Timesizing® Associates - Homepage

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Timesizing News, February 21-28, 2002
[Commentary] ©2002 Phil Hyde, Timesizing.com, Box 622, Porter Sq, Cambridge MA 02140 USA 617-623-8080

2/28/2002  primitive Timesizing in the news -

1. [Chirac calls 35-hr wk 'authoritarian' but would flex, not scrap]
   Chirac, on campaign trail, pledges to slash taxes, by Sophie Louet, Reuters 13:54 02-27-02 via AOLNews.
   ST-CYR-SUR-LOIRE, France...- French Pres. Jacques Chirac, campaigning for re-election in April, promised on Wednesday to slash income tax by one-third and use cash from privatisations to help fund the state pension scheme.
   [That's the right for you - eat your seed grain and to hell with tomorrow.]
   "Reducing income tax is a priority and this would cover 15m households," Chirac said during a campaign visit to St-Cyr-sur-Loire in western France.... Addressing an audience of businessmen, Chirac also vowed to fight unemployment by reducing the payroll taxes levied on employers in the case of low-wage earners.... He did not say how he would finance tax cuts without raising the public deficit..\..
   [Except by one-time-and-they're-gone privatisation of state companies.]
   In Wednesday's speech, Chirac criticized the "authoritarian" manner in which Jospin's government had shortened the working week to 35 hours, saying he would not scrap this but would make it more flexible....
   [Well that at least is good news - even Chirac judges that the 35-hour workweek has become too entrenched to scrap outright. He would have to chip away at it by "making it more flexible."]

2. [no kidding - we actually have some timesizing buzz in the usually time-blind (despite its name) NY Times today -]
   South Korea: Rail strike ends, by Don Kirk, NYT, A6.
   Railroad workers ended a 2-day walkout after their union accepted the government's proposal for reducing the number of hours they have to work and improving working conditions. The agreement did not cover the government's plan to privatize the system. Union members at the Korea Power Co. remained on strike, maintaining that privatization would jeopardize thousands of jobs.
   [That's it. Be grateful for small mercies. Let's see if the source Reuters version has any extra goodies -]
   S. Korea rail union ends strike, power workers don't, by Martin Nesirky with Paul Eckert, Nam In-soo, Samuel Len, Yoo Choon-sik, Kim Myong-hwan & Kim Miyoung (aren't these wonderful? we are not making them up), Reuters 22:33 02-26-02 via AOLNews.
   SEOUL, Feb. 27 - Unionised workers at South Korea's state-run railway corporation returned to work on Wednesday, ending their outlawed 2-day strike over working hours and privatisation plans, the country's largest labour group [FKTU] said.... KBS [Korean Broadcasting Service?] quoted rail officials as saying it would take until later on Wed. to bring service back to normal..\.. But a spokesman for the Commerce Ministry said...unionised power workers were still on strike, although more talks would be held...to seek a solution to labour unrest in key election year in Asia's third largest economy....
   [If you're an insular insulated isolationist American and you don't know why some words are spelled funny in the above paragraph, let's review - that's the British spelling, and sometimes us Canucks do it too, like we usually do the -our thing in labour, colour, flavour etc, - we don't usually do the -ise thing in privatise, socialise, finalise etc, - but you just can't separate us from -tre in centre, theatre, mitre etc. By such meagre symbolisms we have managed to eke out our independence oer the last 2 centuries, or at least kept available to serve as America's real second party when the two official ones get too hard to distinguish. Remember our early diplomatic relations with naughty Cuba and China? What would you do without us? (OK OK, you'd win the gold in hockey and let the Russky's hoard it in pair skating.)]
   South Korean shares opened 1% higher on Wed. after rising above 800 points in the previous session for the first time in 19 months....
   [No problem there.]
   Thousands of union workers on the railways and at power firms began the first coordinated public-sector strike [in So. Korean history!] early on Monday, demanding shorter working hours and that the government scrap plans to privatise [and probably downsize - ed.] public utilities and services.
   ...The Federation of Korean Trade Unions [FKTU] said the deal ending the strike would introduce more flexible shifts, shorter hours and better pay and start talks on rehiring workers laid off over the past decade.
   [Reuters is vague on the details of the shorter-hours agreement. And the FKTU itself was vague on another matter -]
   But it said the deal was vague about privatisation, saying labour and management agreed to "cooperate on developing the railways for the good of the public."... In a possible harbinger...
   [reporters in Korea like this word cuz there's a big Chinese city named Harbin a few hundred miles inland (north) from Korea]
   ...of more troubles in an election year, the strike had widened to the private sector on Tuesday, when 100,000 industrial workers [at Hyundai and Kia] walked out for four hours....
   Many people work six days a week in South Korea, where laws mandating a 44-hour work week are often ignored. Last year, the average worker put in 20.4 hours overtime a week, officials say. Local media said some rail workers put in 78-hour weeks....

1. S. Korea strike enters 2nd day, more stoppages loom, by Paul Eckhart with Samuel Len & Kim Miyoung, Reuters 21:16 02-25-02 via AOLNews.
   SEOUL, Feb 26 - South Korea faced more commuter chaos on Tuesday as an outlawed strike by railway and power workers over long working hours and privatisation entered a second day and threatened to spill over into the private sector.... The rail, gas and power unions demanded a halt to privatising state utilities and shorter working hours.... Unions fear mass layoffs under the government's plan to restructure debt-ridden state companies through privatisation..\..
   [What's the problem? Just tax those who have far more than they can spend until you get timesizing going to centrifuge spending power by market forces.]
   The rail stoppage distrupted transport, delaying the delivery to ports of cargo for export and creating what local media dubbed the "commuter war" in Seoul as people faced two-hour delays and crowded trains with traffic reduced to a third..\.. The country's largest union, the 13m-member Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) said railway union officials would restart negotiations with state rail authorities at 10:30 am (0130 GMT)....
   The cloud over unfinished reforms in Asia's third largest economy could grow if the militant [Korean] Confederation of Trade Unions [KCTU] follows through on a threat to strike at 140 firms in most manufacturing sectors later on Tuesday. The KCTU, the second-largest union with 500,000 members, said 100,000 workers would walk out at 1 pm (0400 GMT) unless laws are revised to ensure [no more than] a five-day workweek and flexible shifts....
   "Our plan is to join the KCTU strike at 1 pm if union demands are not met by then," said Cho Byoung-hee, an official at Hyundai Motor's union at the main Ulsan plant in southern Korea. "Union leaders are discussing this plan with other members at the plant, but the mood is that unionised workers will all participate," he told Reuters. Hyundai Motor has around 50,000 workers, of whom 38,000 are union members, Cho said....
   Workers at state-run Korea Gas went back to work after the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy agreed to give unions a say on the timing and methods of the privatisation process. The strikes take place amid a recovering economy and a 3.2% "unemployment rate" [our quotes - ed.], the lowest since 1997....
   [And another quick followup -]
   Car workers join fray on day two of S. Korea strike, by Paul Eckhart with Samuel Len, Lee Shin-hyung, Song Jung-a, Shon Jung-min & Kim Miyoung, Reuters 01:02 02-26-02 via AOLNews.
   Union workers at two top South Korean carmakers walked out on Tuesday, on the second day of an outlawed and unprecedented strike by railway and power unions over long working hours and privatisation. The 4-hour stoppage at all plants of Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors extended to the private sector an indefinite strike by thousands of public sector workers.... "All Hyundai Motor plants halted production at 1 pm (0400 GMT) for four hours in line with the KCTU strike," Cho Byoung-hee a Hundai union spokesman told Reuters. A Kia spokesman said union workers had also walked out at all plants..\..
   The private sector manufacturing unions at Hyundai and Kia want shorter hours and more flexible shifts - the core demand of the militant KCTU.... KCTU had said 100,000 workers would walk out on Tuesday unless labour laws are revised to ensure a five-day workweek.... Many people work six days a week in South Korea, where laws mandating just a 44-hour workweek are routinely ignored. Last year, the average worker put in 20.4 hours overtime a week, officials say..\..
   [They might as well set up slave auctions. Even if it's paid overtime, what good is money with no time to spend it?]
   The government has threated stern measures to end the rail and power strikes, which come at a critical [pre-election] time for the South Korean economy, one of the few bright spots in Asia....
   [But only because it has a famously rosy-by-definition "unemployment rate" (compare ours) and we're not looking at its medieval working hours.]
   The government says the rail and power strike violates laws banning walkouts at public utilities. Officials said it was the first such action in South Korea's turbulent labour history..\.. So far there has been none of the violence associated with South Korean labour disputes of the late 1980s, when the country experienced up to 3,000 often bloody strikes each year. There were 235 strikes last year, up from 129 in 1998 and 85 in 1996....
   [Guess it's the only way to get these growth-strangling misers to share.]

2. Lean manufacturers recognized for excellence with Shingo Prize, PRNewswire 02/26/2002 15:28 EST via AOLNews.
   LOGAN, Utah...- The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing announced [yester]day the recipients of its 14th annual business awards. [One of] this year's Shingo Prize recipients [was]: Delphi Delco Electronics de Mexico, Deltronics Operations, Matamoros, Mexico with nearly 5300 employees - ...At the end of 2001, the facility had reduced premium freight, scrap, overtime and FTQ by more than 60%, achieved 100% employee participation with implemented improvement ideas and logged over 37m man-hours without a lost work day....
   [That only leaves one question. What's FTQ?]

3. FutureOne reports revenues and results for quarter ended Dec. 31, 2001, Business Wire BW0040 Feb 26,2002 via AOLNews.
   COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo...- *FutureOne Inc. (OTC BB: FUTO) Tuesday reported first quarter revenues and results in its 10-QSB filed with the U.S. *SEC....   President and CEO Donald Cannella commented, "Although our revenues decrease 29% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2001, I am very pleased with our cost controls and continued reductions in administrative expenses. Direct labor, overtime, equipment rental construction related travel and contractor expenses were significantly reduced....

4. Waste Management earnings rise, outlook is positive, Reuters 14:45 02-26-02 via AOLNews.
   HOUSTON - Waste Management Inc., the No. 1 U.S. waste hauler, Tuesday reported higher pro forma earnings for the 2001 fourth quarter, due in part to lower expenses.... Chairman, President and CEO [ie: total Poobah] Maurice Myers said that in mid-February the company put into effect new cost-cutting measures focusing on overtime, contract labor, and professional fees. "These steps are absolutely necessary in light of the slowdown in the economy and the resulting impact to our business levels," he said....

1. Focus: Opinions divided on work-sharing, by Sawako Obara, Kyodo News via AP-NY-02-25-02 0136EST via AOLNews.
   TOKYO...- Labor unions are reacting differently to the introduction of a work-sharing system, under which [work] will be shared by employees working shorter hours, aimed at resolving Japan's record-high unemployment rate of 5.6% hit last December, the worst postwar figure.... The work-sharing system is being studied by labor and management as an emergency measure to protect jobs. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest union, has approved cuts in wages to secure employment....
   [For the yea's -]
   The Japanese Electrical, Electronic and Information Union (Denki Rengo) is reacting favorably to the introduction of the system...
   [But virtually all the rest of this article turns out to be for the nay's -]
   ...but the Japanese Federation of Textile, Garment, Chemical, Mercantile, Food and Allied Industries Workers Unions (Zensen) is distancing itself from the system, saying, "Work-sharing is a different word for wage cuts"..\..
   [And there's a specific small-business example possibly unrelated to Zensen -]
   Masayuki Tanabe...secretary general of the union of a small supermarket in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward, refused management's proposal to introduce such a system outright at a collective bargaining session late last year. ''Employees at big enterprises can adopt the system and be all right even if wages are cut. But workers at companies like mine that earn profits of 3-4m yen a year will be forced to work two or more jobs if our wages are cut,'' he said. Management has already reduced bonuses and paid holidays due to the store's sluggish business performance. For Tanabe and other unionists, the proposal to introduce the work-sharing system is a ''second step to reducing wages.'' Tanabe said, ''Management is concealing unfavorable changes in working conditions with fine words. They say they share the pain with us, but it's the non-management workers who have to suffer.''
   [The fact is, work-sharing can and should be introduced with lots of change but no pain. This is done by multiplying options for employees as a first step. This in turn is done by multiplying overtime-targeted on-the-job training programs as a first step. We were hoping that Japan would get this right and teach the world, but clearly they are screwing it up worse than France, which at least had an unrelated nationwide training system in place (1.5% of every firm's payroll budget has to go to training or get taxed away) before launching their big 4-hour cut in the workweek the last two years. The way it should be done is, first you give employees a lot of options, then you gradually cut the workweek, maybe just a half-hour every half year. You let firms prorate pay if they want or need to, but when employees have plenty of on-the-job training programs available to them, many at higher hourly wages, the actuality and even just the risk of losing employees to these plentiful alternatives incentivates many more firms to maintain weekly pay constant despite small workweek reductions. The Timesizing program takes care of this option-multiplying redesign of overtime in Phase 2. As for employees taking second and third jobs ("moonlighting"), that of course undermines the whole point of work sharing, which is to centrifuge employment and stop the concentration of the vanishing market-demanded human employment as modern economies automate and robotize. The Timesizing program takes care of this potential moonlighting leak in Phase 3.]
   When it introduced the work-sharing system in 1982, the Netherlands aimed at abolishing wage gaps between part- and full-time workers and expanding employment by increasing the number of part-time workers. But in Japan, discussions on such goals have been left out.
   [This is the first information we have on the Dutch approach, which strikes us as "against the current" but, hey, if it works for them.... Our problem with it is that it takes a lot of preaching to get wages up, e.g., the part-time wages in the Dutch system. We think it's easier to swim with the current of market forces rather than against them. Simple higher-wage demands, including minimum wage demands and living wage demands, run counter to the current of market forces by trying to get a higher price for a surplus commodity, plentiful labor. We prefer to "go with the flow," use the "zen" of market forces and create an economywide shortage of labor - by redesigning and enforcing overtime and giving employees a lot of on-the-job training alternatives, and then letting market forces drive up wages in response to the shortage. The fact that Japan has left out this step completely is a big disappointment. We thought when we saw Japan sending its Labor Minister last month to study German work sharing that Japan was going to get it right, but alas, they're trying to take a shortcut just as France did by avoiding the all-important redesign and enforcement of overtime. Here's more on the screwup in progress in Japan -]
   According to a Labor Ministry survey, the hourly wage for a female part-time worker is 67% of a female full-time worker. ''I am exceedingly angry at the posture of the union to guard the vested interests of full-time workers,'' said a...female part-time worker at a bank in central Nagoya.
   The Japan Federation of Service and Distributive Workers Unions said the work-sharing system has already been introduced to supermarket and department stores where the rate of employment of part-time workers is high. A supermarket store union official said, ''Two part-time workers can be employed with a salary of one full-time worker. The company will never give up this convenient system, and the union is finding it hard to propose measures which might worsen treatment for full-time workers.''
   Michiko Watanabe, a lawyer for a defense council for working women, said that if emergency work-sharing and transfers of full-time workers to part-time progress, ''There is a danger for further increases in part-time workers with poor working conditions and cheap wages.''
   Hiroyuki Ida, assistant professor at Osaka University of Economics, said, ''(In Japan where overtime work with no pay is common,) employment doesn't increase even if working hours are simply cut. The work-sharing system may become a Japanese model in which businesses can survive with reductions in personnel expenses.''
   [Well there's their problem. And it is huge one, and it is shared by the U.S., Canada, the UK, and France. The corrupt and unaccountable use of overtime and the "salary" as a blank check on employees' lives. There is no shortcut. Economies at all levels must clean up their act on overtime first, because overtime is the first and most accessible reason for their weak domestic consumer markets and "sundowning" in and out of recession.]

2. S. Korea rail, power unions launch general strike, Reuters 17:30 02-24-02 via AOLNews.
   SEOUL, Feb. 25 - South Korean rail, gas and power unions launched a general strike on Monday following weekend protests demanding shorter working hours and a halt to state plans to privatise utilities, local television said.... Unions under the 500,000-member Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) fear mass layoffs under the government's plan to restructure debt-ridden state companies through privatisation.... The KCTU, the second-biggest labour group, said some 100,000 workers at 140 firms, including Hyundai Motor Co, would also walk out from Tuesday unless legislators revise labour laws to ensure [no more than] a five-day work week and flexible shifts. The militant labour umbrella group includes unions in most major manufacturing sectors, including autos and shipbuilding..\..
   The strike followed protests in Seoul on Sunday by 10,000 workers across the country and late night negotiations which failed to meet union demands.... Two-day talks between union leaders and the management of the Korea National Railroad Corp ended without a result on Sunday..\..
   As dawn broke on [Monday,] the fourth anniversary of Pres. Kim Dae-jung, the government was preparing emergency measures to prevent a halt to public services, YTN television news network said.... The government, which had warned of stern action if the unionised workers crippled public services, was using non-union workers to maintain rail service, reduced to one-third of normal traffic on Monday morning, KBS television reported.... In the capital Seoul [pop. 15m] the city deployed shuttle buses to cope with the strike, which began at four in the morning on Monday (1900 GMT on Sunday), [KBS] said....
   [And instant followup -]
   South Korea moves to quell rail and power strike, by Paul Eckert, Reuters 04:00 02-25-02 via AOLNews.
   SEOUL...- South Korean authorities said on Monday they would arrest 37 leaders of a strike by railway, gas and power workers that the government has declared illegal. The strike, over working hours and planned privatisation of major utilities, had political significance as well as economic implications for South Korea, Asia's third-largest economy....
   [Guess that pushes Taiwan down to fourth?? Yep. In the 2002 Edition of The Economist's Pocket World in Figures, we have (with worldwide ranking by GDP in parens) -
   1. (2) Japan
   2. (7) China
   3. (13) South Korea
   4. (17) Taiwan
   5. (25) Hong Kong
   6. (28) Indonesia
   7. (33) Thailand
   8. (41) Singapore
   9. (42) Malaysia
   10. (43) Philippines [something a little too coincidental about these last three]
   [And for those of you who are wondering about the island continent, Australia is (14) and New Zealand is (46).]
   Railway, gas and power workers launched an indefinite strike at 4:00 a.m. (1900 GMT Sunday) to demand a halt to privatising state utilities and for shorter working hours. Many Koreans work a six-day week and some of the longest hours in the world....
   The country's largest union, the 13m-member [out of total '99 pop: 46.8m] Federation of Korean Trade Unions [FKTU], blamed the dispute on the "government's failure to unite society and its lack of crisis management".
   [Hey, a common resolve to convert overtime to training&hiring plus a common workweek fluctuating slowly against a comprehensive unemployment rate that includes all manner of taxpayer-dependent non-self-support would make a damn good foundation for the government to unite society.]
   The more militant Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the second-largest union [like Avis, #2 tries harder] with some 500,000 members, said 100,000 workers at 140 firms in most major manufacturing sectors, including Hyundai Motor Co, would walk out from Tuesday unless labour laws were revised to ensure a five-day work week and flexible shifts. Both groups fear mass layoffs under the government's plan to restructure debt-ridden state companies through privatisation..\..
   [Ain't it amazing what a genius some governments have for impoverishing their population and shrinking their economy?]
   Court approval is needed formally to arrest the 15 officials from the railway union, 12 from the power union and 10 from the gas company union. Korean law bars public employees from striking..\.. But financial markets virtually ignored the stoppage...and there was no interruption to gas and power supplies \but the strike\ disrupted transort across the country.... Among the 2,400 police deployed at main transport hubs, deep lines of helmeted riot police with shields scuffled with protesting union activists and students in central Seoul....
   The strikes take place amid a recovering economy [wishful thinking?] and a 3.2% unemployment rate, Korea's lowest since 1997 [and, like ours, defined to exclude most of the problem - ed.] But the walk outs came on the 4th anniversary of Pres. Kim Dae-jung's administration [so what?! - this is a little too much like "The Dictator's Birthday"] and as an election year heats up [chance to bounce him?]. Kim stood by the privatisation plans. "Railway operations is a service the private sector must provide. The construction of railroad infrastructure is basically a task the government must do," the president said in a speech..\..
   [Sounds pretty arbitrary to us. Why not all one or the other or a reverse mix?]
   Workers at state-run Korea Gas ended their strike [after] 8 hours...after talks at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, which agreed to "discuss demands and alternatives during privatisation" with the union, a ministry official told Reuters....
   The government has come under increasing pressure to ease its 4-part economic "reform" drive [our quotes - ed.], started after the 1997-98 Asian crisis, as Kim's ruling party faces local elections in June and a presidential election in December. Kwon Soon-woo, an economist at Samsung Economic Research Institute, said Kim had done reasonably well in "reforming" the financial sector, the corporate sector and labour. "But the public sector 'reform' has borne little fruit," he said.
   [The longest working hours in an automated world is "doing reasonably well in labor reform"?! Think how excited this idiot savant would be if Kim just cut the niceynicey and re-instituted slavery!]
   Kim's adminstration faces record low approval ratings partly because of stalled rapprochement with North Korea and because of influence-peddling scandals on the fringes of his administration.
   [Time to bounce him.]

• Blunkett gets tough with police reform, Reuters 21:01 02-23-02 via AOLNews.
  LONDON...- Home Secretary David Blunkett vowed to take on the police and push through reforms on work practices in an interview published in the Sunday Mirror.... Blunkett said officers clocked up too much overtime, much of it doing administrative tasks rather than spending time out on the streets....

1. [US nurses have it right on overtime - they want to cut it out]
   Nurses at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute Elected WSNA as Their Exclusive Bargaining Representative, PRNewswire 02/22/2002 16:29 EST via AOLNews.
   SPOKANE, Wash...- Overwhelmingly, the 70 registered nurses at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane have voted for the Washington State Nurses Association (WSNA) to represent them for collective bargaining. By choosing WSNA representation, nurses now have a united voice and more input to ensure quality patient care.... Top concerns for the nurses include:
   • Nursing input into patient care - nurses deserve and must have a say in determining practices affecting the quality and safety of patient care such as use of overtime, staffing ratios, acuity models, and other nursing practice issues.
     [Generally, nurses want less overtime and more work-family balance. Of the two historic labor goals of higher pay and shorter hours, the first alone gets you neither and the last alone gets you both.]
   • Protection for patient advocacy - nurses must be protected when advocating for quality patient care and while speaking up for issues such as safe nurse to patient ratios.
     [Generally, nurses want lower nurse-to-patient ratios.]
   • Economic package - competitive salaries and working conditions are essential in order to recruit and retain qualified nurses as the nationwide shortage of registered nurses continues to grow. Retaining experienced nurses is critical in the facility's ability to provide the best quality care to their patients..\..
     
   [The nurses can save their breath on the last point. The nationwide nurse shortage will drive up salaries and improve working conditions by automatic market forces as more and more nurses walk, preferring to switch rather than fight. Not to mention the fact that this story was focused on the gathering power of their recent unionization -]
   The registered nurses at St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute chose WSNA because, "We recognize the power WSNA brings to the table in negotiating for more nursing input and protection for nurses when advocating for safe patient care," said Dale West, BSN, RN.... "I am thrilled to welcome the nurses from St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute to WSNA," said Kim Armstrong, RN, Chair of WSNA Cabinet on Economic and General Welfare....
   [We bet you're thrilled, Dale. It's nothing but employer near-sightedness that opens the door to unions in the first place. As it is, in this case greedy sexist physicians, who really control hospitals from behind the screen of hospital administration, have sewn the wind of a union and will reap the whirlwind of several unions of unions -]
   "By joining WSNA and American Nurses Association (ANA), these nurses will reap the full benefits and resources of our professional nurses association as well as those of United American Nurses (the labor arm of ANA) and the AFL-CIO." Founded in 1908, WSNA is a constituent of the American Nurses Association and is recognized by the National Labor Relations Board as a collective bargaining agent. WSNA represents and promotes the professional development of more than 12,000 nurses in Washington state and their economic and general welfare by projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by informing the Legislature and regulatory agencies of health care issues affecting registered nurses and the citizens of Washington state....
   [Of course, judging by the way they treat their own, American physicians are in no position to offer extended self-interest or a long-term view to anybody, let alone dispense health - check out their 120-hour workweek recommendation - 2/17/2002 #2.]

2. [UK cops have it wrong on overtime - they want to preserve it.]
   Police reject UK govt's reform package, Reuters 09:46 02-22-02 via AOLNews.
   LONDON...- Police in England and Wales voted overwhelmingly on Friday to reject government plans to reform pay and working structures in the force, dealing a heavy blow to Home Secretary David Blunkett's crime-busting plans. More than 90,000 police officers voted 10 to one to throw-out proposals covering pay and overtime agreements which the government says would get more police back on the streets....
   The [proposals] included increasing basic police salaries by 400 pounds a year but significantly reducing overtime rates and allowances. Cuts to overtime pay were the primary reason for the no vote..\..Chairman of the Police Federation Fred Broughton told reporters....
   [The "bobbies" are acting stupid. Long hours are a long-run ticket to lower pay and 3rd-World sweatshop conditions, as the general labor surplus swells and bloats, making anxious job-seekers willing to work for less and less. As we said above, of the 2 historic labor goals of higher pay and shorter hours, the first alone gets you neither and the last alone gets you both.]
   He said the vote signalled a "basic lack of confidence" by police in the government....
   [Thus giving the government no choice but to work toward privatizing the police so they can all be replaced by people with a little more realistic approach, especially in the light of the way they're doing their jobs -]
   Blunkett, architect of the reform plans, said those officers who resisted change in the force were risking rising crime levels by blocking aims to get more police on the streets.
   [He'd make a stronger case if he said "reform" instead of "change." Let's do it for him in the next one -]
   "The Police Federation have been...resisting [reform] for decades," he said in a statement. "Those who mislead their colleagues or seek to undermine the package of rewards have to answer to the public...for the failure to reflect increased police numbers with an increased visible presence on the streets."...
   [Not the greatest public speaker, is he. If there's a contorted way of phrasing something, he'll find it.]
   Rising mobile phone theft, carjackings and shock attacks, such as one in London this week where an Asian youth was battered to death and set alight, have drawn the public's attention to the need for street policing. Police representatives said officers recognised the need for reform, but were getting increasingly demoralised by government criticism of their performance. "We've seen extreme anger from police around the country for being portrayed as lazy, high-overtime earners, malingerers and unprofessional," a Police Federation spokeswoman said..\..
   [Maybe if the Brit police would spend less energy getting demoralized or angry and more energy on just doing the reforms....]
   Police and the government will now start negotiations on the reform plans - a process which could take months....

1. Britain: Very casual Friday, Reuters via NYT, A6.
   Today is National Slacker Day, and British workers were urged to do nothing. But a new poll suggests that many do little enough already.
   [Not to mention recent low productivity figures from Britain. See "Britons work longer, produce less, than others" below on 2/05 #1.]
   The event, if that is the word, was started by Oncus, a clothing and record company, to remind people that life does not revolve around the office.
   [They probably got the idea by looking across the Channel and seeing how much more clothing and record business the stores in France are getting now people there are just working a 35-hour week. See "French buying more books, CDs, due to 35-hour week, paper says" on 4/29/2001.]
   But the polling company, MyVoice, said two-thirds of its respondents felt they would get as much done on a four-day work week.
   [Presumably meaning 4x8= a 32-hour workweek.]
   Almost one-third surf the Net for an hour or more every day at work, three-quarters use work time for personal e-mail and correspondence and 59% call family and friends.

2. [Hitachi unclear on the concept of work sharing -]
   Hitachi OKs workers taking 2nd job until late March, Kyodo News via AP-NY-02-21-02 0004EST via AOLNews.
   TOKYO...- In a rare move for a major Japanese company, Hitachi Ltd. has allowed some 2,000 employees to take a second job outside the company until late March, Hitachi officials said Thursday. Hitachi took the move to compensate for pay cuts and reduced working hours following the introduction of a work-sharing system last November in response to the slump in its semiconductor business, the officials said.
   [Hitachi's action points up the difference between corporate and economywide work sharing; in other words, the difference between Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Timesizing program. In most economies, companies don't have the ability, as Hitachi apparently has, to bar employees from "moonlighting," that is, taking 2nd or 3rd jobs with other companies or in self-employment. If all Japanese companies have this ability, Japan would need the overwork control phase (3) of Timesizing only for the self-employed (where "overwork" is total per-person overtime from all sources). But having this ability and waiving it, Hitachi is just transferring its consumption-damaging work-concentration function to other companies and/or to self-employment. It's cruel kindness, because it's good short-term for its employees, but it's bad long-term for its employees, itself, and the whole economy, since work and spending power is not getting spread around to more people, eroding the labor surplus, raising pay by harnessing market forces to reward scarcity, and activating spending power by centrifuging it out of its concentration in the top income brackets where it doesn't get spent.]
   Hitachi, the nation's largest comprehensive manufacturer of electrical machinery, may allow employees to continue at their second jobs after April, they said.
   [Even worse for the economy at large. Misses the whole point of work sharing, as if the lack of market-demanded employment relative to the number of people who needed it was Hitachi-specific. We would have expected the Japanese to be smarter and more economy-oriented than this. Guess France has no monopoly on stupidity in applying the work-sharing approach.]
   "We don't have a plan at present to continue allowing employees to work a second job. [But] economic conditions could change our policy," a Hitachi official told reporters.
   The 2,000 employees work at Hitachi's three main semiconductor plants in Ibaraki, Yamanashi and Gunma prefectures.
   In November, the company had them share their workload by reducing the number of people in a group during a working shift by four or five.
   [Something weird about this, which would be the opposite of work sharing. Maybe they mean "by reducing the number of hours of a working shift by four or five" - thus requiring more shifts and more people. That would be work sharing. Reducing the number of people would be the opposite, namely, work hoarding or concentrating = problem.]

3. [Jospin's doing something right -]
   Jospin seeks French vote as hands-on president, by Brian Love, Reuters 18:38 02-21-02 via AOLNews.
   PARIS, Feb 22 [??] - Prime Minister Lionel Jospin vowed on Thursday to wipe out mass unemployment if elected president of France, and in a clear bid to widen his appeal said he was not running for the job on an only-for-Socialists programme....
   [This loosening up of the socialist identification is a Good Thing. And here's another version of it -]
   "I am from the Socialist school, but the project that I have proposed to the country is not a Socialist project," he said.
   [And what is that project, sez you? A:]
   He defended his record as prime minister in charge of a left-wing coalition since mid-1997, a term marked by strong economic growth as well as the introduction of a 35-hour work week and subsidised youth jobs to reduce unemployment....
   [And if he kept the workweek flexible, fluctuating slowly against unemployment, and implemented overtime-to-training&hiring conversion, he wouldn't have to mess around with subsidized jobs for specific segments of the population. He's doing pretty well even with his primitive version of timesizing -]
   Jospin said his...government had created 1.8 million jobs since taking power. As president, full employment would be his long-term goal as would the creation of a further 900,000 jobs.
   The five broad broad themes of his platform are: full employment, law and order, incomes and pensions reform, education and training and a drive to give Europe a stronger voice in the world..\..
   In his first TV interview since he declared his candidature this week, Jospin said he would not make promises and then turn his back on them in office - an indirect jab at arch-rival Jacques Chirac, the current conservative president.... Jospin shied away from any frontal attack on his rival but seized on Chirac's record as president to cultivate his own image as a man who means what he says and delivers on his pledges. "If you have your say on a whole series of things and...then turn your back on your policies, as was the case in 1995, you end up demoralising public opinion," Jospin said..\..
   Chirac...was elected president in 1995 at the same time as his allies on the centre-right took power. He and the government had promised to fight social strife and divisions between rich and poor but he changed tack within months to impose big public spending cuts and tax hikes....
   [Sort of the opposite of the American right (=GOP) that wants to impose big public spending hikes via the Pentagon and tax cuts = further evidence that the old left-right distinction is totally and absolutely irrelevant today. As we in the Timesizing movement say, "Neither left nor right but out in front." (Mentioned by Anders Hayden in his "Sharing the Work, Sparing the Planet." {Zed Books: NYC, 1999}.)]
   Keen to boost the left's law and order credentials, Jospin said a rising sense of insecurity in France was something all parties had to address and that a speech by Chirac on the issue went no further than he himself had done.
   Chirac, who beat off a presidential challenge from Jospin in 1995, has been dogged by several sleaze scandals in the past few years, while Jospin has been cultivating his image as the Mr Clean of French politics. Chirac has invoked presidential immunity to refuse to be questioned by judicial investigator....
   [So much for "law and order" from the French right. Similarly, contrary to their law&order rhetoric, the American right (Republican Party) is more deeply slimed in the Enron slough than the left (Dems) and, added bonus, won't disclose the process by which the nation's energy policy was formulated. Thank God for the General Accounting Office (GAO) which is making a big fuss about it. Maybe some of the "checks and balances" in the system are working after all.]

1. Jospin announces French Presidency bid, by Paul Holmes, Reuters 15:30 02-20-02 via AOLNews.
   PARIS...- Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced on Wednesday that he would challenge incumbent Jacques Chirac for the French Presidency in upcoming elections, ending months of shadow-boxing that has turned off voters.... "The country should be presided over in a different way. The President of the Republic must present a plan to the country, make commitments and stick to them," he declared. ...Later...he described his statement as a "short letter to the French." "I thought I would announce it in the way I thought the most simple," said Jospin....
   Most recent opinion polls show Chirac and Jospin running virtually neck-and-neck ahead of the election, to be staged on April 21 with a runoff on May 5 between the top two candidates....
   Jospin lost to Chirac in his first bid for the Presidency in 1995 but then leld his Socialist Party to victory in legislative elections in 1997 when Chirac dissolved Parliament early in a mistimed attempt to cement his [Gaullist] majority. The two have "co-habited" for 5 years, with Jospin.... Both rivals are now hoping for a double victory in the presidential election and legislative elections for a new National Assembly that are set for June. Chirac...has been dogged by several political corruption scandals while Jospin has cultivated an image of "Mr Clean."
   Jospin's government is widely credited with boosting economic growth and creating jobs [that's in reverse order - ed.] through the introduction of a 35-hour work week, though the recent slowdown and a slew of corporate lay-offs have dented its popularity..\..
   [It would have been worse without it.]
   FIVE-POINT PLAN...
   In his statement, Jospin set out 5 broad themes for his presidential platform:
   1. full employment [i.e., the shorter workweek, which spreads the available employment more evenly and eases government away from straining to generate enough job programs to counteract the death spiral of downsizing in the private sector]
   2. law and order
   3. incomes and pension reform
   4. education and training
   5. a drive to give Europe a stronger voice in the world
   Chirac's RPR ["Rally for the Republic"] Party hit back by saying that Jospin had had 5 years in government to do all that....
   [And as far as we know, he achieved a considerable improvement, at least on points 1 and 5. He got unemployment down from 12.6% (6/97) to 8.7% (2-5/01) before the global recession pushed it back up to just above 9%, and his 35-hour workweek has resonated around the world more than the squishier 4-5-6-week vacations that we hear about from Europe but don't quite remember exactly where. Chirac's right-of-center coalition had at least got as far as the Robien Law, which was a sort of voluntary shorter workweek, but it was being applied much more slowly than Jospin's 4-hour reduction (from 39 to 35 hours a week) and in consequence, unemployment had mounted up to the 12.6% level in 1997 - motivating the French to give the other side another try.]
   Chirac put law and order at the heart of his campaign in his first appearance on the hustings on Tuesday and has accused Jospin's government of squandering years of economic growth.
   [The curious thing about Chirac is, he seems to think that he can get law and order with 12.6% unemployment, and that economic growth is "squandered" by much fuller employment. Well, if the French are stupid enough to believe him, at least they have 5 years of history to remember when things, though not perfect, were better for the average person and also for wealthy whiners whose market-sustained investments in France were sustained by fuller employment and more activated spending power.]

2. Newsmaker - France's Jospin, straight guy of the left, by Mark John, Reuters 14:36 02-20-02 via AOLNews.
   PARIS - ...A dour, Protestant, former economics professor who shows disdain for the low tricks of politics [like kissing babies], Jospin is admired for his sincerity but, surveys show, not yet loved by a French public who prefer their leaders a little less stiff and earnest.
   [Sounds like America's professor-president, Woodrow Wilson. But as a Protestant leader in a Roman Catholic country, he's like Douglas Hyde, the first President (figure-head) of the newborn Irish Republic in 1938. And speaking of hydes/hides -]
   Facing the effusive incumbent Jacques Chirac - who is never happier than plunging into crowds of adoring fans or patting cows' hides at farm shows [we would have used the word "flanks"] - Jospin is determined to run on his record in power as Prime Minister for 5 years. Jospin will point to economic growth and lower unemployment as proof that, after spending much of his career in the shadow of past giants of the French left, he is as much of a statesman [i.e., presidential material] as a steady-hand manager of France's day-to-day affairs [i.e., prime-minister material]. He declared his long-awaited candidacy for April and May's 2-round presidential election on Wednesday by way of a sober statement issued by his party HQ in which he spelled out a 5-point vision [listed in above story] for 5 years as President [so it's a 5-year term].
   The son of a Socialist activist who ran a school for "difficult" children in the Paris suburbs, Jospin listened as his parents debated leftist ideology over the dinner table. "The Left is my mother tongue," he later remarked..\..
   DITCHES CIVIL SERVANT JOB... [Jospin was] a student at Paris's elite ENA college and later...he launched his career as a civil servant in the foreign ministry.... The student riots of 1968 convinced him to ditch his government job and become a university teacher, a post which gave his activism freer rein. Joining the Socialist Party, he caught the eye of its leader Francois Mitterand, who became his mentor and guided Jospin's swift rise to the top of the party structure.
   [Similar to how Edward Heath became Margaret Thatcher's mentor and guided her rise to the top on the British right.]
   When Mitterand came to power in 1981, it was Jospin - then...general secretary [of the party] - who invited the "people of the left" to come in their thousands to Paris's Place de la Bastille to celebrate the left's landmark victory.
   [It would have been better to simply invite the "people" to come in their millions to celebrate the people's victory.]
   Amid party infighting during Mitterand's reign, Jospin was seen to get [a] raw deal up against "modernisers" like Laurent Fabius who was named Prime Minister.   Jospin spent 4 years as Education Minister.
   With the French left is disarray after its rout in legislative elections in 1993, no obvious Socialist candidates presented themselves to run against Chirac for president in 1995. Up stepped Jospin - and while he lost, he [won] a better-than-expected 47.4% of the vote. The high point of [Jospin's] career came 2 years later, as Chirac took the failed gamble of shoring up his waivering popularity by calling early parliamentary elections, which ushered in Jospin as Prime Minister of a coalition with the Communists and the Greens.... Jospin promptly set about a programme of leftist reforms, notably the controversial 35-hour week policy that alienated much of French business [much of business is resolutely short-term oriented] and measures to boost youth employment.
   Social moves included bills granting recognition of gay partnerships and extending paternity leave, while he embarked on an ambitious bid to end decades of separatist violence in Corsica by granting it limited autonomy.
   While never embracing the "Third Way" politics of more centrist leaders like his British counterpart Tony Blair...
   [whose "Third Way," like FDR's, fell far short of a real Third Way which must center on overtime redesign and the activation of spending power through workweek reduction]
   ...Jospin has never felt totally bound by Socialist orthodoxy
   [thank God, because Socialists never get beyond angry micromanagement]
   - witness [the] continued privatisations of state assets under [Jospin's] government.
   While [Jospin] can argue that unemployment fell to its lowest in nearly 2 decades under his stewardship, detractors say that has less to do with Jospin's policies than the global economic upswing being experienced at the time..\..
   [It wasn't an upswing. It was a bubble, a technology (Internet) bubble, while France's upswing was solid, not hollow, as proved by the fact that its downturn was later and milder than any other economy's downturn.]
   SLEAZE-FREE? ...Jospin is remarkably free of the "sleaze" allegations that have plagued French politics for decades [and are currently plaguing Chirac - a significant omission here considering that this Reuters reporter has taken every opportunity to mention Jospin's socialism while admitting its unorthodoxy (e.g., privatizations)]. An official probe into alleged irregularities in the purchase of his holiday home in western France not only proved that all was above board but, according to French media, that Jospin had ended up paying...above the market price. ...Jospin is twice married with 3 children. His current wife, Sylviane Agacinski, is a philosopher and writer.
   [The fact is, the left has no monopoly on the worktime economics of timesizing, not downsizing = cutting hours for all instead of jobs for a few, and a few more, and.... If the left did have a monopoly and focus on worktime economics, they'd be less the micromanagers they are. The timesizing approach, represented in 1933 America by maverick Democrat Hugo Black and his 30-hour workweek bill and not by FDR, is the real Third Way. Blair&Schroeder's version is largely rhetoric.]