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Timesizing News, January 11-20, 2002
[Commentary] ©2001-02 Phil Hyde, Timesizing.com, Box 622, Porter Sq, Cambridge MA 02140 USA 617-623-8080

1/20/2002  Timesizing in the weekend news -

• The poor get poorer, by Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, B1.
  ...Athol and Orange rank 10th and 11th lowest for median income of [Massachusetts'] 351 cities and towns [but] this is where state government has chosen to save money by closing down the local welfare office.... The number of families on welfare rose by 4,000 statewide in the last 5 months [and] the numbers here [in Athol and Orange] are certainly not declining.
  L.S. Starrett Co., a precision-tool making plant that has been based in Athol for 120 years, employs 1,400, but some smaller manufacturers in the Orange Industrial Park are cutting back workers' hours to avoid layoffs....
  [Good. Timesizing, not downsizing, in an economic disaster area.]

• Metal, machinery union accepts lower pay for work sharing, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-18-02 0635EST via AOLNews.
  TOKYO...- A labor union for firms in the metal and machinery industries agreed Friday to accept a work-sharing system in which basic daily pay would be lowered up to 5% for each work hour cut in a day, union officials said
  [Based on an 8-hour day, this appears to mean that for each (1/8=) 12½% that daily hours are cut, pay will be cut only 5%. Sounds like a good deal that gets better the deeper that daily hours are cut. As deeper daily hourscuts are made, they become bigger. 1/8 is 12.5% but the next hourcut, 1/7, is 14.3% and the next hourcut, 1/6, is 16.7%. One has to wonder how sustainable this scheme is.]
  The decision by the Japanese Association of Metal, Machinery, and Manufacturing Workers (JAM) marks the first time an industrial union has clarified the specifics of a work-sharing model. Kiyoshi Sasamori, head of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), has so far been tolerant of lower annual salaries on condition they are due to shorter hours on the job.
  Under JAM's proposal, companies will be able to reduce work hours for up to two hours a day, and decrease daily basic salaries by up to 10%.
  [There's part of the answer - because of the cap, it doesn't get any worse for employers than14.3%.]
  The system is aimed at preventing drastic drops in pay and is intended only as an emergency measure to enable companies to maintain employment amid Japan's recession, the officials said. JAM has set three years as the maximum implementation period for the system. It will ask companies to sign an agreement stipulating that during the period, management will not offer early retirement programs or cut jobs.
  ["Only an emergency measure" for only "three years as the maximum," but individual companies have no way of guaranteeing that the recession will last only that long or indeed, that it is cyclical and not secular in the first place, i.e., temporary and not chronic.]
  To facilitate the adoption of the system, JAM has proposed measures such as employees working up to 10 hours per day.
  [We suppose this means that in order to facilitate the coordination and suturing of shorter shifts, employers will be able to bunch up work on individuals up to 10 hours a day, thereby making their commuting, for example, lighter in parallel with their pay.] Of the roughly 2,300 unions comprising JAM, around 400 have been asked to accept restructuring programs such as pay cuts and temporary work stoppages, the officials said.

• Airbus plans $530m in cost cuts, by John Tagliabue, NYT, W1.
  PARIS...- Feeling the pinch of weakening demand for aircraft after 9/11, Airbus Industrie [will] cut costs...this year through early retirement of about 1,200 employees and other measures. Executives said that by eliminating overtime and part-time work, the company would reduce its labor costs the equivalent of 4,800 more full-time jobs without resorting to layoffs.
  [Shortening worklife by moving retirement forward, and eliminating weekly overtime are forms of trimming hours rather than jobs = timesizing, not downsizing. Cutting part-timers, however, is different. Airbus should be moving to a flexibly shorter workweek that makes all employees from bottom to top "part time," even in terms of the already outdated 35-hour workweek in France. However, it is true that -]
  Airbus's approach contrasts sharply with that of its American rival Boeing, which has announced 30,000 layoffs in its commercial aircraft business....
  [Recession is always a surprise to American companies, despite the fact they themselves create it by downsizing, even when they're in profit. Who do they think make up their markets and their customers' customers, the unemployed?]

1. Business chief hints at pay cuts to secure jobs, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-16-02 2239EST via AOLNews.
   TOKYO... - Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren), indicated Thursday companies may ask labor unions to accept pay cuts to prevent job losses in this year's wage negotiations. "Personnel expenses are rising, while the surplus of labor is getting worse," Okuda said in a meeting in Tokyo between Nikkeiren and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor organization.
   [We swear, the Japanese are admitting things the stuck-in-a-rut English-speaking economists (ESECs) never admit - that there's a surplus of labor and that it's getting worse. Because this is a solvable articulation of the problem, and ESECs have a tradition of denying and even ridiculing the solution it points to, namely, work sharing. They close their ears and obsessively assume an indefinite time period over which the supply of employment is also indefinite - so assume infinite or at least growing - and they then ridicule worksharing advocates as advocating what they misname The Lump of Labor Fallacy; that is, the fallacy that the supply of employment (not "labor") is finite. Worksharing advocates are only making the obvious observation that the supply of labor is not only finite in the immediate term when CEOs are practicing mass layoffs. ESECs go "naanaanaa" and never hear that phrase "in the immediate term" so they can keep chanting the irrelevant commonplace that "employment is not finite." Hell, nothing is finite in infinity, but we're not talking about infinity here. And in this global economic slump, employment is not only finite, it's shrinking.]
   ...The meeting was the first in a series of labor-management wage talks for this year. According to Rengo officials, the meeting discussed a range of labor issues, including regular wage hikes and adopting work-sharing programs.
   [The Japanese are a very practical people. They don't waste time on the obsessive jealousy or revenge that the English-speaking world does. After World War II, when American soldiers expected Japanese to hate them, they instead walked the streets without fear because the Japanese greeted them and were friendly. It's as if they said, Well, we're not the best at war so we'll drop that and be the best at something else, like economics. And goddammit, within 30 years they were. They had the second biggest economy in the world next to the USA. And for a tiny island nation that's less than half the population (127m) of the U.S. (273m, '99) and less than India (998m), Indonesia (207m), Brazil (168m), Russia (147m), Pakistan (135m), and Bangladesh (128m) and one tenth of China (1,250m), Japan had performed an economic miracle. The Brits experienced the same thing when they whupped the Japanese militarily in a couple of fracases back in the 19th century. Far from resenting them, the Japanese said, "Come and teach us." After World War II when the Japanese said "Come and teach us" to the Americans, they had the supreme good luck to pull an American statistician, W. Edwards Deming, to help them, and not one of our braindead economists. (Just see what our economists did to Russia after the USSR dissolved!) Deming's central "point for management" was "banish fear from the workplace" - and Japan sailed to world economic leadership on job security (which our economists sneered at for decades as "lifetime employment") and only began its rapid descent when they started copying our economists' short-sighted downsizing strategy - hardly deserving of the term "strategy" unless you intend to contract your economy. Now after 10 years in the economic toilet, the Japanese can see how stupid that strategy is. So true to form, they're turning the "toilet" into a "washlet" and doing the only thing they can do to save their domestic demand, their consumer base, their home markets - namely, they're ignoring the irrelevant English-speaking economists and sharing the vanishing work.]
   Kiyoshi Sasamori, head of Rengo, told the meeting he wants management to understand the significance of the group's decision earlier this month to give up demanding a uniform pay-scale hike for the first time and instead put priority on job security in this year's wage talks.
   [Lord God in heaven, the Japanese even have a labor movement that has a brain and isn't constantly shooting itself in the foot like ours! Our labor movement keeps itself ineffectual and shrinking by sidelining the worksharing/worktime-cutting issue and trotting out grocerylists of secondary demands. Who's stupider - our CEOs or our unions?! Newspaper unions are single-handedlly responsible for killing most of NYC's once-plentiful daily newspapers with their reality-ignoring demands.]
   "The fact that we went that far for the first time is significant. We want management to understand it," Sasamori said. The Rengo officials said they believe work-sharing programs would be an efficient way to improve labor market conditions. Nikkeiren officials welcomed the labor side's readiness for such programs.
   The Rengo officials also said they want member unions to decide on wage hike requests individually and not adopt the traditional habit of following the crowd.
   [Amazing. The Japanese have become the kind of open-minded can-do let's-just-get-on-with-it people that the Germans and Swiss and Americans used to be. What the heck happened to Germany? They cut the workyear with long annual vacations but they never seemed to get with it and focus on the much more effective manipulation of the workweek. The French, of all people, got to the point of focussing on the workweek, but they did it in a rigid and arbitrary fashion - boom, they jerked down to a lower and arbitrary 35-hr/wk level. At that they are still leading the world. But we have a hunch that Japan is going to design and implement a flexible and unemployment-tied version of the worksharing solution that will awe the world with its practicality and success. And we have a lot of ideas for them in our Timesizing program - still the most advanced and flexible and market-oriented and gradual worksharing design in the world at this time.]

2. [More on the pay connection -]
   Rengo voices readiness to accept wage cut in exchange for jobs, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-16-02 0829EST via AOLNews.
   [Let's be clear - hourly wages can stay the same, but with worksharing and a shorter workweek, weekly pay can be proportionately cut. It's only temporary because once you mop up the labor surplus and give employees some job options, market forces take care of raising hourly wages until weekly pay matches and exceeds pre-hourscut levels, same as it did in the USA and other developed countries between 1840 and 1940 when the workweek was cut in half (80 to 40 hrs) and pay (dba spending power) more than doubled.]
   TOKYO...- The chief of Japan's biggest trade union umbrella body on Wednesday voiced readiness to tolerate wage cuts for workers on condition employers protect their jobs and return wages to pre-cutback levels after the economy recovers.
   [Don't worry about it. Just cut the workweek, share the vanishing work, mop up the joboption-restricting wage-depressing labor surplus and market forces will take care of wages and benefits beyond your wildest expectations.]
   Kiyoshi Sasamori, head of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), told a seminar in Tokyo, "We are ready to accept wage cuts of a limited magnitude such as 5% or 7% if employers sign agreements to maintain jobs and return wages to their original levels after the economy recovers."
   [Note to Japanese labor - focus on getting flexible and deep enough cuts in worktime/workweek, and automatic overtime-to-training&hiring conversion, and you won't need signed agreements about post-recovery wage-level restoration. In fact, if you do the worksharing right, signed agreements will hold wages down!]
   Sasamori made the remark in connection with a proposal that labor and management introduce work-sharing arrangements under which workers share jobs with shortened working hours to maintain employment.
   Earlier, Sasamori said Rengo could tolerate falls in workers' annual incomes as long as they result from shorter working hours.
   [That's correct. Cuts in annual or weekly pay that are proportionate to worktime cuts do not cut hourly wages.]
   Sasamori told the seminar, "We should marshal all means to prevent joblessness from increasing further."
   [Amen. And start mentioning preventing under-consumption from increasing further along with that and your goals will be accomplished even more easily. When management cuts employees it is also cutting consumers. Not smart.]
   "Although work-sharing arrangements are not a panacea, the most effective way for dealing with the current situation is taking measures that could help maintain employment levels and avert a crisis in employment," he said.
   [Buddy, work-sharing arrangements are the closest thing we have to a panacea in the world today, because they balance the center of our lives - sustainable self-supporting livelihoods - and reduce dependency.]
   But Yotaro Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, a big-business group, who attended the same seminar as a speaker, said employment measures would depend on the outlook for firms in the longer term.
   [Outlook will improve as hiring progresses and the nation's spending power is activated by getting spread around to the ordinary people who actually spend their pay instead of just banking it.]
   "If there is an outlook for businesses to diversify into new business fields in two to three years' time, we should secure jobs even at the cost of sacrificing productivity in the short term," Kobayashi said.
   [Amen. Productivity that you have no markets for is useless - a little fact that English-speaking economists, analysts, businesspeople and business schools routinely ignore in their blindered fixation on productivity.]
   "But if there is no such outlook, it seems better to cut back on the number of workers," he said.
   [Don't you believe it. You cut back on the number of workers and concentrate spending power even more tightly in the top income brackets - who have no time or need to spend it - and you guarantee that there is no such outlook.]

3. Sanyo Electric to beef up nonmanufacturing operations, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-16-02 0948EST via AOLNews.
   TOKYO...- Sanyo Electric Co. President Yukinori Kuwano unveiled a medium-term plan Wednesday to raise the ratio of distribution and financial services in the company's operating profits to about 20% each from the current several percent. ''The manufacturing operations currently dominate the ratio, but we want to lower it,'' Kuwano told a press conference. Kuwano said Sanyo plans to win more orders for distribution services for companies outside its group and overseas manufacturers and strengthen credit, securities, insurance and other financial operations by Sanyo Electric Credit Co. and other group firms.
   Sanyo will ask its employees to accept work-sharing and other measures to deal with the excess workforce amid the current tough business environment, Kuwano said. But the company will work to generate new business areas to absorb workers, he said, referring to a goal of cultivating about 10 new areas such as fuel cells and solar power generation.
   [English-speaking economists and companies talk as if work-sharing is the end of the world, and precludes any other strategies, such as fostering innovation. Sanyo proves them wrong. In fact, way back in the late 1940s, Lincoln Electric of Cleveland Ohio started experimenting with job security via worksharing via workweek fluctuation so they could get more innovation when employees weren't afraid their ideas for greater productivity and efficiency would leave them without a job. And greater innovation Lincoln got!]
   Kuwano said Sanyo will continue its active strategy to expand in Asia in referring to its recent tie-ups with the Samsung Electronics Co. group of South Korea and Haier Group Co., China's largest home appliance manufacturer. ''We want to create a global standard in a manner different from the United States through the Asia alliance,'' he said.
   [Very wise. Even, as we all know, the United States is God's Supreme and Ultimate Gift to global standards, it's nice to have some others coming along in Japan and Europe, even though they, of course, could never in a million zillion years teach Americans anything, because, naturally, Americans already know it all from before birth.]

4. Karoshi, keiretsu enter Oxford English Dictionary, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-16-02 1910EST via AOLNews.
   LONDON...- Two Japanese words - karoshi and keiretsu - have made it into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for the first time, it was announced Thursday. The business-related words are some of the several hundred new additions to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, which is currently being updated on a quarterly basis. An OED spokeswoman said the words were included by OED lexicographers because of the frequency with which they had been appearing in the English-language media in Britain and in the rest of the English-speaking world.
   OED defines karoshi as "death brought on by overwork or job-related exhaustion".... [Hey, at least the English-speaking world, long frozen in the vise-like grip of the Puritan work ethic despite decades of work-saving technology and businessmen neglecting their families, is finally admitting there's a problem.]
   and keiretsu...as "a hierarchy of suppliers, subcontractors, etc. owned or part-owned by a parent company which they serve." ...

5. [Yahoo executive sees the light -]
   Yahoo posts lower-than-expected loss; President says he will quit - An original member of the management team leaves to spend time with his family, by Saul Hansell, NYT, C5.
   Jeff Mallet, the No. 2 executive of Yahoo, the struggline Internet portal, said yesterday that he would resign, even as the company announced higher revenue and lower losses than it had forecast....
   [These chunks of "good news" based on "forecasts" and "expectations" are always bogus, because who knows how low they set their sites so they could at least meet them? But at least in terms of this bogus good news, Mallet is leaving "on the crest" and it may be a rare opportunity to do so.]
   Mr. Mallet said he was leaving to spend more time with his two children....
   [Good move. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul...." Republicans are wont to yap about family values, but what good are "family values" without family time? They also chatter vapidly about "freedom" and "liberty," but what good are freedom liberty without the most basic freedom, free time?! If you don't have the financially secure free time in which to enjoy the other freedoms, how real are they? (And the Democrats aren't much better on this score - running around with all their socialistic liberal micromanagement like chickens with their heads cut off. At least they spare us the hypocritical rhetoric about Freedom and Liberty.)]

1. Mr. Timesizing (Phil Hyde) reportedly covered on CNN, "Linda" via SCAT phone-in.
   ...near the end of Bill Press's Crossfire program just before 8 last evening, Jan. 15. The first call on Phil's weekly phone-in show on Somerville Community Access TV's Channel 3, 6-6:30 pm Weds., was from "Linda," who said she had seen a short segment on Phil the previous night. It apparently covered the same ground as the frontpage Wall St. Journal squib that day and showed a map of Massachusetts with Somerville highlighted.

2. Gov't, business, labor agree Japan should adopt job-sharing, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-15-02 0800EST via AOLNews.
   [Job-sharing here meaning work-sharing, as reworded in first paragraph. (Job-sharing is splitting a 40-hr/wk job; work-sharing goes beyond that to gradually adjust the definition of "full-time job" to 39, 38, 37 hrs/wk or however low it takes to let everyone participate in the job market and support themselves so that taxpayers do not have to support them.)]
   TOKYO...- Representatives from the government, business and labor sectors agreed Tuesday that Japanese companies should adopt work-sharing as a way to help the nation's deteriorating employment situation.
   [There's really no choice after you've tried civilian makework ("too little too late") for ten years and you can't or won't play the military makework card. Ironically, this sharework solution that economies so reluctantly take up is the very essence of human progress - less work and more pay for the average person. But Japan with its culture of sleep deprivation, and the English-speaking economies with their culture of Puritan work ethic, have to be dragged toward heaven kicking and screaming, and denying up and down that financially secure free time is patently the most fundamental freedom there is, without which all the other "freedoms" are meaningless.]
   The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the Japan Federation of Employers Associations (Nikkeiren) and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) reached the agreement at an expert-level meeting, participants said. The three sectors will continue holding expert-level talks with an eye to mapping out a blueprint in early March for the introduction of a new system, they said.
   Issues to be discussed include -
   • wage systems,
     [This can be left to market forces except for low-income employees who would experience hardship during the transition when market forces have not yet responded to the decreasing labor surplus by pushing up hourly wages and benefits.]
   • ways to encourage individual companies to adopt job-sharing
     [Let's keep our language precise here. We're talking about work sharing, not job sharing. Work is a fluid pool that can be flexibly divided up. A "job" on the other hand assumes a fixed workweek that we want to divvy up. The best work sharing plans do not merely jump from one fixed workweek to another one, albeit lower. This is Japan's opportunity to outdo France, and seize world leadership from them. The French opted for a lower fixed and arbitrary workweek. The Japanese should opt for a flexible workweek that fluctuates slowly against unemployment - if unemployment is too high or rising, the workweek slowly adjusts downward, an hour a month, an hour a quarter, an hour a halfyear, an hour a year, whatever - the rate of adjustment can be determined by regular referendums of the participating constituency. The point is to make the problem control the solution so that you always get the right amount of solution and not too little or too much. (The other thing Japan should do that France failed to do is automatic overtime-to-training&hiring conversion.) The Labor Minister Chikara Sakaguchi should stop off in France and study the Robien Law of 1996-97 for the answer to this question of how to incentivize worksharing in companies. The previous Robien Law in France was actually more flexible than the current 35-hour workweek, though its implementation was still too rigid and too slow (ergo the 12.6% unemployment of 1997). Under Robien, France offered seven year tax breaks to encourage companies to cut 10 or 15% of their workweeks instead of 10 or 15% of their workforces. The taxbreak for the first year was bigger. France has tons of firsthand experience with this approach. Thousands of people there remember it well, since 110 companies took advantage of the program in its first six months (Aug/96-Jan/97). This was a program initiated by the right-of-center UDF Party in France ("Union Democratique Francaise"?).]
   • how to separate the roles of the three sectors in promoting it.
     [Why is this necessary? Why is deliberate role separation a factor? Where is this idea coming from? Sounds like a red herring. The promotion of the approach by the three sectors should be able to merge and mingle and synergize without problems.]
   The meeting was the first expert-level talks on work-sharing by the ministry [govt], Nikkeiren [employers] and Rengo [employees] since their top officials met to discuss it in late November.
   In November, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi, Nikkeiren Chairman Hiroshi Okuda and Kiyoshi Sasamori, president of Rengo, agreed that the three sectors should jointly study work-sharing.
   [This is exciting. Hopefully the Japanese will implement a very natural and flexible system, regain their 1970s and 80s status as an economic powerhouse, and force the rest of the world to modernize their balking sputtering economies. As economic engineer Arthur Dahlberg said in 1932 ("Jobs, Machines and Capitalism," p.23) - "For I believe that our balking, backfiring profits economy can - by injecting one planned adjustment - be made to work in socially desirable ways, and even be made to satisfy high-grade engineering standards of efficiency, with even less involved governmental interference and industrial control than we already have."]

3. [And here's why Japan needs work sharing besides record unemployment -]
   Compensation granted over editor's death in 'flexible' work, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-15-02 0951EST via AOLNews.
   TOKYO...- A regional labor office on Tuesday granted compensation to the family of a young employee at a Tokyo publisher over his death in 1997 from overwork, marking the first case of "karoshi" - death from overwork - [has been] recognized for an employee under a flexible work arrangement.
   Tatsuru Wakiyama died of a heart attack in July 1997 at the age of 24, having logged 3,200 work hours during the year up to his death at Kobunsha K.K., after joining the firm in April 1996. He was assigned a job in the editorial department of "Shukan Josei Jishin," a ladies' weekly.
   The parents of Wakiyama had sought compensation but the Tokyo Central Labor Standard Office decided in May 2000 not to grant it, recognizing no link between his death and his work duties as he was working under a flexible regime where hours and other conditions are left up to the worker in achieving a certain workload. The parents subsequently filed a suit with the Tokyo District Court to revoke the decision.... Wakiyama's parents have also filed a separate damages suit against Kobunsha, seeking around 168m yen..\..
   On Tuesday, the Tokyo labor office told Wakiyama's parents of the decision to grant compensation. "We have decided to review the case before the court renders a judgment, with a view to providing compensation to the bereaved family," said Tadaaki Sekioka, an official of the labor office. The change of heart follows the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's move in December to expand criteria for recognizing karoshi, he said.
   A national council of lawyers representing victims of karoshi said this is the first time it has been recognized in compensation for an employee under such a flexible work system.
   [Under Timesizing, karoshi is avoided (or at least transformed into a pleasant - for the worker - though hard-to-understand form of euthanasia) by making sure overworkers/workoholics are doing it for love, not money. They are required to reinvest overtime/overwork earnings in training and hiring, ultimately making even employees of large corporations separate growth units constituting potential seeds of new corporate empires. Under Timesizing, if by Phase 3, people need more money than they can make within the 40-hour or reduced workweek, they take advantage of the many on-the-job training programs that pop up all over the economy in Phase 2. By upgrading their skills, they can earn within straight time what they think they need without going into overtime or overwork (= overtime from all sources, eg: moonlighting or multiple part-time jobs).]

4. [a company limits workforce cuts with workweek cuts -]
   Riviera Tool Company Announces First-Quarter Results, PRNewswire-FirstCall 01/15/2002 08:02 EST via AOLNews.
   GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -...The Grand Rapids, Mich.-based designer and manufacturer of stamping die systems (Amex: RTC) reported a net loss of $815,785, or $0.24 per share, on net sales of $3.4 million for the quarter ended Nov. 30, 2001, compared with a net income of $332,443, or $0.10 per share, on net sales of $4.6 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2000. "We continue to face the most difficult market conditions in the 32-year history of Riviera Tool," said Kenneth K. Rieth, president and chief executive officer.  "The automakers and their Tier One suppliers continue to delay or cancel program launches in an effort to bolster their own bottom lines.  The few contracts that have been released continue to create a state of hyper competition, which is resulting in price erosion.
   "These factors continue to depress both contract revenue and margins.  We have maintained our strategy of bidding on contracts at rates that, if awarded, would contribute positively to our results.  We will continue to seek opportunities to bid on new projects, but we will remain selective in this process."
   Riviera continued a series of cost-containment initiatives, including layoffs and work-week reductions, in an effort to better manage costs.  These initiatives, which were undertaken in the first quarter of fiscal 2001, have resulted in further savings in salaries, engineering expense and shop floor expense.
   [I.e., Timesizing, vs. downsizing.]
   Additionally, the Company said it has reduced operating costs by 12% in the quarter, reflecting a reduction in public company costs, decreased directors' fees and lower single-business tax levels.  Riviera said these cost reductions were offset by increased investment in technology and selling, as well as higher legal and professional fees.
   "The strength of our balance sheet, in combination with an aggressive program of cost-saving measures, should allow us to weather these challenging marketing conditions, which continue to affect our entire industry," Rieth said....

5. [another company today limits workforce cuts with workweek cuts -]
   Daktronics, Inc. updates guidance for fiscal 2002 and provides outlook for fhird quarter; Announces significant new projects, Business Wire BW2592 JAN 15,2002 16:10 EASTERN via AOLNews.
   BROOKINGS, S.D. -...Daktronics, Inc. (Nasdaq:DAKT)...now expects that annual revenues will be in the range of $149 million to $155 million, with earnings per share for the year in the range of $.25 to $.31.... The company expects revenues for the third quarter ending Jan. 26, 2002 in the range of $29 million to $31 million, with per-share results in the range of $.01 in earnings to a loss of $.02. Revenues and earnings per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2001 were $33 million and $.08, respectively.
   "We've seen a modest economy-related slowdown in some segments of our business continuing into the third quarter...," said James Morgan, CEO and president of Daktronics. "...Revenues from larger sports venues are expected to be down slightly compared to last year, although through December, order bookings in the sports market niches increased compared to the same period last year...."
   The company continues with numerous measures that are helping to bring costs in line with anticipated revenues, including reductions in the number of employees, reduced work hours, and reductions in the salaries of its higher level managers. "We estimate that the reductions related to operating expenses will reduce those expenses by more than $1.5 million annually, although the effects will not be realized until the fourth quarter and thereafter," said Bill Retterath, CFO....
   CONTACT:
   Mark Steinkamp, 800/605-DAKT (3258) or
   Bill Retterath, 800/605-DAKT (3258)

1. Mr. Timesizing (Phil Hyde) appears today on -

   • [front page Wall St. Journal, Work Week column (2nd from right), 2nd item -]
     Born to run? - An advocate for less work will sit out this election, by Carlos Tejada, WSJ, front page.
     Americans put in too many hours, says Philip Hyde, of Somerville, Mass. Activists early in the last century "fought tooth and nail for the weekend, and we're giving it all back," he says. The Canadian-born Mr. Hyde has in the past several elections run for the U.S. House and Senate [against the Kennedy's] as a Republican and through his own Timesizing.com Party.
     He argues a shorter workweek could improve both the economy and workers' lives. This year, he plans to stay at home, as the small number of votes he has received has dropped with each election. Are workers rejecting his call? No, says Mr. Hyde, who instead blames a lack of finances. "Each time, I hardly spent a cent," he says.
     [Also, each time Phil had more company as an alternative candidate. In 1996, it was mano a mano in the House race against Joe Kennedy. Phil won over 27,000 votes or 16% of the total vote on a campaign budget of $600 while Kennedy spent $2 million - Phil knew the only way to compete with an incumbent Kennedy is ideas, not wallets. In 1998 partway into the House race when Phil already had 3/4 of his 2,000 signatures, Kennedy quit. However, 10 other Democrats and two independents jumped into the contest. The 10 Democrats together multiplied Kennedy's spending by at least a factor of 10 for a total of over $20 million. The two independents spent at least $15,000. The independents together won 6½%. Phil spent $500 and won about 14,000 votes or 12½%. In the Y2000 Senate race, Phil had to run as an independent to get an extra 3 months to obtain the 10,000 signatures (the GOP had never helped on this score). So Phil seized the opportunity to start the world's first dot-com political party, the Timesizing.com Party. He enshrined his critical-path platform, " Timesizing, Not Downsizing," as a kind of time capsule for the future on 3 million statewide ballots in a millennium-year race against the biggest long-term name in U.S. politics, Ted Kennedy. But five other candidates were running against Kennedy too, all with less distaste for money-in-politics than Phil, so while Kennedy spent $millions, the Libertarian spent nearly $1,000,000 (for 12%), the Republican spent over $100,000 (for 13%), and the Natural Law and Conservative candidates spent maybe $10,000, - Phil spent $1000. Phil did win over 8,000 votes, but this was less than 1% of the total. But that "time capsule" - Timesizing, Not Downsizing - is permanently there in the government record books all over the country from the beginning of this millennium, for some future time when Americans finally realize they can't "hard work" their way out of slumping markets in a context of technological efficiency and workforce downsizing.]

   • Scott Sloan talk show 4-5pm central on NewsRadio AM1370 WSPD out of Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland

   • Scott Sloan Show 9-10pm eastern on The Big One AM700 WLW out of Cincinnati (reaches 50 states and Canada, 2½ million listeners)

2. Japan - Main events scheduled for Tuesday Jan. 15, Kyodo via AP-NY-01-14-02 via AOLNews.
   TOKYO...- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to return from 5-nation Southeast Asian tour.
   Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi to begin 6-day visit to Germany to observe how work-sharing is implemented there....
   ["Worksharing" is another word for timesizing - cutting hours instead of cutting employees (and consumers).]

3. Japan's first trade agreement avoids the question of agricultural markets, Australian Broadcasting 14 Jan 2002 9:02am AEDT via AOLNews.
   ...Japan's agreement with Singapore glosses over that issue since Singapore has very limited agricultural exports....
   [And since Japan wants to protect its rice farmers so it doesn't become dependent on foreign food the way it (and the U.S.) has become dependent on foreign oil.]
   Pessimism.... The London-based global chief economist of Deutsche Asset Management, Steven Ball, found a mood of deep pessimism on a recent visit to Japan. "The fact is that wages are falling, consumer spending is falling, the government is having to retrench," he said. "They've already done all they can in cutting interest rates because they're at zero. And they have to make structural reforms...
   [We're with him so far - ed.]
   ...but the first effect of the structural reforms is going to be that more people get fired."
   [There we part company. Why? Because there's a way more people will get jobs and make an active contribution to consumer spending again. Steve Ball even mentions it later, but evidently hasn't got his "brain wiring" so screwed up that he doesn't realize its significance -]
   "Wages are falling and non-recurrent wages, the bonuses and overtime, are now down by 8% on a year ago."
   [Overtime is down. That's hopeful because it means that already, more work-sharing is going on in Japan. The fact is, that when there isn't enough work to allow everybody to get 40 hours a week of it - and judging from Japan's rising unemployment, homeless and suicide rates, there isn't - there's only one solution apart from war, and that is, cut the workweek and share the vanishing work. This isn't a counsel of despair. It's a victory. It's progress. Why? Because the whole point of technology is to make life easier for people, which it ain't doin' when CEOs use it to downsize instead of timesize, to cut jobs instead of cutting hours. Progress means shorter hours and more pay. How does the paradox work? Why does cutting the workweek mean more pay rather than less pay? Because of supply and demand. When you're constantly cutting your workforce, you get more and more people looking for jobs and willing to settle for lower and lower pay. When you cut your workweek and keep everybody employed, there's no desperate crowd of unemployed people out there to replace you with if you ask for a raise, so you tend to get that raise, instead of getting a pink slip.]

4. French Socialists attack redundancy law ruling, by Paul Carrel, Reuters 15:33 01-14-02 via AOLNews.
   PARIS...- France's...top constitutional body...rejected a move to protect workers from company layoffs. The Constitutional Council ruled on Saturday that an article in a new law seeking to define when companies could make staff redundant was unconstitutional as it would limit "entrepreneurial freedom." The ruling was the 2nd setback the Council had dealt the government in 2 months and will be seen as a boost for the conservative opposition - which had fought the new law saying it was anti-business - and for President Jacques Chirac, who is widely expected to run for a second term this summer.
   The [governing] Socialist Party of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who is expected to run for president against Chirac, called the decision "partisan."  Party spokesman Vincent Peillon said: "There is a probably partisan interpretation of the definition of 'entrepreneurial freedom' in this country. We're also in favour of entrepreneurial freedom but that freedom mustn't be confused with the freedom to make redundant" [i.e., to license to perpetrate mass layoffs].
   The Council validated all elements of the new law except an article stipulating that firms could only [resort to layoffs in] three cases -
   • when they encounter "serious economic difficulties" which cannot be solved in another way;
   • [when there are] "technological changes threatening the continuity of the company" or
   • when a company's activities can only be safeguarded by a restructuring.
   ...The clauses were added...amid public outcry last year over a series of high-profile corporate restructurings involving lay-offs, notably by Britain's Marks & Spencers Plc....
   The Council validated measures to give workers more information on restructuring moves and measures to safeguard jobs or re-employ staff. [However,] last month the Constitutional Council rejected elements of legislation on the financing of the 35-hour working week - one of Jospin's flagship policies..\.. Seven of..\..the 9-member Council [are] right-wing appointees....
   [So many conservatives still think that the job market is infinite and infinitely abusable, as we all used to view the oceans. However, Jospin would not need to target layoffs if he implemented overtime-targeted training&hiring and fluctuating adjustment of the workweek, instead of just jerking it down to another rigid and arbitrary level (35-hrs/wk).]

• [constitutional snags - cut-workweek law last month, cut-layoffs law this month]
  New French redundancy law hits constitutional snag, by Dominique Vidalon, Reuters 06:04 01-13-02 via AOLNews.
  PARIS... - France's supreme constitutional body has rejected an article in a new law establishing pre-conditions when companies want to lay off staff. The Conseil Constitutionel ruled on Saturday night that Article 107 of the law approved by parliament last December was "against the constitution" as it stood too much in the way of entrepreneurial freedom.... The Conseil Constitutionel validated all other proposals of the new law, which included better information for workers on restructurings and improved measures to safeguard jobs or re-employ staff..\..
  France's Employment Ministry moved swiftly to play down the significance of the ruling, saying it "did not in any way threaten the global reform of collective layoff procedures." "This reform will therefore go ahead as soon as possible,"" the ministry statement said.... A government source said the government will now seek to implement the rest of the new law with the exception of article 107..\..
  Article 107 had defined three cases where firms can make layoffs:
  • when they encounter "serious economic difficulties" which cannot be solved in another way;
  • "technological changes threatening the continuity of the company"; or
  • when a company's activities can only be safeguarded by a restructuring.
  The measures, which were voted last month..., followed a public outcry over the way national food group Danone (DANO.PA) and British retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) handled layoff plans....
  The Conseil's ruling is a victory for opposition conservatives who had fought the new law on constitutional grounds, saying it was anti-business.
  [Depends what they mean by 'business' - if they want to do anything they like in the short run regardless of how much it damages their customer base, it's anti-business, but if they want to stay in business because they're growing their customer base by maintaining and growing their employee base, it's pro-business.]
  Corporate leaders had fought the law, saying it would threaten investment in France. Fifty-six company managers wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in October urging him to seek amendments..\.. It is a new slap for the Socialist government as the same Conseil last month rejected part of [some] legislation on the financing of the 35-hour working week....

• Byers promises Britain's railways a better future, Reuters 02:25 01-11-02 via AOLNews.
  LONDON...- Transport Secretary Stephen Byers promised on Friday Britain's crisis-hit railways would get better, but said the public realised there were "no quick fixes."...
  Earlier this week the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), which represents non-driving staff like guards and conductors, announced a third 48-hour strike over pay [and overtime - see below] on South West Trains [SWT] on Jan. 24-25. SWT also operates on several busy commuter routes into London. A walkout by RMT staff on Arriva Trains Northern on Jan. 24-25 and Feb. 5-6 will hobble services linking northern cities like Manchester, Newcastle and York.
  And in Scotland, an overtime ban by ScotRail drivers hit a quarter of services earlier this week.
  Negotiations between RMT and ScotRail officials broke down late on Thursday without a deal, BBC reported....

1. Costs of forced overtime too high; New EPI report shows workers, employers and consumers pay the price, PRNewswire 01/10/2002 10:04 EST via AOLNews.
   HARRISBURG, Pa...- Workers, employers and consumers are paying too high a price for mandatory overtime, according to Time After Time: Mandatory Overtime in the U.S. Economy, released today by the Washington-based *Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The report, co-authored by Penn State economist Lonnie Golden, lays out economic and social reasons that the Pennsylvania legislature needs to take prompt action to address forced overtime.
   Almost one-third of the workforce regularly works more than the standard 40-hour week; one-fifth work more than 50 hours. Although the recession has curbed the rate of mandatory overtime in some sectors, it is still a widespread practice in others. A poll, cited in this report, found that 43% of critical care nurses work in hospitals where overtime is mandatory..\..
   Costs to industry alone are between $150 and $300 billion per year in stress- and fatigue-related problems brought on by excessive overtime.
   "Mandatory overtime can play havoc with the family lives of workers," said Stephen Herzenberg, *Keystone Research Center Executive Director. "This is the 21st century - we need to give workers the option of making their children a higher priority than having to work additional hours, often with no notice."...
   The costs and risks of excessive and forced overtime are most pronounced in the medical industry. A national survey of nurses found 56% believe the time they have for each patient has decreased and 75% feel that the quality of patient care has decreased in the last two years. Medical residents cited fatigue as a cause for their serious mistakes in 4 out of 10 cases. Nurse's aides were second only to truck drivers in the total number of cases of disabling injuries and illness attributable to excessive overtime.
   Even with the economy in recession, many employers continue to require their current workers to put in more hours rather than raise wages to attract new employees - even if it means paying an overtime premium and risking more accidents by employees impaired by fatigue.
   "Mandatory overtime is driving nurses and other healthcare workers out of hospitals and has become one of the chief causes for the serious shortage of healthcare workers. Hospitals should not be allowed to use forced overtime to compensate for insufficient staffing," said Eileen Connelly, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU District 1199, which represents 16,000 healthcare workers in Pennsylvania.
   In Pa., two identical pieces of legislation (House Bill No. 1959 and Senate Bill No. 1102) would ban mandatory overtime for all health care workers, except in the case of an emergency.
   In a policy statement on jobs released last September 28, *United Pennsylvanians, a coalition that includes leaders from the religious, labor, business, civic, and policy communities, joined the campaign against mandatory overtime. According to the statement, "Forcing workers...can lead to children being unattended and create a vicious circle in which forced overtime leads workers to quit, with more mandatory overtime for remaining workers, and then more quit. In the long run, prohibiting forced overtime would benefit employers as well as workers and families."