Timesizing® Associates - Homepage

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Timesizing News, July 29-31, 2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, Timesizing.com, Box 622, Porter Sq, Cambridge MA 02140 USA 617-623-8080

7/31/2003  primitive timesizing & worktime consciousness in the news = glimmers of strategic hope -

1. Hyundai Motor strikes cause $580 mln in lost exports, Reuters 07/30/03 01:56 ET via AOLNews.
   [The only reason this strike is worth the costs is because it's half (should be completely!) aimed at cutting the workweek, spreading the vanishing employment, centrifuging the funneling pay, rebuilding the sinking consumer base, and easing the economy toward greater sustainability.]
   SEOUL...- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest auto maker, said on Wed. it has suffered almost $600m in lost exports due to partial strikes that began in late June.... Sales in the key US [export] market and Europe...account for 66% of total sales.... The automaker's 39,000-strong union has been demanding an 11.1% wage hike, equivalent to around 125,000 won a month, plus a 5-day workweek from the current 5½ days. Last week, unionised workers...represent[ing] about 80% of Hyundai's total workforce..\..rejected Hyundai's offer of a 9.4% wage hike....
   [Again, poor union strategists are here diluting their critical, market-harnessing, shorter-hours demands with rigid, market-bucking wage demands. Cutting the workweek from 44 to 40 without cutting pay would be a 10% wage hike anyway. They want more than that?! Here's a later-in-the-day story -]
   Hyundai Motor shares up on labour settlement hopes, by Song Jung-a with Samuel Len, Reuters 07/30/03 22:17 ET via AOLNews.
   SEOUL... - Shares in Hyundai...gained ground on Thurs...1.88% to 35,150 won in mid-morning trade..\..after the government said it may step in to end month-long partial strikes by unionised workers at South Korea's top automaker.
   [Step in on which side?]
   Hyundai said it had suffered almost $600m in lost exports since the automaker's 39,000-strong union launched partial strikes in late June, demanding a wage hike and a 5-day workweek.... The automaker produces around 6,000 vehicles per day.

2. [So much for the world's 13th largest economy. How about the 2d across the China Sea?]
   Japan overtime pay up for 11th month in June, Reuters 07/30/03 21:31 ET via AOLNews.
   TOKYO - ...In terms of hours worked, overtime rose in June for the 12th straight month, growing 4.4% from a year earlier. But the number of overtime workers fell for the first time in 8 years....
   [There you have it = more workload&pay on fewer employees doth not a recovery make.]

3. [Then in the biggest economy, professional religionist want a shorter workweek so their potential parishioners have more time for their spiritual lives, and so they themselves have more time to recharge -]
   For the clergy, flock's troubles become their own - Amid hard times, people seek out counseling; Priests, rabbis feel burden, by Elizabeth Berstein & Peter Landers, WSJ, front page.
   NEW YORK -...A limping economy and concerns about war and terrorism have fueled even more demand for help with life's struggles, many clergy say - to the point they are overwhelmed.... In a weak economy where a growing number of people lack health insurance, paying $100 an hour or more for advice can be difficult or impossible..\.. For many Americans, a minister, priest or rabbi is the natural first stop to discuss problems..\..
   The Rev. Canon Andrew Mullins, rector of the Church of the Epiphany on Manhattan's Upper East Side...says he works about 15 more hours a week than he did two years ago, mostly because of the counseling demand.... He won't say what his total weekly workload is because he doesn't want his diocese to know; the Episcopal Diocese of New York encourages priests to limit their workweek to about 40 hours to prevent clergy burnout.
   [So what did Rev. Mullins' secret overwork get him?]
   ...After hearing about so many struggles and crises, he sought counseling himself for "compassion fatigue." One psychologist diagnosed him as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
   [And what do people want to talk to clergy about?]
   ..\..Leslie Bennett...confided that she was having trouble finding another job after taking a buyout from Walt Disney Co. and felt depressed.... For half an hour that [first Sun]day and over the following months, Father Mullins offered Ms. Bennett emotional support and practical career advice, including the names of church members to call for job tips....
   Missy Towe, a saleswoman in suburban Atlanta, went to the Rev. Ray Gentry at her Baptist church last year when she was worried about losing her job....
   [It all comes down to jobs. And people's need to support themselves so taxpayers don't have to. And that means we vote Republican and continue to ignore the problem. Or we vote Democrat and continue to let the government strain for tax-raising makework and job creation sufficient to offset all efficiencies and downsizings of constantly incoming technology, or we forge a third way and simply share the vanishing work, the vanishing human employment, as the armies of robots assemble on our farms, in our factories, and now, in our offices, banks and stores. To continue business downsizing and gov't upsizing is to linger in a kind of luddism that frustrates the whole purpose of technology = to make life easier for all of us. This whole network of problems is getting BO-RING. Let's MOVE ON to a set of newer, and smaller(!) problems, with Timesizing!]

4. [Also in the US, parents want a shorter workweek -]
   Study: Parents want more time with kids, by Jennifer Kerr, AP 07/30/03 19:58 EDT via AOLNews.
   Most parents say it's important to spend quality time with their children, but many find themselves coming up short, says a study released Wednesday by youth service organizations.... The study [which was] conducted for the *Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit group *KidsPeace..\..analyzed responses from 1,000 parents or caregivers with children under 18 living at home. It was conducted the first week of June, and has a margin of error of ±3.5%..\..
   94%..\..of the parents and caregivers involved in the study said they see a relationship between the amount of meaningful time adults spend with children and the way kids deal with such major issues as substance abuse and discipline. Still, finding time to discuss such issues is difficult for many parents, according to the survey.... Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a Harvard psychiatrist who helped oversee the study, said approximately 3.5m households - representing 7m youngsters - spend an hour or less a week in some type of physical activity with their children..\.. The study found 54% of respondents said they had little or no time, or wished they had more time, to spend in physical activities with their kids, such as taking a walk or playing catch....
   The primary obstacle parents cited was their work schedules.... Half of all parents either don't have enough time or wished they had more time to read to their kids or help with their homework or other educational activities. The [organizations that released the study] are urging parents nationwide to take part in *National Kids Day events in more than 1,000 cities on Sunday. They've also created a yearly checkup parents can take online [URL??] to measure the amount and quality of time they spend with their kids....
   [No free time, no family time. No family time, no family values.]

5. [And in the 4th-largest economy, 3 more unfocused unions -]
   British Airways and unions settle costly labor dispute, by Heather Timmons, NYT, W1.
   ...After 10 days of negotiations, the airline - which is in the midst of...eliminat[ing] 13,000 jobs [see 2/14/2002 #1] - has agreed to give its administrative staff a 3% pay raise retroactive to January. The staff has agreed to a [card] identification system that, by Sept. 1, will keep track electronically of the hours they work. The system was unpopular with members of the check-in staff, who feared that it was the first step to split shifts or sending employees home early when lines were short....
   [What's the matter with that? Here we have ignorant employees once again pushing for market-flouting pay raises while spooking over potentially worktime-shrinking, labor-scarcity-engendering, employee-empowering changes - that apparently "aren't in the cards" anyway.]
   But British Airways [BA] has assured its 3 unions, the General Municipal & Boilermakers union, the Transport & General Workers Union, and Amicus, that the card system will not affect their work hours.... Many other airlines, and even some divisions within British Airways, already use the swipe card system to keep track of employee hours.... "The world doesn't owe anyone a living anymore"..\..said Chris Tarry, an independent airline analyst....
   [The world may not, but employers owe their consumers jobs, or they'll have too few consumers and too few markets, having 'cleverly' replaced not just their workforce, but their consumer base, with highly 'efficient technology.' The only rational alternative to this continuing self-cannibalization is Timesizing.]
   BA's cost-cutting plans are "not gratuitous scare tactics," he added. "The problems in this industry are huge."
   [...wrought chiefly by their own preference for downsizing over timesizing. You lay off your customers' customers and guess what, soon you got no customers. Here's the AP version -]
   British Airways, unions settle dispute, by Beth Gardiner, AP 07/30/03 15:36 EDT via AOLNews.
   LONDON - British Airways and 3 unions on Wed. [7/30] settled a dispute that had prompted a wildcat strike at Heathrow airport on one of the summer's busiest travel weekends.... Several hundred check-in workers walked out over two days earlier this month to protest the airline's plans to update its paper log-in system with electronic cards that staff could use to clock in and out of work. The employees objected to managers' imposition of the new system and feared it was the first step toward radical changes to their work schedules.... Workers feared they would be forced to show up on short notice and work split shifts, coming in for a few hours, taking a few hours off and then returning. That would be far too disruptive, the unions said, particularly for a largely female staff juggling family responsibilities with work..\..
   The unions agreed to accept a new electronic clocking-in system by Sept. 1, while the airline promised it would not use the new cards to reorganize shifts without further negotiation, as workers had feared.... British Airways said from the start that the cards were simply a way to modernize operations and that any shift changes would require negotiations..\..
   [So meanwhile, what are the unintended consequences of this misdirected strike?]
   BA said the unofficial walkout cost it tens of millions of dollars.... The delay and confusion brought the airline terrible publicity..\.. Thousands of passengers suffered serious delays and flight cancellations, and many more arrived at their destinations without their luggage. It took days to clear the backlog of stranded travelers and bags.... [NYT again -] Virgin Atlantic said last week that its bookings had more than doubled since the BA strike....
   [So once again, unions focused on higher pay instead of shorter hours and flexibly shared work for everyone have hurt themselves and there will probably be even fewer employed members shortly -AP again -]
   The airline...has eliminated more than 10,000 jobs out of a total of 13,000 jobcuts planned by September....
   [Proving once again that 'unions' focused on "every woman for herself!" are actually "disunions" and worse than useless. Here's a Reuters article from before the negotiations -]
   BA, unions upbeat ahead of Wed talks, shares down, Reuters 07/30/03 05:26 ET via AOLNews.
   LONDON...- British Airways Plc and its unions were upbeat [emphasis on the 'beat'] ahead of talks set for Wednesday where Europe's largest airline aims to avert a recurrence of a recent costly strike.... BBA's top negotiator, Mervyn Walker, director of its operations at London's Heathrow Airport where the walkout by check-in staff took place on July 18...declined to comment on whether BA had made an offer to the unions to settle the dispute, which was sparked by the airline's introduction of a swipe card system to monitor working hours.... BA CEO Rod Eddington has achieved Europe's deepest airline 'reforms' [our quotes], including job cuts expected to reach 13,000 by September. But his cost savings drive took a hit after the strike as BA was forced to spend what it has said were "tens of millions of pounds [sterling]" to transfer and compensate stranded passengers....
   [Strikes are only worth the cost if they cut the workweek, spread the vanishing employment, centrifuge the funneling pay, rebuild the sinking consumer base, and ease the economy toward greater sustainability.]
   BA had to scrap more than 500 flights and has also lost passengers as the risk of more disruption has shaken travellers' confidence....
   [Unions had better make up their minds that "we're all in this together" and develop flexible worksharing that waxes and wanes smoothly with corporate revenues, while keeping EVERYBODY employed, or the continuing consumer-base damage to self-fueling downsizing and 3% higher pay for ever-fewer survivors will leave them with no economic function and NO union members. Many employers aren't going to switch from downsizing to timesizing by themselves. Last word to the AP article -]
   The strike over the comparatively minor issue of log-in cards appeared to signal workers' deep mistrust of the airline's leaders, who have been reorganizing the carrier since Feb/2002 with union cooperation....
   [Workers should direct their deep mistrust at their own union leaders, who have distracted ever since the Great Depression with secondary and market-force-bucking pay demands that erode their bargaining power instead of converging all energies, time and resources on their one single and solitary power issue, reduction of worktime per person in order to prevent a power-trashing labor glut. Employees have been terribly ill-served by their naive and misinformed union leaders.]

1. Sun, beach, sand - I think I'd rather be back in the office, by *Jared Sandberg, WSJ, B1.
   ...After a grueling work schedule..\..publishing consultant Aaron Sigmond and his wife recently went to the Hudson Valley in upstate NY for a 10-day vacation. ...The couple needed time to regenerate and commune with the breezy Catskill[s], the lulling flow of the Hudson...and the gently sprawling fields....
   The only problem: They couldn't stand it. Four days before the vacation ended, they left the Victorian house they had rented. "The peace and quiet and solitude just wore on me," says Mr. Sigmond. "It was just the most stressful vacation ever." ...He pined for the calming, familiar chaos of his desk. "It has been far more enjoyable since I got back," he says.
   For all the talk of stress management...many Americans are among the lousiest vacationers in the world, capable of creating shoulder-clenching tension out of any restful scenario.... Suddenly the cubicle doesn't seem like the worst destination. You can bask in the glow of your computer screen, soothed by the sound of paper lapping upon the printer. Workplace stress is predictable, and can look like child's play compared with the stress of [for example] bringing kids along [on vacation, which can mean] "work is vacation and vacation is work."
   [Then why have kids??!]
   ..\..Workaholism is only partly to blame for this stress alchemy.... Vacations are bookended by bedlam [even without kids, with all the rushing] to tie up loose ends. \And\ who can relax with so much riding on our tightly scheduled playtime? Add to that the...dread of returning to a pile of accumulated work and the fear that a limping economy can turn time-away[-from-work] into a lay-off at a moment's notice [and make] a vacation...permanent. Ron Lautmann, a former programmer at a computer company, was so worried about keeping his job and his status at work, he ended up accruing 65 [work]days of unused vacation. When the company stopped allowing vacation carryover, he took two months off [20x2= 40 workdays, bal: 65-40= 25 workdays]. That still left 50 days [huh??] counting new vacation time [even so!], that just "vanished into thin air," he says....
   [Two lessons for timesizers:
   • it's important to provide for workaholics, people who really love their jobs like the little toymaker who 'never worked a day in his life' - but that just means no workweek or workyear cap can be designed as absolute - it only needs to stop the people with inflationary money-motivation, and they can be stopped simply by requiring reinvestment of 100% of overtime pay, premium or not, in overtime-targeted training and hiring, as we do in Phase Three of the Timesizing Program.
   • it's important to lay the burden of worktime manipulation on the workweek (and let people develop an easy routine of vacationing every long weekend), not the workyear (which is too infrequent to develop a routine, and if our vacations get up to 6 weeks long, as they are in Europe, who wants to go back to work?!)]
   Mr. Lautman calculated the value of the time he gave back to the company at $20,000..\.. Workers in the U.S. effectively give back $21 billion to their employers by not taking [all their] vacation last year, according to Expedia.com, the travel company that commissioned the study hoping to encourage more ticket-buying.
   An amazing 12% of the American workforce doesn't take any vacation. More take only a part of it. The leading reason: too much to do.
   [That's arrant B.S. The real reason is job insecurity in the context of a frozen-workweek-fostered labor glut, plus deteriorating management skills spoiled by that glut, particularly in the area of workload apportionment and balancing.]
   Nearly a quarter of nonvacationers said time off made them feel guilty.
   [And when your employer is fostering a "24/7-or-fired" corporate culture, guilty merges with anxious and insecure.]
   ...Herbert Rappaport, a professor of psychology at Temple University..\..says bosses often make the problem worse by encouraging vacations, then complaining when someone has the gall to take one. David Sossen, president of an aerospace consulting firm, used to work for a big company where a prospective vacationer routinely became "the most critical irreplaceable member of the team," he says. To combat that problem, he and his colleagues would buy expensive, nonrefundable tickets and ask the company for a reimbursement if bosses grounded them. Still, they'd be pressured to defer vacations "to some other time when the person would be working on some other project for some other manager," he says..\.. It's [also] hard to feel entitled to a vacation when even the government consider it more of a privilege than a right. Of industrialized nations, the U.S. is the only one that doesn't require employers to give vacation, according to the Center for Economic & Policy Research. Our [U.S.] workers average the fewest days off (14) [for annual vacation].
   [If you still buy the line that this is the Best Country in the World, the Land of the Free, etc. etc., you are terminally naive.]
   "We've got a cultural problem with leisure time," says [Dr.] Rappaport.... "We are an overworked, overtired, underpleasured culture."
   [And that is certainly reflected in our beggar-your-markets economics and our misery-loves-company foreign policy, which is a meddlesome mix of spreading death and chaos in the name freedom and independence (as if we had cornered the market on anything but the rhetoric about either) and actively overthrowing democracy in the name of anti-communism (Chile 1972) or - tell us again why we overthrew the democratic gov't in Iran in 1953? - we'll have to read some more reviews of "All the Shah's Men." Somerville alderwoman Denise Provost tells us there's a new T-shirt out for Americans traveling abroad - "I'm sorry my pResident is an idiot - I didn't vote for him" in several languages - available from *AmericanApologyShirt.com.]
   ...And things have only gotten worse now that technology makes us available all the time, he adds.
   [It's not technology, it's our luddism-fostering downsizing instead of timesizing response to it.]

2. [and funny the WSJ should mention -]
   57 percent of Americans consider themselves overworked, according to Monster's 2003 Work/Life Balance survey - Polls show work/life balance is elusive in today's workplace, as 83% of Americans are not satisfied with their job, Business Wire 07/29/2003 12:00 Eastern via AOLNews.
   [A natural result of job insecurity, which leads to cling to 'the devil you know,' instead of cutting bait and venturing on the unknown of a new job, oops, job search - and a prolonged one at that.]
   MAYNARD, Mass...- With the U.S. economy slow [or never] to recover, many workers find themselves facing larger workloads, rising unemployment and a dwindling pool of co-workers. Past and present company downsizing has added responsibilities [ie: workload] to the average employee, resulting in an overworked and stressed American workforce. In fact, according to Monster's 2003 Work/Life Balance survey, 80% of Americans are unhappy with their work/life balance and 71% admit to clocking more than 40 hours per week.
   [Shouldn't this 80% be the same as the 83% in the subtitle, if we're not going to round down the 71%?!]
   The Monster Meter, a product of Monster(R), the leading global online careers site and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide Inc., is an ongoing series of online polls that gauge users' opinions on a variety of topics relating to careers, the economy, and the workplace.
   [On the one hand, it's indicative in itself of an unhappy workforce when a careers website is called "monster." On the other hand, won't the results of any online survey by a careers website be inherently biassed toward unhappy respondents? - after all, happy employees aren't going to constitute the majority of visitors to such a site. There is supposedly some safeguard against multiple voting by the same person -]
   Only one vote per user is counted toward the final tabulation..\..
   [Define "user".]
   Americans are not the only workers with long hours.   57% of European Monster Meter respondents put in more than 40 hours per week; however, U.S. workers are known around the globe for working long hours and many acknowledge the trend: 57% of [U.S.] Monster users consider themselves overworked.
   [So the once enviable USA is in the process of transforming itself from an Athens (smart and classy) into a Sparta (self-denying and belligerent).]
   "It's no surprise that workers are putting in longer hours than they'd like, perhaps making up for company downsizing in the midst of an economy that is slow to recover," said Jeff Taylor, Founder and Chief Monster.
   [And that never will recover because of the continuing downsizing. The Chief Monster is apparently not too bright when it comes to cures -]
   "However, today's worker should seek ways to create work/life harmony - it's the right balance to keep you happy in your job and your life."
   ["You can change it - just do neckrolls at your desk." Jeffy underestimates the problem if he thinks this is something employees can keep adjusting to without working for shorter worktime. Like so many U.S. CEOs, he's going to burden the victim and beggar his markets.]
   2003 Work/Life Balance results
   The Monster Meter asked:
   [They have the most confused order of info here, which we untangle.]
   • ..."How many hours a week do you work?"
     • ..\..Monster US [Mar. 24-31]:...
       50 hours or more: 25% (16,169 votes)
       40-50 hours: 46% (29,281)
       25-40 hours: 19% (12,313)
       Fewer than 25 hours: 10% (6,561)
     • Monster Europe [Feb.17-Mar.3]:...
       50 hours or more: 17% (3,480 votes)
       40-50 hours: 40% (8,128)
       25-40 hours: 33% (6,766)
       Fewer than 25 hours: 10% (2,193)
   • ..\.."Do you consider yourself overworked?" [US, Apr. 14-21, 2003]
     No: 57% (35,043 votes)
     Yes: 43% (26,303)
   • ..\.."Are you happy with your work/life balance?" [US, June 16-23, 2003]
     No: 80% (28,987 votes)
     Yes: 20% (7,141)
   • "Are you satisfied with your job?" [US, June 23-30, 2003]
     No: 83% (32,275 votes)
     Yes: 17% (6,758)
   [Well, there's the explanation of the 80-83% difference - a slightly different question.] ...Monster...is [a] leading global careers website.... More information...is available at *Monster.com or by calling 1-800-MONSTER....
   Contact: Kevin Mullins, 978-461-8751, kevin.mullins@monster.com...
   Source: Monster Worldwide Inc.

3. [then there's long workweeks in the Third World, despite the "sun, beach, sand" with which we began today -]
   Feature - No paradise for textile workers in Mauritius, by Nita Bhalla, Reuters 07/29/03 01:01 ET via AOLNews.
   PORT LOUIS [Mauritius, Indian Ocean] - Standing up for more than 10 hours at a stretch, Asha is one of the thousands of women in Mauritius who work in often poorly ventilated and cramped conditions to produce ready-to-wear clothes....
   [That's a 10-hour day, something that U.S. employees were getting rid-of 100 years ago - until their recent pathetic motion back to same.]
   Mauritius' textile manufacturing industry has flourished since it began in the 1970s, filling the shelves of stores such as Gap, Esprit, Next, Principles, Marks & Spencer, and H&M. The industry employs more than 80,000 workers in more than 500 enterprises. Last year, it earned 33.5B rupees ($1.2B) [for whom?] - allmost 50% of all export earnings.
   However, the economic 'success' [our quotes] of the textile industry comes at a price.... Factory hours are long, with workers labouring 45 hours a week plus 10 hours of compulsory overtime.
   [alias the 'mandatory overtime' so familiar to American employees, ironically, especially in nursing and medicine. Btw, 45+10= a 55-hr workweek.]
   Shifts run late into the night and over the weekend...
   [who cares, if they're only, say, 6-hour, not 10-hour, shifts?!]
   ...and workers complain they have no time for a social life and that they rarely see their children....
   Mauritians may complain, but for thousands of workers "imported" mainly from China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Madagascar, conditions are much worse. The majority, who are women, earn a third of the salary of locals. They are often forced to take extra jobs, some even resorting to prostitution to earn money to send back home.
   [An invalid use of money anyway, since "home" should be supporting itself, or working/fighting to change the long-workweek/labor-glut conditions there that are rendering self-support so difficult. Sending money home is a bandaid on a cancer, the cancer of overpopulation and outdated pretechnological workweeks that afflicts the whole world of not-too-intelligent creatures self-styled homo 'sapiens' - what a joke.]
   ..\.."We are standing most of the day. Often the heat is suffocating and there is little ventilation," said Asha, who has been a textile worker for more than 20 years.
   [Then why does she "choose" to keep doing it, asks the terminally insulated Republican.]
   "Many of us have worked in a textile factory all our lives, but we receive no maternity leave, medical aid or even a pension," she added. Earning less than 5% of what is paid for her garments, Asha can only dream of one day being able to afford the clothes she stitches together. With a minimum monthly wage of $60, textile workers depend on overtime [which keeps them a cheap, surplus commodity] and bonuses to boost their pay packets to $122 - but even then they are among the lowest on the island....
   Human rights campaigners say expatriate workers live in packed dormitories, which are sometimes situated on the top floors of factory buildings, with four or more to a room. Here, workers are subjected to curfews, unable to leave the building after a certain hour. They are even less likely to join a trade union for fear of being deported..\.. Trade unions may have a long established presence in Mauritius, but fewer than 10% of the island's textile workers belong to one....
   [Guess they, too, haven't been focused on their one power issue, cutting the workweek - and in the case of this small island, banning immigration - because no matter how short the workweek, if you have unlimited immigration you're never going to create a perceived scarcity of labor and restore the balance of power between employees and employers.]
   Unions say it is a common tactic for managers to threaten to close their factories if workers begin to join unions.
   [And what can immigrants say to that? Nothing. Is it better here than back 'home'? Then SHADDAP! 'Home' apparently needs shorter hours and population controls even worse than Mauritius.]
   ...Many employers blame world recession [what did they blame before 2001?] and trade liberalisation for the sorry state of working conditions in Mauritius...
   [oh yeah, rednecks that like it call it "free" trade, rednecks that don't like it call it trade liberal-ization - even when they'd be broke without it]
   ...which is struggling to compete with larger low-cost producing countries like China, Vietnam and Cambodia to get its market share.
   [If tiny Mauritius already employs more than 80,000 people in textiles alone and textiles account for 50% of all export earnings, then 10-to-1 they've already got much more than their market share. Seems like Mauritian rednecks praise "free trade" policies from the USA toward Mauritius while condemning "trade liberalization" policies from the USA toward China - but it's the same thing, and in either case, it's ruining textile jobs and the whole textile industry in the USA and helping to shrink the US consumer base and the whole US economy - see our downsizing today by VF Jeanswear of NC (7/30/2003).]
   "I admit that the salaries and conditions of textile workers aren't great, but we simply have to keep production costs as low as possible or we will not survive in this highly competitive market," one factory manager shrugged.
   [The same old Race to the Bottom = the Seed of its Own Destruction that Marx identified in technologize&downsize capitalism - quite a different beast from technologize& timesize capitalism.]
   ..\..Pressure groups say retailers should be made accountable for the conditions under which their garments are produced....
   [Pressure groups are just passing the buck. They need to gain control of Mauritian government and implement the Timesizing program, with particular emphasis on Phase Five re regulating population variables.]
   [followup]
   Paradise lost - Textile powerhouse learns downside of globalization - Tiny Mauritius exported its way to prosperity; China, labor strife loom, by Carlos Tejada, 8/14/2003 WSJ, front page.
   [Geez, Carlos. You sure made a good thing of this. "Hey boss, the Times has a big article on textile troubles in the Indian Ocean, the thief of jobs from us is now getting robbed by China and India, the "downside of globalization" - how 'bout I slip over there and cover it?! - real summer story - tiny island, palm trees, beaches, extinct dodos..." "OK OK Carlos, here's a quarter ($2500), knock yerself out"]

4. [then there's the unlimited worktime of out&out slavery, another function of overpopulation -]
   About 1.2 million children, news blurb, WSJ, front page.
   ...are sold into servitude ranging in form from domestic to sexual each year, a $10 billion trade, a report by UNICEF says.
   [Go ahead, say the word, say SLAVERY, first banned in US/America by the Republicans in 1863 when they were just starting and actually had half a brain - but first banned in the Americas in 1824 when Upper (Ont) and Lower (Que) Canada and the other British colonies followed the ban on slavery pushed through Parliament in London by Sir William Wilburforce in 1824, (63-24=) a full 39 years before the self-deluded "Land of the Free."]

1. South Korea: Hyundai cuts production, by Don Kirk, NYT, W1.
   Intermittent strikes at Hyundai Motor, South Korea's dominant vehicle manufacturer, have resulted in production cuts in the company's overseas assembly plants. Jake Jang, a Hyundai Motor spokesman, said strikes cut production almost in half in China and reduced output in Russia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Egypt. Mr. Jang said the plant in China might have to [completely] suspend production next month after running out of engines and transmissions. Hyundai Motor's 39,000 [S.Korea?] workers have adopted a strategy of one-day and four-hour strikes while pressing for a 5-day workweek rather than the current workweek of 5½ days.

2. Rhymes with orange, cartoon strip by Hilary Price, Boston Globe, D10.
   [4 frames -]
   1. [Halfsize title frame -] Flex time revisited
   2. [Woman at watercooler to her boss -] Everyone knows people are twice as productive if they come in early or stay late - there are just fewer interruptions.
   3. So what if I work from 7-9 am, leave, then come back and work from 5-7 pm?
   4. [Boss -] That's only 4 hours.
      [Woman -] But if I'm twice as productive, that's 8 right there.
   [And indeed, with our level of efficient technology constantly rising, we're generally at least twice as productive as we were when we froze the workweek in 1941 due to the war. But since we haven't halved the workweek, many of us have no work, much of our productive capacity is unused, much of our profits default to the top brackets, and the economy is in a permanent slump.]