2/23/1999 In marketplace, they're no longer such a great fit, by Chris Ready, Bos Globe, front page.
...Yesterday San Franscisco-based Levi's...announced it will shut down 11 of its 22 plants in the US and Canada and
lay off 5,900 workers, or 30% of its North American work force. The cuts will leave Levi's with 14,000 employees in North America and follow the closing of 13 US plants and elimination of 7,000 jobs last year.... Levi's problems aren't just about being trapped on the wrong side of a fashion cycle and a generation gap; they're also about a proliferation of rivals.... Fashion companies such Tommy Hilfinger Corp. and FUBU have been avidly...carving out niches from the larger denim market..\..
[Funny they should mention. Phil Hyde just bought a pair of Tommy's for $29.95 two days ago - and didn't even see any Levi's on the rack. Note the spin-doctoring here - not 6000 cuts but "only" 5900. Gee, why didn't they just cut their workweek 30% instead of their workforce, the way Nucor and Lincoln Electric do it? After all, their employees are their own best customers - when they have a job - and their own best advertisers, and they'd prefer a 30% lower workweek, even with a 30% paycut, than all being tossed unceremoniously onto the job market clobbering one another's chances of a quick rehire. But in the larger perspective, "so Levi's is going down, so what?" So...]
"We are probably the last major US-based manufacturer with a substantial amount of its production still in company-owned factories in North America," Levi's chairman and chief executive Robert Haas told Bloomberg News.
[Levi's is like the "canary in the mine." Its going predicts our going. And it's going down, so... we're going down - regardless of upticks, remissions, temporary reprieves - we are going down.]

2/20 NEC will cut 15,000 jobs, AP via Bos Globe, F1.
...Japan's biggest computer maker will cut...nearly 10% of its work force over three years as it struggles to recover from slumping sales and massive losses at its Packard Bell unit in the United States. About 6,000 of the job cuts are outside Japan; the company did not say how many of its 7,000 US workers would be affected.
[That's easy. All but 7000-6000=1000, right? NEC should be timesizing instead of downsizing - cutting 10% of its workweek instead of 15,000 units of its own best market (its own employees). Let's see, that would be a 36-hour workweek, with pay prorated, inclusive of top executives, but everyone remains employed, just like at Lincoln Electric.]
The downsizing was the latest corporate fallout from the economic crisis in Asia. But NEC's woes also were tied to...its US unit, which has been hammered by price-cutting wars with US-based makers of personal computers....
[Register another area of price deflation, one of the hallmarks of depression.]

[Service sector - ]
2/20 Sixth-largest US bank plans layoff of 7,150 employees, AP via Bos Globe, F1.
In yet another sign that US banks are anticipating slower growth, First Union Corp. of Charlotte, NC, confirmed yesterday it may [huh? - "confirmed" it "may"?? Talk about mealy-mouthed!] eliminate as [much as] 10% of its work force, to cut costs....
Last month [missed by us & possibly also the Globe], the San Francisco Chronicle reported
BankAmerica, the nation's largest bank, planned to reduce its global work force by about 10% [also], or 18,000 positions.
[Who do they think is going to be left with enough money to need a bank? All of these ten-percenters should be going to a 36-hour workweek and keeping everybody employed. Especially First Union when Nucor Steel has their HQ right there in Charlotte too, and they haven't had a layoff in decades because they timesize instead of downsizing. We guess this is all part of the 95,000 jobs/year lost in banking alone between 1995 and 2000. And they're all in the service sector where we're all supposed to run when we lose our jobs in agriculture and manufacturing.]

2/18 Wyman-Gordon lays off 350, including 50 in Mass[achusetts], by Jerry Ackerman, Bos Globe, C9.
Wyman-Gordon of Grafton said it has laid off...about 8% of its 4,000-person work force, to reduce operating costs...as orders for energy-related products have fallen, especially in Asia.... Most of the layoffs were in Houston, where [the firm] operates forges that make pipe for electric generating plants and oil exploration and production. About 50 of 1,000 Mass. employees also were affected, along with an unspecified number in Scotland.
[Wyman-Gordon should be cutting 8% of its worldwide workweek (from 40 to 36.8 hrs with pay prorated for everyone, starting at the top), rearranging workloads, keeping everyone employed, maintaining morale and more importantly, maintaining general markets. By cutting 8% of its workforce, Wyman is damaging 350 units of global demand, and when demand goes down, supply and production must follow. More short-sighted inducement of their own worst nightmare by American top executives!]

[Kamekazi management buzzes on - ]
2/12 2,000 jobs to be cut at Boston Scientific, by Ross Kerber, Bos Globe, C1.
...including 250 in Watertown, as part of a restructuring following several acquisitions.
[There it is again, folks, the connection between mergers&acquisitions and...JOB LOSS.]
The layoffs will leave the Natick-based maker of medical devices with about 12,000 employees worldwide by the end of 1999, including 2,500 in Massachusetts....
[Let's see, 2000 cut/14000 original = 14% cut. Boston "Scientific" isn't too scientific about management. They should be cutting their workweek, not their workforce (and their best market and marketing force = employees, families, neighbors, friends...), by 14%. They could have all had a 34.3-hour workweek and truly moved into the 21st century, instead of spreading stress, anxiety, poverty and general market weakness. Imagine how much time would have given all of them, for family, religion, community.... Imagine the loyalty that a 34-hour workweek would have engendered on the part of employees. All wasted. Now they're just like all the others. Only in it to compact money into a tiny 'white dwarf' mass in the top brackets, heading for the 'black hole' of such colossal density and tiny space that nothing leaves its massive core, not a photon, not a penny.]
Boston Scientific also said it would spend about $62 million on severance costs....
[Think of what they could have done for employees and through them, for general markets, with $62 million! But no, such are the suicidal 'management strategies' and 'economic wisdom' of our business schools, capitalism still contains the seeds of its own colossal convulsions. The cuts...]
...come as Boston Scientific absorbs the operations of Schneider Worldwide, a medical-devices company it purchased in September from Pfizer Inc. for $2.1 billion.
[Boston 'Scientific' thinks IT has so much money that the Market must be infinite - must be able to take any amount of abuse. Well, just as this is the age when we're finding out that the natural environment that we once thought infinite cannot take any amount of abuse, nor can the oceans, nor the ozone layer, nor our groundwater, nor our lakes, nor our species diversity - we're now about to find out that the Market, our economic natural environment, cannot take any amount of shortsighted looting either. Here are otherwise smart men, who would never make this type of shortsighted decision on behalf of their own small children (if any), making this type of short-sighted decision again and again on behalf of us all, INCLUDING their own small children and themselves! Dumb dumber dumbest. Depression inducing!]
About 1,500 of the former Schneider jobs will be eliminated as part of what [CFO Larry] Best called 'a rationalization of manufacturing.'
[Larry, is suicide 'rational' when you're in good health?]

2/11 Northern Telecom cuts 250 jobs at Bay Networks, Bloomberg via Bos Globe, C2.
...the number two phone-equipment maker in North America...as part of a previously announced streamlining plan [including yesterday] 100 people at Bay's headquarters in Santa Clara, CA and [last Thursday] 40 in Billerica, MA.... [NorTel] based in Brampton, Ont. plans to eliminate up to 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its work force, over 18-36 months to reduce costs. It expects to hire back about half the people it laid off to fill other jobs, spokesman Mike Deshaies said. "This has nothing to do with a slowdown in business"....
[Yes it does, pal, because your shortsighted trauma-maxing wage-bashing firing/maybe-rehiring 'strategy' will induce a slowdown in your business - watch and wake up. You should be cutting 10% of your workweek instead of your workforce, and keeping everyone employed like Nucor or Lincoln Electric. By maximizing the trauma on your own employees, you are bashing company loyalty in both directions, and incentivizing a pullback in spending by employees and their families, friends and neighbors. Dumb dumb dumb.]

2/11 MetLife planning major executive shake-up - Looks to cut costs, increase profits as firm goes public, by Steven Wilmsen, Bos Globe, C5.
...The changes, which take effect March 1, include dissolving the insurer's Corporate Management Office which...created the "perception MetLife was run by a committee" [and which] will be replaced by nine executives....
[So big committee or small committee, it's still 'run by a committee'.]
MetLife also said it plans to cut costs by combining administrative and marketing functions at subsidiaries, including New England Financial.... The most recent moves come in the wake of companywide layoffs over the past year meant to cut non-sales costs by 10%....

[For dessert, a little union bashing - ]
2/11 Caldor union members question severance pay, AP via Bos Globe, C7.
..."Basically 10,000 [union] employees are splitting $2.3 million and [10,000 non-union] employees split the $17 million," said Carole Neville, attorney for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.... After 3 years of bankruptcy [Judge James] Garrity gave final approval to Caldor's plans to close 145 stores in 9 states, including 23 in Massachusetts....

2/10 SmithKline to sell two US subsidiaries - Drug maker will gain $2b, cut 3,000 [+3,000] jobs, Bloomberg News via Bos Globe, F3.
...The United Kingdom's number two drug maker agreed to sell its US clinical laboratory and pharmacy benefit units for $2 billion...and will cut 3,000 jobs to boost spending on new drugs [and repay debt. It will sell the labs to Quest Diagnostics Inc.] for $1.02 billion cash and $245 million in Quest stock \and\ Diversified Pharmaceutical Services...to Express Scripts Inc. for $700 million cash, less than one-third of what it paid for the [pharmacy-benefit provider]. Selling the units - which [employ a total of 12,400 people and] generated 13% of SmithKline's 1998 sales of $12.7 billion - will raise cash to repay debt and fund drug development, while freeing the company from businesses that failed to meet its goals.
[Well, lahdeedah, a capricious non-emergency layoff of 3,000 people! In future, surviving top-executive kamekazis will realize that their top priority is the way people feel, and if they make people, especially their own employees, scared or insecure, their business is going down, one way or another.]
SmithKline paid $2.3 billion in 1994 for the pharmacy benefits unit, which [integrates] health insurers and drug makers. [Rivals Merck and Lilly each made similar buys to simplify] access to patients at a time when health insurers and government officials seemed likely to restrict patients' drug choices. [The buys lost value as that threat] receded and antitrust regulators [even barred drugmakers from using] the subsidiaries to favor their own products over those of rivals. Lilly sold its pharmacy benefit unit last year.
[These so-called 'managers' lurch from one short-term fad to another in a zigzag lemming dash toward Attrition Cliff, marking their careens with trails of leprous leavings.]
The compay will cut about 3,000 additional jobs over four years, representing 5% of its current work force of about 58,000.
[OK, what would a sensible long-term strategy look like? It would involve cutting 5% of the corporate workweek, not workforce. It would maintain morale by cutting to a 38-hr workwork and prorating pay - for everyone including top executives'. That would automatically make sure these cuts weren't capricious. Two thirds of American employees say they'd take a paycut to get more free time anyway. This is the Timesizing approach.]

2/9 Marcam Solutions sets layoff of [20%=] 160 workers, Bloomberg via Bos Globe, F7.
"to cut costs"
[and its own best markets and marketers, its own employees. Marcam could be avoiding this shortsighted reflex by cutting hours slightly for all its employees instead of completely for a few (and a few more, and a few more....). It should be cutting its company workweek from 40 to 32 and keeping everyone (i.e., its skill set) together, employed. It should be maintaining or raising morale and loyalty, not bashing them. It should be learning from Lincoln Electric and Nucor and VW, instead of repeating the mistakes that together add up to economic Depression.]

2/10 Service Merchandise to shut 33% of stores, Bloomberg via Bos Globe, F2.
...as many as 134 stores...in the next 4 months as the [Brentwood, Tenn.-based] retailer struggles to pay lenders and stem slumping sales.... Stores [already] targeted for closure are located in 18 states, including Massachusetts.... The chain's greater Boston stores include those in Cambridge, Burlington, Saugus, Natick and Stoughton.
[Hmm. That means, despite the "great" holiday season and January for retailers, especially discounters, here's one discounter that had seriously slumping sales. How can we possibly get a true picture with all the moronic cheerleaders in the business community and the media?!]

2/04 GoodYear, Sumitomo agree to form global alliance - US firm also plans to cut 3% of work force [2500-2800 jobs] in restructuring, Reuters via Bos Globe, C3.
[See yesterday's background story (2/03) on our M&As page.]

2/04 Hospital set to shut down - As many as 890 workers may lose jobs at Boston Regional, by A. Pham and D. Kong, Bos Globe, C1.
Officials at [the 195-bed] Boston Regional Medical Center in Stoneham yesterday announced to employees plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today and close the hospital within 72 hours.... The hospital had 38 overnight patients yesterday.... Many...will be discharged before the hospital shuts down. Those who need longer hospitalization will be relocated to nearby facilities.... For months, the hospital has been unsuccessfully searching for a buyer or financial backer.... The hospital, which was founded by the Seventh Day Adventists in 1899, has a full-time staff of 600 and a part-time staff of about 290.... Hospital officials have publicly blamed their financial woes on declining reimbursement from managed care insurers and Medicare... But industry observers also note that Boston Regional is located in an area congested with hospitals [5 others within a 10-mile radius]. Hard economics have slowly pared the number of hospitals in Massachusetts. The closure...would leave 83 acute care hospitals in the state [vs. 105 ten years ago].
[Yes and full employment economies are also 'congested' with jobs, we suppose.]

2/03 [Beverly Hills'] JB Oxford Holdings to shut Boston office [relocate? 18], Dow Jones via Bos Globe, C7.
...by March 1 as part of a plan to increase operating efficiencies.... It plans to offer its Boston employees - 15 brokers and three back-office workers - an opportunity to relocate to any of its other offices. JB Oxford has a total of 270 employees...is a discount and on-line brokerage....

[A little here, a little there - ]
1/30 Pioneer closes Moscow office, Dow Jones via Bos Globe, E1.
...one of the premier foreign-owned brokerages in Moscow...after six years of business in an emerging stock market that has shown massive returns as well as losses in the period.... [Parent] Pioneer Group Inc., based in Boston...said it is undertaking a "gradual restructuring" of its brokerage operations in Moscow.... The entire staff of about 20 researchers, traders and salesmen was being laid off.
[That's what they call "gradual"?]

1/29 Alpha-Beta closes headquarters, [lays off 92% of its staff,] liquidates assets, Bloomberg via Bos Globe, E11.
WORCESTER, Mass. - a [biotech] company said it will cut its work force [by 85] to seven from 92 and liquidate its assets less than a week after it halted clinical trials on a drug that prevents infections [but that initial studies showed didn't work].... It will close operations in Rhode Is. and Mass. [after investing millions in the two states]. The remaining employees will work in Denver at its MycoTox Inc. subsidiary.

1/27 Burlington Industries to close 7 mills, cut 2,900 jobs, Bloomberg News via Bos Globe, D3.
GREENSBORO, NC - the nation's third-biggest fabric-maker, will cut...15% of its work force, to help it compete with imports [particularly from Asia].
[Man, how long are we going to keep twirling the death spiral of our domestic markets to "compete with imports" instead of applying the necessary tariffs and cutting hours, not jobs? As Les Thurow said yesterday, these countries cannot export their way out of their problems without killing their major export market - us - and the IMF is wrong to keep telling them they can.]
The closings [will be] in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.... In July, Burlington said it would build four apparel plants in Mexico to produce fabrics at lower costs. The company yesterday cited Asian competition for a 40% drop in fiscal Q1 earnings [from 36 cents/share ($13.2m) a year earlier to 22 cents/share ($7.97m) in net income]. Revenue for the quarter ended Jan. 2 dropped 15% to $407.2m. Burlington shares fell 1 7/16, or 14%, to 8 3/4.
[Unless we can get through the heads of our CEOs that they are committing suicide by these reactions to global competition, we shall see a world-wide depression on a scale that dwarfs the '30s. Burlington should be cutting their workweek down 15%, not their workforce - and keeping everyone employed. They should be lobbying for protection for their American jobs instead of moving them to Mexico. Do they think the Mexicans are going to be buying their products at their wages? Burlington top managers should be freezing executive salaries and perks and reinvesting in the wages of their own best customers, their own employees - and automatically their families and friends and neighbors in NC, SC and VA. If top executives continue to concentrate wealth in their own few hands, which neither have the need nor the time to spend it, while passing the pressure of the simple-minded free-trade fad on to their employees/best customers, they will, in the longer term, be left with too few customers with too little purchasing power to stay in business (and the "longer term" is arriving faster every day). Then they too will be out of a job.]

[Now some temporary backflow in the spreading gloom - ]
1/27 EMC profit soars in quarter, firm expects to add [1,200] jobs, by Ross Kerber, Bos Globe, D3.
HOPKINTON, Mass. - to the 3,800 already in the state, as it continues to gain market share for devices that store computer information..\.. EMC Corp...reported Q4 profit increased 54%, slightly beating analysts' expectations.... Shares in EMC fell 1/4 to close at 101 3/4 in NYSE trading after the results were announced. [Huh?]

[Service sector - retail - ]
1/23 New England 'discount institution' [Caldor's to lay off 20,000 &] close down, by Chris Reidy, Bos Globe, frontpage.
NORWALK, CONN. - Caldor Corp., which grew from a mom-an-pop store in 1951...said yesterday it plans to go out of business, a move that would...close all 145 stores [including 22 in Massachusetts]. Operating discount department stores in nine Northeastern states [Caldor's] expects to conclude its going-out-of-business sales by mid-May.
For much of the [90s, Caldor's] has struggled in a crowded [market niche] where there are not enough consumers to keep all of the many stores prosperous.
[Why do we call the market niche 'crowded' if the economy is really robust and growing? The truth is, the market niche is fine but consumers are vanishing as wealth keeps concentrating in the top income brackets where there's neither time nor need to spend it.]

[The takeover-to-downsizing connection demoed - ]
1/20 GTE Corp. says it will cut an unspecified number of jobs, Bloomberg News via Bos Globe, D2.
IRVING, TX - ...The number three US local phone company that is being bought by Bell Atlantic Corp., plans to eliminate an unspecified number of jobs this year to reduce costs and boost earnings at a faster rate.
[Note the usual lame disclaimer to back up the usual assurance back at the time the takeover was annouced that "There will be no layoffs" - ]
The cuts are unrelated to the sale to Bell Altantic....
[Stay tuned to find out if "unspecified cuts" is corporate-speak for many or few...]
GTE said it will disclose more details later this month.

[Life cheapens apace - ]
1/14 Nortel to cut 8,000 workers, sell plants - Telephone equipment maker looks to slim down to better compete with Cisco, Lucent, Bloomberg News and Ronald Rosenburg, Bos Globe, C3.
[Compete for what?! By the time our suicidal CEOs have finished, there's going to be no one left employed to provide markets for them all!]
BRAMPTON, Ontario -
[Oh yeah, the "flower city" northwest of Toronto - Phil did a church extension survey for the United Church of Canada there in the summer of 1964 - went door-to-door to map church affiliation, if any, in the then-new development of Bramalea.]
Northern Telecom Ltd. said it will cut...10% of its workers, reducing costs to better compete in the fast-growing Internet equipment market.
[Has anything but porn sites actually made money on the Internet yet??]
North America's second-biggest phone equipment maker also said it will streamline manufacturing into one division and sell some of its 24 plants in six countries. It's the second round of job cuts in four months at...Nortel, which fired 3,500 employees in September.... The job cuts, which will occur in the next 36 months, will be a combination of firings and transfers of employees to companies that buy its plants..\..
Analysts said Nortel is cutting jobs to reduce costs so that it can sell its products for less.
[Well, there's a downward spiral - cut your workers&markets, cut your prices&profits, cut your workers&markets, etc. etc.
[Instead of cutting 10% of its workforce, Nortel should be cutting 10% of its workweek, company-wide (including top executives), as Lincoln Electric and Nucor do. This would cushion the effects of its market realignment on its best markets, its own employees, instead of sharpening those effects. But we guess this would take more of what *Jimmy Tingle of 60 Minutes II calls "uncommon sense" than current Nortel management possesses.]
Northern Telecom's US shares were unchanged at 53.
[Sorry, guys, no stock bump this time - you lose.]

1/13 Lands' End to cut [94] jobs, close [3 of its 19] stores, Reuters via Bos Globe, C14.
CHICAGO - ...The number five US catalog clothing retailer yesterday said it plans to eliminate 10% of [888] salaried jobs...
[Are you ready for the bizarre reason? -]
...as it struggles with a growth in staff that has far exceeded its sales growth.
[As if the growth in staff has a mind of its own like a cancer and management is struggling against it! Bazarro! Timesizing gets staff size automatically controlled by overtime pressures, which with minimal management reflect sales growth - NBD (no big deal).]
Dodgeville, Wis.-based Lands' End said it will eliminate...nine [jobs] at the officer level. About 34 of the positions will be cut through attrition. The firm also said it will liquidate an outdoor clothing catalog business [known as Willis & Geiger].... While Lands' End sales have increased 35% over the past four years...work force has grown by 58%..\.. Shares were up 2 to 27 1/16.
[Dear Lands' End president, David Dyer - You are about to destroy 94 of your best customers and advertisers - your own employees. Instead of cutting 10% of your company workforce, how about doing something a lot smarter and just cutting 10% of your company workweek? You can make that 9% or less if you cut some of your own salary, because you, my friend, are the one that screwed up after all, n'est-ce pas? Why are you making others suffer for your mistakes? That's a ticket to demoralize your people and wipe out your company and yourself. Take a cue from Lincoln Electric of Cleveland and operate on the principle that "everyone sacrifices together, starting at the top."

1/12 Revlon to cut [1,000-]1,200 jobs [worldwide], Reuters via Bos Globe, C2.
...[out of a total work force of 14,000] as it expands a restructuring program in a bid to lower costs and improve efficiency, especially in the United States. [Cosmetics giant] Revlon...has seen its results hurt by...sluggish demand for beauty aids.... Revlon's stock fell 7/16 to close at 18-1/2.
[Suppose Revlon cuts 1,100 jobs - that's 8% of its workforce. If it cut its workweek 8% instead of its best customers = its own employees, it could give them a workweek of 36.8 hrs/wk, lay off no one, save morale, and probably retain 100% of its former productivity because of the prioritizing influence of a slightly shorter workweek - although it clearly does not need 100% of its former producitivity if it's experiencing sluggish demand. In this, it would be following the intensely competitive and survival-oriented strategies of Nucor and Lincoln Electric.]

1/12 ADE to consolidate operations in Westwood [Mass.], Dow Jones via Bos Globe, C9.
...More than half of the 94 employees in Charlotte [NC] will be offered relocation to Massachusetts.

1/6 Hayes can't find buyer, so shutdown is at hand, AP via Bos Globe, C2.
...Some 250 employees were laid off Monday, leaving only a handful from a peak of 1,200....

1/5 Motorola cuts [1,000] more than planned, Bloomberg via Bos Globe, C2.
...from its chip business as the world's number three semiconductor maker [and number two cellular-phone maker] takes steps to cut costs and slash in half its chip-product line to boost profit. [Illinois-based] Motorola said it cut 6,000 semiconductor jobs by the end of last year, 20% more than its earlier target of 5,000, from a total of 51,000 semiconductor workers worldwide.... About half the job cuts...were mainly administrative and support positions in America..\.. Of the total cut, only 450 were laid off, said spokesman Ken Phillips, with the remainder eliminated through severance buyouts or attrition.... Motorola...has seen its chip business falter as prices declined and economic crises in Asia quashed demand for chips. Last June, Motorola said it planned to cut about 10% of its work force, or 15,000 jobs, by June 1999.
[And there are going to be a lot more companies following it unless CEOs get a less drastic way of responding to market downturns. The same cost savings could have been achieved with less boomerang by cutting the company's workweek by 10% - to 36 hrs/wk - instead of its workforce.]

1/5 Dupont, NL drop deal for Imperial Chemical unit - Sales collapse hampers UK firm's efforts to cut debt and forces it to cut 1,000 jobs, by Dane Hamilton of Bloomberg News, via Bos Globe, C3.

1/5 [260] Town & Country layoffs, Bos Globe, C9.
...or 75% of its domestic employees, blaming weak sales during its "busy" fall season. The Chelsea-based [jewelry maker] employs about 350 workers in the United States. As of Oct. 27 the company employed about 800 worldwide. The firings came in its Chelsea, New York City, and Dallas locations.... The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 17, 1997.
[The same cost savings could have been achieved with less employee insecurity and its multiplier effect on markets by cutting the company's workweek by 75% - to 10 hrs/wk - instead of its workforce. Here we have a case where substituting workweek cuts for workforce cuts would bring the company's workweek down to a level below which future referendums may well allow workforce cuts, simply because of the exponentially increasing difficulty of coordinating shifts of less than 10 hrs/wk.]

Click here for downsizing stories in December/98.

Click here for downsizing stories in November/98.

Click here for downsizing stories in October/98.

Click here for downsizing stories prior to Sept. 30/98.