The [Saskatoon-based] company [will] also close a factory in Davenport, Iowa, that makes animal-feed supplements and...shift production to plants in Nebraska and Illinois, resulting in the elimination of 27 more jobs....
   [So let's see, that's 300+75+27= 402 jobcuts total, because we always count indefinite "furloughs" as jobcuts since the company is making the employees bear the uncertainty.]

2. Computer Sciences Corp., NYT, B3.
   ...announced it would lay off 201 employees from Mynd Corp. as part of its acquisition of Mynd, a computer services company.
   [Don't they mean "as part of its destruction of Mynd"? Again, the lethal takeover-downsizing connection.]

3. Workers said to loot failed dot-com, by Brian Lavery, NYT, B2.
   The technology slump claimed its first Irish victims on Thursday when Ebeon, a Dublin-based e-commerce consultancy ran out of cash and shut down. Nearly 200 employees lost their jobs when the principal shareholders...failed to raise new funds to continue operations. Employees, who did not receive January paychecks or severance pay, reportedly carried off computers and other hardware fromr the company's offices as compensation.
   [Oh, those wild Irish - though there is a rough fairness here.]

4. California crisis hurts businesses and idles workers, by Laura Holson, NYT, A1.
   ...Managers at a Miller brewery, uncertain hour to hour if the power will be on, have shifted beer production to Texas, laying off 200 workers and counting $600,000 in losses from power shutdowns this week....

5. VerticalNet, a software maker, to lay off 150 workers, Bloomberg via NYT, B3.
   ...A maker of Internet commerce software [is] eliminating...8.3% of its workforce to help reduce costs. About half the positions to be eliminated are at the HQ in Horsham, Pa. The company will record a one-time charge of $2-3m for expenses related to the job cuts. Earlier this month, Joseph Galli Jr. resigned as CEO after less than 6 months with the company.

6. Net2000 Communications Inc., NYT, B3.
   ...Herndon, Va., which sells telephone and Internet services to businesses...eliminated 90 jobs, or 10% of its workforce...to save cash.

7. A Czech Internet venture will close, by Peter Green, NYT, B2.
   PRAGUE... - Globopolis.com, a company...that produces online city guides is going out of business as the shakeout in Internet start-ups reaches into Eastern Europe. ...Revenues at the year-old operation could not meet the rapidly growing costs of its four-city, 90-person operation....

8. Magazine to cease publication, by Larry Tye, Boston Globe, F1.
   The next issue of the health magazine Hippocrates will be its last.... Hippocrates' dozen or so editorial employees have been offered other jobs. The magazine, acquired from Time-Life Inc., targeted consumers when it was launched 10 years ago. ..\..The Massachusetts Medical Society...reoriented it to doctors. ..\..The 130,000-circulation Hippocrates did not find a fertile audience among the primary-care physicians to whom it was targeted....

1. Vignette announces layoffs and issues profit warning, Bloomberg via NYT, C3.
   ...A maker of software for Internet commerce [will] lay off 15% of its workers because the economic slowdown was hurting demand....
   ['Course NYT didn't condescend to give us the #jobs lost so, digging it out of the Web, we come up with 350 layoffs from "Vignette meets Q4 views, lowers outlook," Reuters 13:06 01-19-01 via AOLNews. Oh wait, on 4/10/2001 NYT finally comes up with the number, but they say it's 300 layoffs in "Vignette expects to report loss," C4.]

2. Rayovac to cut 280 jobs and take $18m charge, Reuters via NYT, C3.
   ...The battery maker [will] eliminate...about 8% of its global workforce to streamline mfg operations and cut costs. Most of the layoffs will come as the company closes its lantern battery plant in Wonewoc, Wis., in stages through August; the rest will be laid off at a plant in Fennimore, Wis....

3. Retrenchment at CMGi, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C3.
   ...The once high-flying Internet investment and holding company['s] AltaVista search engine...eliminated 200 jobs, 25% of its staff. It cut 225 jobs in Sept. [see 9/16/2000, item 2]....

4. More jobs cut at NBCi, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C3.
   A second round of layoffs was announced yesterday by NBC Internet, which [will] eliminate 150 jobs, 30% of the company's workforce. In anticipation of a slowdown in online advertising, NBCi also cut its revenue forecast.... In August, NBCi cut 170 jobs [see 8/09/2000]. It will now have 350 employees, down from a peak last year of 850.

1. With income up 16%, G.E. warns of layoffs, by Claudia Deutsch, NYT, C4.
   General Electric, balancing a softening in sales with a ratcheting up of productivity, said yesterday that its Q4 earnings rose 16% even though revenue gained only 6%. But the company also said layoffs were likely.... Said Martin A. Sankey of Goldlman Sachs, "...GE is acting decisively to protect profitability." That protection may cost thousands of employees their jobs.
   [And you don't really "protect profitability" by downsizing your own markets and fueling a general downturn - you greatly jeopardize it.]
   GE has said that it will eliminate as many as 600 jobs at its NBC broadcasting unit,
   [Only counted 170 on 8/09 so need to count 430 more here, giving us a total of 600+430= 1,030 jobcuts - this at a time when GE is in profit - but with "management strategy" like this, it won't be in profit for long.]
   and that closing Montgomergy Ward will cost 28,000 jobs [see 12/29]. More layoffs are in the works. "It's clear we will need fewer jobs," Gary Scheffer, a GE spokesman, said yesterday, citing the economy, the use of Internet technology to streamline operations [oh but isn't technology somehow supposed to "create more jobs than it destroys"?], the acquisition of Honeywell International [the lethal takeover-downsizing connection again] and the Montgomery Ward bankruptcy.
   [Well, here's hoping "it's clear we will need fewer" customers too, Gary, because people with no jobs make poor customers.]
   Analysts suspect that as many as 80,000 jobs are at risk.
   [We'll wait for it.]
   But most see the layoffs as elective surgery.
   [Oh the effort that speculators expend trying to dream up healthful metaphors for practices that are essentially going to destroy themselves - what stocks will analysts recommend when the consumer base collapses and nobody's selling anything? Oh yeah, luxury goods.]
   "GE is using the economy as an excuse to reduce head count," said Timothy Ghriskey, a senior portfolio manager of the Dreyfus Corp., whose funds hold millions of GE shares. GE has been sheltered from the worst of recent economic storms.... It sells few products to telecomm companies..."the quicksand part of the economy...," said Nicholas Heymann of Prudential Securities. [But] the slowdown in the automotive and computer industries has hurt GE Plastics, while the implosion of many dot-com companies has cut NBC's advertising revenue. GE Appliances gained market share last year but it's overall revenue was still off from the 1999 level. [And] "The economic slowdown will have a real ripple effect on GE Capital," James Kelleher of Argus Research warned....
   [Speaking of makework in a frozen-workweek economy, what about all these analysts who produce nothing but gratuitous comments on the economy? Call in the parasitologists!]
   But GE's medical equipment, aircraft engine and power generating units have backlogs of orders that will carry them through a downturn.
   [Assuming downturns are automatically temporary and cyclical.]
   And many note that GE is skilled at neutralizing losses with gains....
   [Too bad GE and its brethren aren't doing that on an economywide basis. The Timesizing program gives companies an overtime-based guideline to make sure they don't blithely continue setting themselves up for mass suicide as they are now.]

2. Dresdner retrenches overseas, Bridge News via NYT, W1.
   Dresdner Bank AG [will] cut back sharply on its lending activity outside Germany, close offices in Canada, Thailand and India, and lay off 600 workers.... Dresdner...decided to focus on its home market after it twice failed to consummate mergers with large rivals.
   [It should count its blessings.]

3. Health insurance company to eliminate 500 jobs, AP via NYT, C4.
   Humana [will] eliminate about...3% of [its] national workforce of 15,000..\..including 90 jobs in its headquarters in Louisville, Ky. [It] cited a planned reduction in its noncore markets and products with little prospect for growth.... Its healthplan membership has declined to 5.4m from 5.9m members in 15 states.... Last fall [its] commercial members had declined 7.2% [and it] also lost...7.8% \(114,400 members)\ from its Small Group Commercial division....
   [Hmm. Wonder if this means the number with health insurance is going back down.]

4. CNN plans to lay off 400 as part of revamping, by Jim Rutenberg, NYT, C4.
   ...approximately 10% of its workforce - as part of a reorganization that redefines the duties of its reporters and producers for an increased focus on the Internet....
   [Ah, isn't this strategy a little late?]

5. General DataComm [Industries] to cut 22% of its work force, Bloomberg via NYT, C4.
   ...[A maker of] telecommunications equipment, including switches for Internet telephony, videoconferencing products and modems..\..based in Middlebury, Conn. [will] cut 200 jobs...to reduce costs. The company eliminated 100 jobs in November....
   [Not picked up then so we'll count them now - 200+100= 300 jobcuts.]

6. Credit Suisse [First Boston] unit mulls layoffs, Boston Globe, D2.
   A unit of Credit Suisse Group that played a major role in underwriting IPOs during the recent Internet stock boom is considering laying off as many as 10% of its investment bankers.... Credit Suisse First Boston unit may cut as many as 280 investment bankers.... The reductions are being considered amid a softening economy and a turbulent stock market....

7. 3M says it will cut many jobs through attrition, Reuters via NYT, C4.
   The Minnesota Mining & Mfg Co. [plans] to improve profits by controlling costs through "significant" work-force attrition....
   [So, unspecified lost jobs.]

8. Allegheny Technologies, NYT, C4.
   ...Pittsburgh, which makes specialty metals like stainless steel [will] eliminate an unspecified number of jobs and close a plant in Albany, Ore., that makes a raw material for titanium products, to help reduce costs by $110m this year. The jobcuts and plant closing will reduce annual costs by $16m.

9. NorthPoint [Communications] files for bankruptcy, AP via Boston Globe, D2.
   ...provider of high-speed Internet access... blaming...last year's canceled merger with Verizon... also said it would cut its full time work force by 19% and sell its assets to a strategic partner....

10. Hyundai Electronics cuts back, Agence France-Presse via NYT, W1.
    ...lay off one quarter of its workers, including 30% of its managers, and raise $776m by selling assets. The company has been struggling to reduce debt since it acquired LG Semicon in October 1999,
    [Again, the connection between takeover and crippling debt.]
    and needed government help to escape a liquidity crisis at the beginning of the year when $4.7B in loans came due....
    [Again, the victimization of capitalist taxpayers by self-styled "capitalist" CEOs who are actually socialists - on behalf of their own corporations (and themselves).]

1. Daewoo creditors set layoff plan, Bloomberg via NYT, W1.
   Defying strike threats, creditors of the bankrupt South Korean automaker Daewoo Motor released a new plan to lay off nearly 2,800 employees, or 22% of the company's remaining work force, by the middle of next month and leave 2,700 more jobs vacant to win better terms for a sale.
   [How primitive and ultimatum-oriented when no one considers cutting a few hours for the whole firm instead of whole jobs for a few, and a few more, and a few more....]
   Saying it had not been consulted, the union...voted to strike, but set no date....
   [A strike with no date has no teeth.]

2. Cooper Cameron Corp., NYT, C3.
   ...Houston, a maker of oil and natural gas pipeline equipment [will] close a factory in Springfield, Ohio...citing declining demand and high overhead costs for the move. About 300 people work at the plant; some will be retained and relocated....
   [Set those retained and relocated against the 2700 jobs left vacant above.]

3. Dorel Industries Inc., NYT, C3.
   ...Montreal, a maker of ready-to-assemble furniture and children's high chairs [will] close its wooden crib factory in Fort Smith, Ark., and dismiss 190 workers, or about 5% of its work force. The Okla Homer Smith plant will close or be sold by July 1.... More than half the employees to be laid off work part time.
   [Oh that makes it all right then - not.]

4. C-bridge to lay off, by Stephanie Stoughton, NYT, D9.
   C-bridge Internet Solutions Inc. [of Cambridge MA] plans to lay off 100 employees, or about 14% of its work force, in response to gloomier market conditions in the Web consulting business.... Most of the employees losing their jobs are billable consultants....
   Recently [12/08 & 12/07], Internet consultant[s] Viant Corp. and Scient Corp. [and] Cambridge Technology Partners \see 1/09 below\ laid off hundreds of workers..\..to slash costs in response to slackening demand from both dot-com and traditional companies....
   [And then there was also Xpedior, Lante and MarchFirst.]

5. Idealab lays off, by Beth Healy, NYT, D9.
   Venture incubator Idealab...has laid off some staff due to market conditions.... The Pasadena, Calif.-based company has an office in [Boston's] Back Bay. The company let go of [17,] 10% of its 170 employees, across all departments....

1. Motorola to lay off 2,500 workers, by Chris Gaither, NYT, C10.
   ...The maker of mobile phones and computer chips based in Schaumberg, Ill..\..yesterday announced...it would lay off all 2,500 manufacturing workers at its plant in Harvard, Ill., by June 30 \and\ shut down production at the company's last domestic cellular phone plant...to save money on daily operations.... The Illinois site, opened in 1996, will remain open with 2,500 employees to handle distribution, engineering and marketing. Motorola will rely on its manufacturing plants in Latin America, Asia and Europe, which cost less to operate...
   [oh, we bet they do!]
   ...to produce phones, said Leif Soderberg, a VP and head of strategy for the PCS phone division..\.. The cuts amount to about 2% of the company's work force of 130,000.... Though sales increased 11% to $10.1B from $9.1B, earnings dropped to 15 cents a share from 25 cents....
   [So once again, employees doing their jobs just fine are penalized for nothing more than a suicidal management theory that says you should cut costs - primarily jobs - to "help profit growth rebound." Why suicidal? Because these employees are also consumers - they are part of the company's customer base directly and they are some of the company's customers' customers. Laying them off and depriving them of incoming spending power will suddenly reduce their shopping greatly and send yet another little shiver of shrinkage through our domestic spending and our consumer base. "This way to depression!" Won't they get new jobs? Three problems. (1) The lag can mount up. (2) The new job tends to pay less. (3) The turmoil disrupts wage raises and guarantees that profits will concentrate in the hands of the top 5-10% who neither need nor have time to spend the excess, which, yes, then eventually gets "reinvested in the economy" - but that means in more production, not more consumption. Result? More over-production alias "excess capacity" as in "We've had more manufacturing capacity that we need" per Leif Soderberg of Motorola, and a crisis of under-consumption, alias a depression.]

2. Chrysler said to map plan for recovery - White-collar job cuts; most plants to survive, by Keith Bradsher, NYT, C1.
   DETROIT...- DaimlerChrysler's strategy for reviving its troubled Chrysler unit will involve eliminating thousands of white-collar jobs, canceling the development of marginally profitable vehicles and sharing auto parts between Chrysler and Mitsubishi, people involved in tthe automaker's planning said.
   [So, at least 2,000 jobcuts.]
   But the strategy...is likely to call for the closing of few if any factories, nor will it rely on blue-collar layoffs, company executives said in interviews [yester]day and overthe the last week....

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