Timesizing® Associates - Homepage

---

Timesizing News, Aug. 16-27, 2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, Timesizing.com, Box 622, Porter Sq, Cambridge MA 02140 USA 617-623-8080

8/27/2003  primitive timesizing & worktime consciousness in the news = glimmers of strategic hope -

1. Business in Asia today - Aug. 26, 2003, PRNewswire 08/26/2003 07:12 EDT via AOLNews.
   ...Kia Motors settles 3-week labor dispute
   SEOUL -...The union also achieved a 40-hour workweek without any pay cuts....

2. Back by popular demand: A 'day of nothing' - Fine Living rewards viewers with lounge chair, umbrella and some of the world's most beautiful scenery during network's annual Labor Day relax-a-thon, PRNewswire 08/26/2003 09:01 EDT via AOLNews.
   LOS ANGELES -...Fine Living is the newest of Scripps Networks' lifestyle-oriented TV networks..., dedicated to the pursuit of personal passions, helping viewers realize the[ir] dreams and maximize their precious free time..\..
   TV viewers spending Labor Day at home will once again be treated to a "Day of Nothing" - Fine Living style. ...The new cable network...will preempt its regularly scheduled programming to air special footage from some of the world's more beautiful locations...including tropical beaches, glorious sunsets and sunrises, crashing waves [and] peaceful streams..\..featuring nothing but a lounge chair and an umbrella....
   [That musta bin fun ta film.]
   In keeping with the network's mission to provide useful and pertinent information, more than 80 Fine Living "Bottom Lines" will be woven into the broadcast. Appearing on the lower third of the screen, these include interesting facts about the areas being featured along with witticisms and fun suggestions for enjoying the day:
   • A traditional Aborigine workweek was only 20 hours long.
     [3 hours a day? or did they have a 2-day weekend like us and therefore five 4-hour days?]
     The rest of the time was spent on art and parties.
     [It's surprising how many of the Southwest Pacific cultures, and 'primitive' cultures in general, were far ahead of us in the most basic kind of freedom, free time. No examples on the tip of our tongue but we have dim recollections of a book we read about the Gilbert Islands, and Margaret Meade's classic study about growing up in Samoa might bear looking into.]
   • Research shows a 15-minute catnap can juice you up for the next 3 hours.
   • Ask a kid if you can play too....

3. Workday takes a bite out of meals: New Survey finds 32% of U.S. workforce skips breakfast or lunch nearly every day - Snack attack strikes 9 out of 10 workers on the job, PRNewswire 08/26/2003 07:12 EDT via AOLNews.
   RICHMOND, Va...- As Americans prepare to recharge their batteries and celebrate Labor Day, a survey released today reveals how workers fuel themselves throughout the workday and finds that nearly 1/3 of the workforce admits to skipping breakfast and/or lunch almost every day of the workweek. The national survey...sponsored by the makers of Ensure® nutritionals, the American Assoc. of Working People (AAWP) and the Institute for Health & Productivity Management (IHPM)..\..also found that 89% of workers admit to snacking during their workday, with more than half of the respondents gobbling down less nutritious foods such as chips, cookies or doughnuts....
   "With so many health and nutrition issues facing American workers today, and so much time spent at the office, it is important for us to provide simple practical tips on how people can include good nutrition and physical activity as part of a daily workday routine," said Bill Williams, MD, president of AAWP....
   [Instead of adding even more stuff to American workers' overstructured lives, how about just subtracting some working hours already turned over to automation and providing more free time and mental space to quit skipping breakfast &/or lunch?!]

1. Accord reached with leaders of union as strike draws to end, Dow Jones via WSJ, C7.
   South Korea's Kia Motors Corp. reached an agreement with leaders of its striking union on an 8.8% one-year wage increase, company and union officials said. Kia's union has intermittently staged walkouts since late June to press for an 11% increase in wages and immediate introduction of the 5-day workweek without a wage cut [down from 5½]. But they ended the strike yesterday and returned to work even before an agreement was reached with management.... Kia also plans to start a 5-day workweek Monday with no wage cut, the Kia spokesman said.
   ..\..The accord still needs to be approved by the majority of union members, who are expected to vote on it Thursday, a union official said. About 25,000 of Kia's 29,000 employees are unionized.... Kia is South Korea's 2nd-largest automaker and is affiliated with Hyundai Motor Co. Kia also agreed to pay a bonus equal to a month's salary and an additional 1m won, as well as a year-end incentive bonus equal to 2 months' salary if the company achieves its annual earnings target....

2. [and in America -]
   Tri-state Labor Day parade and family celebration plans finalized today, PRNewswire 080/25/2003 11:15 EDT via AOLNews.
   PHILADELPHIA - ..."This Labor Day we celebrate organized labor's accomplishments," the Co-Chairs commented, "the 5-day workweek, benefits, and family and medical leave among countless others. We also remember the distance we have to go for the many workers who do not have these advantages...."
   [And the fact that the gross and growing background labor glut means longer and longer hours for more and more - 50, 60, 70 hours a week - everyone's so insecure no one wants to be the first to leave the office in the evening. Our grandfathers gave us the weekend and our kids are giving it back.]

3. [and some of the violators -]
   Driving overtime, and pushing the limits, by Perry Garfinkel, WSJ, C6.
   ...The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsiness is the primary cause of 100,000 police-reported crashes each year, resulting in at least 76,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths....

1. 8/23 Interview - German union chief rules out mass protests, by Blenkinsop & Pickartz, Reuters 08/22/03 10:51 ET via AOLNews.
   BERLIN...- Germany's trade union chief...Michael Sommer, chairman of the DGB trade unions federation..\..ruled out on Friday launching strikes and demonstrations on the scale of those which brought France and Austria to a standstill this year, despite similar concerns about social welfare reforms.... The union chief acknowledged that a leadership dispute in the giant IG Metall engineering union over the summer and the abandonment of a strike over working hours had damaged the image of unions, but insisted it [ambiguous antecedent, probably IG Metall] had put its problems behind it....

2. 8/23 The doctor's shrinking future, letters to editor, NYT, A24.
   
   • by Dr. Marjorie Barnett of Silver Spring, Maryland.
     Re "Medical establishment turns to powerful allies to thwart residents' lawsuit" (news article, Aug. 18):
     When I was a resident in the 1980s, I supported long hours because I knew I could set up a private practice and earn a good salary.
     [Why can't you do that without long hours? Millions do in other other fields.]
     Now the work is still emotionally rewarding, but for many doctors, it can take years to get back what they invest in training. Residents make far less per hour than other hospital workers, like nurses, but they have more education.
     [What Marjorie is spotlighting is none other than the nasty skill-bottlenecking mechanism of American physicians, to inflate their pay and keep it inflated by strangling access to their skills and creating an artificial shortage of their skills. Far healthier to engineer these artificial shortages with shorter-hours-rationed access, rather than megahours with fatigue and suffering for interns and danger for patients.]
     Don't they deserve market-value pay for their work?
     [Marj, the profession has sunk into strangling access to its skills by means of a pathological initiation process of sleep deprivation. The original idea was to create an acute shortage of doctors by encouraging dropouts and resentful mercenary doctors determined to get infinitely compensated for the extreme sacrifice and cruelty they put up with to get credentialled. Now that has backfired because America has become a nation of zombie interns and sleep-deprivation-cultured physicians, hospitals staffed by the living dead at the top of the power totempole, making so many fatigue-linked mistakes that public anger and malpractice suits abound. The sick way the US doctors sank into to fluff up their pay has finally come back to bite them.]
     Instead, doctors have become the handmaidens for insurance companies by accepting heavily discounted reimbursements and paying outrageous medical malpractice premiums. [A] wave of early retirement...will soon lead to a shortage of doctors.
     [A shorter worklife? Fine! That would be a far healthier way of continuing, not leading to (it's been here for decades!), a shortage of doctors and keeping doctors' pay inflated.]

   • by Laurel Ferris of Edina MN.
     Bravo to Sherman Marek, the lawyer who is taking on resident training, the indentured servant system in today's medical establishment (news article, Aug.18).... Sleep-deprived residents provide nearly free labor for the uninsured and underinsured in this country, but at a great cost to themselves.
     [No ceiling on hours, no floor on pay. Indentured servitude shading into sweatshop shading into slavery. The alternative?
     Whether you work by the piece or the day,
     Decreasing the hours increases the pay.]
     I believe that the quality of learning [for medical trainees] is compromised in equal proportion to the quality of care provided. Both patients and doctors deserve better.
     [Amen!]

3. 8/24 Productivity - Futurist predicts job shortage, by Diane Lewis, Boston Globe, G2.
   Futurist Roger Herman believes US employers will face a future job shortage that could cripple productivity.
   [Is this the start of a major national campaign of disinformation? Believe it or not, this guy is talking about a labor shortage, not an employment shortage. He's talking about a shortage of job seekers, not jobs, and here's how we finally found out for sure - in the 9th of 10 paragraphs -]
   ..."Most employers don't have a clue about what they will be facing," said Herman, author of "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People" (2003, Oakhill Press, Winchester, Va.)..\..
   [This same kind of miswording occurs in the so-called "Lump of Labor Fallacy" (e.g., Samuelson's 13th ed, 1989, p.687) - it's actually a fixed lump of employment that's referred to (and in the relevant immediate-term when downsizings are occurring, it's a truism, not a fallacy, because the lump of employment, far from expanding, is not even fixed - it's shrinking!). Now that we've settled that, we can ask the key question about this guy, which is, what planet is he living on? Specifically, where does he get the notion that there's going to be too many jobs in a jobless recovery, and too few people in an overpopulated world?]
   According to Herman, economic growth in the latter part of 2003 will stimulate the labor [ie: job] market and create more jobs, causing many dissatisfied workers to job-hop.
   [Again we see a narrow emphasis of unsustainable growth (of GDP = productivity regardless of marketability). A miraculously positive forecast based on sheer cockeyed optimism on the part of Roger "Pollyanna" Herman. For someone living in a period of starving state and local government budgets, and a rich military-only federal budget, he puts a heavy load on government employment -]
   Complacent employers might not be able to compete for new hires because of increased competition for talent and a hiring push by government recruiters.
   [Huh? Where in the world is he getting this notion?]
   Over the next two years, 50% of the government's workforce will be eligible for retirement, he said.
   [Even if true, (1) the next two years is not the "latter part of 2003" and (2) even if true, with today's budgets the government will be much more likely to simply not fill any open positions. This is what plenty of private-sector companies are doing too, from airlines to HP. But his fantasy about an all-powerful, all-rescuing government goes on, and on -]
   "Government recruiters will be offering meaningful work and a clear sense of mission," said Herman. "But we will also see increased pay and benefits from the government....
   [What in the world is this guy smoking?]
   "Their recruiters understand that they will be competing with the private sector...."
   [Oh so "complacent employers might not be able to compete because of a hiring push be gov't recruiters" and gov't recruiters will be offering more pay and benefits because they "understand that they will be competing with the private sector." Hasn't this guy considered that maybe, just possibly, both sets of recruiters will look behind the scrim and see there's no need for tough competition between them because there is so much tougher competition between so many, so desperate job seekers? He seems to have completely ignored on-marching takeovers, downsizing and bankruptcies. This guy's only redeeming point is his late emphasis on training, a no-brainer at the superficial level on which he deals with it -]
   "The other problem employers will face is that, in the U.S., there are a lot of people who have been well trained for jobs that no longer exist. So a lot of retraining will have to take place for these people to be brought up to speed on new technology."...
   [He doesn't say how, as we do in Phase Two and Phase Three of the Timesizing program.]

1. France now says 10,000 died in heat wave, Roundup via WSJ, A7.
   PARIS - Pres. Jacques Chirac...under fire from opposition politicians and newspapers for remaining silent during the heat wave..\..promised to correct failings in France's health system...widely regarded as one of the best in the world [though facing] a multibillion-euro deficit.... Before the two-week-long heatwave, the gov't had been looking to make savings on health spending in an effort to reduce its bulging budget deficit, which exceeded EU limits last year and is on track to do so again this year....
   Some health workers said the medical system fell short because of a law that restricts France's workweek to 35 hours, which led to staff shortages.
   [But then, you could say that even if the law restricts the workweek to 80 hours, as it does in the USA for medical interns. And surely the law allows for exceptions in the case of epidemics like this. And this could all just be spin from Chirac, ever an uncomprehending foe of work-spreading who is desperate to channel the blame anywhere but himself, as seen in this Boston Globe article -]
   Chirac faults public in heat deaths, by John Leicester, AP via BG, A12.
   [Back to the WSJ -]
   Underfunding at hospitals and retirement homes was also cited. Other critics blamed families for abandoning elderly relatives...at home while they took August vacations..\..
   [Gee, a regular fingerpointin' party. How about no A/C? - but then, France has never needed A/C before.]
   The heatwave...saw temperatures reach 104....
   [Ah, thet's nuthin' - it's reachin' 110 this month at beautiful Cottonwood Campground in the Grand Canyon halfway from the North Rim to the Colorado, and 120 all the way down at Phantom Ranch by the River.]

2. Lufthansa ground staff to resume full work hours, by Jeff Mason, Reuters 08/21/03 06:03 ET via AOLNews.
   FRANKFURT...- Germany's Lufthansa said on Thursday it would reinstate full-time working [hours] for ground staff from Sept.1 to adjust to an upturn in demand, though that would not change its earnings outlook for 2003. A spokesman said the 12,000 ground personnel would start working 37.5 hours a week instead of 35 hours from Sept.1, after the airline noted in recent weeks that it needed to increase capacity.... The board made the decision about ground personnel on Wednesday, the spokesman said. The hours were reduced earlier this year to save costs.
   The decision to return ground staff to normal working time has not been extended to cabin crew, who are still working reduced hours, he said.... The Lufthansa spokesman said the airline would continue to exercise strict cost-mgmt and work on boosting efficiency at the group, which also has cargo, tourism and catering units. Europe's 3rd-largest passenger airline [after British Air & Air France?] has taken planes out of service, among other measures, to cope with the weakness in air traffic.
   [related mention -]
   Travel firm TUI rises on outlook, signs of upturn, by Jeff Mason, Reuters 08/21/03 06:03 ET via AOLNews.
   FRANKFURT...- Shares in Europe's largest travel firm TUI AG jumped over 8% on Thursday after the company gave a medium-term profit outlook and as investors bet on a recovery in the travel sector.... Said a trader who specializes in tourism-sector shares...Lufthansa's decision to return its 12,000 ground staff to full working hours [37½ hrs/wk] - which sent Lufthansa shares up 4.3% - was also supporting the sector as it demonstrated an upturn in demand....

3. Welfare work requirements limit breastfeeding, study finds, US Newswire 08/21 12:21 via AOLNews.
   EAST LANSING, Mich. -...If welfare reform's work requirements had not been adopted beginning in 1996, national breastfeeding rates 6 months after birth would have been 5.5% higher than they were in 2000, according to a study published in the August issue of the journal Demography..\..by the Center for Public Information on Population Research.... By 2000, states with the most stringent welfare work requirements for new mothers had breastfeeding rates 9% lower than expected based on trends in states with more lenient policies, the study found.
   The policy changes appear to have had a pronounced impact on low-income mothers' breastfeeding practices, report demographers Steven Haider of Michigan State University, Alison Jacknowitz of the RAND Graduate School, and Robert Schoeni of the University of Michigan.... The team based their study on annual breastfeeding rates for the years 1990 to 2000 from the Ross Labs Mothers Survey, an annual mail survey of more than 100,000 new mothers. Their analysis took into account the wide variety of state policies and the different dates in which those policies were enacted. They focused on whether states required new mothers to work, the number of work hours required, and the penalties faced if the work requirements were not met. States with the most stringent policies in 2000 required 32 hours or more of work and withheld the entire family's benefits if the requirement was unmet; those states were Arizona, New Jersey, Tennessee and Wisconsin....
   [Pretty scruffy company for Wisconsin.]
   The combination of requiring at least 17 hours of work a week and sanction policies that withhold a families' entire benefit if work hours are not met (as is done in 28 states) had the most dramatic impact on breastfeeding rates, they found. If states avoided this combination of policies, the "vast majority of harmful effects would be eliminated," they reported.
   [The right wants to subsidize parasites in the top brackets and the left wants to subsidize parasites in the bottom brackets. If we're not yet ready to pull the kid gloves and surgically-reversibly sterilize parasites, then let's at least get quality parasites.]
   States that required 17 to 31 hours of work for mothers with a 6-month old and also withheld the entire family's benefits if the work requirements was unmet were Ark., Col., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Id., Ill., Kan., Ken., La., Miss., N.D., Neb., N.M., Mich., Nev., Oh., Ok., S.C., S.D., Va., W.V., and Wy....
   The full article, "Welfare Work Requirements and Child Well-Being..." is available on...the *Center for Public Information on Population Research \website\ or call...202-939-5414....
   Contact: Steven Haider of Michigan State University, 517-862-6608, haider(At)msu.edu

4. [and a puzzling one -]
   Philly Fed manufacturers report growth, PRNewswire 08/21/2003 12:00 12:00 EDT via AOLNews.
   ...The purported improvement in manufacturing conditions this month is not yet resulting in increased employment at the region's manufacturing plants. More firms reported declines in employment (20%) that reported increases (11%), and the current employment index fell from 0.8 in July to -8.7 this month. The diffusion index for the average workweek, however, remained positive for the 2nd consecutive month....
   [Huh?]

1. Mexico: Volkswagen wage cuts, by John Moody, NYT, W1.
   Senior management and other nonunion workers at the Mexican plant of Volkswagen will take an 8% wage cut after the union agreed to a shorter workweek to maintain profit as world demand for its cars drops. The company's 9,800 unionized workers have already accepted a reduced 4-day workweek to prevent 2,000 job losses as the plant's production of new Beetles and Jettas has fallen 11.2% so far this year on fewer exports to the U.S., its main market....
   [So, a 20% cut in hours and pay, but a 5.25% increase in the daily age to offset somewhat, although there was 4.13% inflation in the 12 months ending in July.]
   The company said the reduction in salary for 3,800 nonunion employeees, including the board and top management, was decided because "if the union workers see lower wages then this should also extend to nonunion employees."
   [How about that - a fair company! This is going to give VW/Mexico high morale and productivity. As Lincoln Electric puts it, "All sacrifice together, starting at the top."]

2. S.Korea labour stance seen backfiring on workers, by Kim Myong-hwan, Reuters 08/20/03 06:11 ET via AOLNews.
   SEOUL...- South Korea's new centre-left government has given too much ground to labour unions, analysts say, warning these concessions may ultimately backfire on workers if wary foreigners hold back investments....
   [That might be true if was all about investments, but it's all about markets, and the more ground gained by labour, the stronger the country's consumer base (and the more smart investment money will pour in).]
   Labour unrest in South Korea has come under the spotlight this year as Pres. Roh Moo-hyun, a former labour lawyer, intervened in disputes to ensure union demands were met.... Analysts said Roh, who was elected in December on pledges of spending more on labour welfare and introducing a shorter work week, was unlikely to easily turn his back on labour, one of his main supporters, with parliamentary polls due in April....
   [And related -]
   Poll - S.Korea data to show depth of recession, by Kim Kyoung-wha, Reuters 08/20/03 01:59 ET via AOLNews.
   SEOUL...- South Korea's economy probably contracted 0.4% in the second quarter, according to a Reuters poll on Wednesday.... South Korea's 2nd-largest automaker, Kia Motors Corp., has been in talks with its 23,500-strong union to end strikes over claims for an 11.1% pay rise and [a] shorter work week. That followed a [successful] 7-week strike at Hyundai Motor, which cost South Korea's biggest carmaker $1.2B in lost output....
   [Which wasn't selling that fast anyway.]

3. [and in the U.S. -]
   Feature - Overtime pay faces showdown in Congress, by Thomas Ferraro, Reuters 08/20/03 11:30 ET via AOLNews.
   WASHINGTON - American labor and business are gearing up for a Capitol Hill battle over whether to redefine who in the American workforce has the right to overtime pay.
   [It should be everyone.]
   The AFL-CIO, the nation's biggest labor group, rallying its members to urge Congress to block a Bush administration proposal that critics say could end such compensation for millions of workers by expanding overtime exemptions....
   65 years ago, the Fair Labor Standards Act [1938] created the 40-hour workweek by guaranteeing overtime pay, at time and a half for each additional hour. Administrative, professional and executive employees were exempted.
   [Wrong. It was 63 years ago in 1940. Two years earlier the cap was set at 44 hours/week, then at 42 in 1939, and it reduced unemployment by 1% for each hour cut from the workweek.]
   Under the [Bush] Labor Dept's proposal, more employees could be classified as exempt administrators, professonals or executives - provided they meet certain criteria..\.. Backers contend that the revisions are aimed at white-collar employees, largely ones in mid- or high-level jobs. They include sales personnel, managers, financial planners, advanced computer technicians, even rocket scientists.
   Opponents say if they fail to block the proposed changes in Congress, they will challenge them in court. Unless stopped, they could take effect early next year and become an issue in the 2004 White House and Congressional elections....
   "This change would discourage job creation, by allowing companies to make workers work longer hours without additional pay, and [would] increase worker insecurity"..\..said Christine Owens, director of public policy at the AFL-CIO....
   While the proposed changes would end overtime for many white-collar workers, it would guarantee it for an estimated 1.3m low-paid white-collar workers who make $425 a week or less when they work more than 40 hours a week. There are no plans in the Senate to block this part of the proposal [as there are for the exclusions at the top].
   Currently, nearly 80% of the nation's estimated 134m workers are eligible for overtime. Yet far fewer get it, many because they simply are not asked to work it....
   [Wordless pressure used instead?]
   The Labor Dept. estimates that no more than 644,000 employees would lose overtime. But the liberal Economic Policy Institute, in what it calls a limited and inital analysis, puts the figure at more than 8m.
   In addition, the Labor Dept. contends that the changes would affect only white-collar employees and not manual workers or firefighters, police officers or nurses. Yet critics, including the National Assoc. of Police Organizations, argue the proposed changes could be interpreted to strip many of them of overtime too.
   The Labor Dept. says its rule changes would not prevent a company from paying overtime. But foes say without the force of law, many [firms] would stop.

4. Cops say too many truckers driving tired, by David Caruso, AP via AOLNews.
   PHILADELPHIA - ...In July, a federal grand jury indicted a Pennsy trucking company and 8 drivers on charges that they falsified log books. Among those accused was a driver who smashed his rig into a funeral procession, killing 2 people, on I-476 outside Philadelphia.
   Trucking industry groups contend that such crashes are rare, and that the percentage of scofflaws on the road is small. "The vast, vast, vast majority of truck drivers follow the rules and live by their logbook," [- but which logbook?! - see below -] said Mike Russell, spokesman for the American Trucking Assocs..\..
   Despite a half decade of tougher enforcement measures [however,] authorities say too many truckers regularly break rules limiting how long they can be behind the wheel before they must pull over and rest. During an annual roadside inspection blitz in June, officials found that the 55,784 truckers they pulled over had committed 1,948 violations of hours-of-service regulations [assuming one per trucker, that's 3½% in violation] that include limiting drivers to no more than 10 straight hours on the road before taking an 8-hour break, and no more than 15 hours of work in a single day....
   He [Russell] noted that from 1981 to 2001 there was an 8% decrease in fatal crashes involving large trucks, even though the number of rigs on the road increased by 37%. While large trucks were still more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than passenger cars, the number of fatalities fell from 5.3 for every 100m miles traveled to 2.4 for every 100m miles..\.. From 1998 to 2001 [in Pennsylvania alone, however,] the number of "out-of-service" orders issued for carrying inaccurate log books or violating hours rules climbed [48%] from 3,414 to 5,068. [And] the number of "out of service" orders issued annually to drivers for hours-of-service infractions or for failing to accurately log their driving time, rose [14%] from 19,398 in 1999 to 22,149 in 2001, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. "Unfortunately, you get some guys who are running 2 log books: one for themselves, that shows their real hours, and another that they show to the state trooper if they get pulled over," said Pennsylvania State Police Cpl. Ted Pounds. "I had a guy stuff shipping papers into the air conditioning vent on his dashboard once to keep me from seeing them."
   The rules are designed to combat trucker fatigue. Authorities hope to save another 75 lives annually by requiring drivers to get 10 hours rest between shifts, rather than 8, starting next year....
   Pennsylvania is one of several states that has intensified oversight. Under a statewide initiative called "Project No," roadside inspections of trucks have soared in recent years..\.. Nearly 2.8m roadside inspections were conducted nationwide in 2001, up from 2.4m in 1999. The annual "Roadcheck" inspection blitz, sponsored by The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, performed 13,000 more inspections this year than in 2000 [and how many altogether??]..\..
   Truckers say the fatigue problem is blown out of proportion, and the thousands of tickets merely nitpick drivers for minor infractions and do little to make the road safer.
   [Sounds like our doctors with their megahours, doesn't it? Two jobs that have drifted way out of the mainstream of professional standards. If roadside regulation&enforcement have been increasing, maybe that's why "from 1981 to 2001 there was an 8% decrease in fatal crashes involving large trucks."]
   ..\..Trucker Robert Vollert...of Colorado Springs said there are countless times when drivers feel strong and fresh, but have run out of legal work hours. "So you stop, and you radio and say you will be late. But it's ridiculous," he said. "If a driver is tired, he knows it, and he should [squishy term] rest. But he shouldn't have to because of some rule, based on a study by someone who's never driven a truck. The government should keep its nose in its own business."...
   [Or maybe if Vollert doesn't like the rules of the game, he should get his butt out of the trucking business. Gov't doesn't get its nose in the regulation business for nothing. There are always pressures such as fatalities, and pressures motivate rules. Every game has rules. Sounds to us that Vollert should shut up & shape up, or ship out - into some other game. We sure don't want to be traveling in a car anywhere near the "perfect" "sleep-unnecessary" likes of him, any more than we'd want to be treated, let alone operated on, by any of our "superman" "no-sleep-requiring" American physicians. In both cases, we have a particular form of megalomania. "I am omnipotent." "I am not subject to the law of averages that my kind develops." "I am an exception." "I'm above the law." "I'm special." Ri-i-ight. We repeat - play by the rules or get out of the game.]

1. Nissan Mexico lowers production goal for 2003 [7.3%], Reuters 08/19/03 18:01 ET via AOLNews.
   ...to last year's output of 328,950 autos [from 355,000] due to slower demand in the U.S.... Mexico is the 10th largest auto maker in the world. The Mexico unit of Volkswagen AG {VOWG.DE} has said it is reducing production by 23%, and VW workers last agreed to a shorter workweek to avoid 2,000 layoffs due to the production cut [see 8/13/2003 #2].

2. South Korea: Labor demonstration, by Don Kirk, NYT, W1.
   Members of the country's 2 major labor organizations, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, demonstrated in Seoul against a bill for a 5-day week. The unions say the bill, although it would shorten the week from 44 to 40 hours, would deprive workers of holidays and reduce wages. About 25,000 workers at Kia Motors stayed off the job for several hours, demanding a 5-day week and an 11.1% wage increase.
   [Boy, are they confused. Here's a related item -]
   A striking worker sho[u]t[s], caption, AP Photo/Ah Young-joon 8/19/2003 via AOLNews.
   A striking workers shouts a slogan during a rally held in the rain near the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003. South Korea's two main labor union groups called for a one-day strike Tuesday to protest the government's bill on a shorter workweek, but no key industries were affected by the walkouts.

3. [worktime as currency -]
   Nairobians must work 3 hrs for Big Mac, Tokyoites 10 minutes, Kyodo 08/19/03 23:20 EDT via AOLNews.
   ...to purchase a Big Mac, [that is,] Swiss banking group UBS said in a survey released Tuesday [in Geneva]. The survey, entitled "Prices and Earnings" and conducted in 1Q03...is a global overview of prices for goods and services, wages, wage deductions and working hours on all five continents. A total of 35,000 individual data items were collected and evaluated in 70 cities around the world.
   [We don't know how it tastes in Nairobi, but a Macdonald's hamburger tastes like mushed British peas in Tokyo, in a word, nya-yuk. In Nairobi, going to Macdonald's may be like going to the Ritz. Here in the Boston area, it's like going to a food pantry. Here's the skinny on the burger price-in-avg-worktime-needed survey -]
   
   • Nairobi, 185 minutes, the longest among the cities surveyed...
   • Toronto, Montreal, Zurich, 14
   • Hong Kong, 13
   • NYC, 12
   • Tokyo, Chicago, L.A., Miami, 10....
   The UBS survey..\..said Oslo replaced Tokyo as the world's most expensive city since UBS last carried out the survey in 2000....
   In terms of the cost of living, Oslo measures 117.8 against the base of 100 for Zurich, which ranks fifth. Ranked second is Hong Kong with 108.1, followed by Tokyo with 106.7 and NYC with 104.5.
   The survey said purchasing power [mng?], calculated [how?] on the basis of annual income and living costs, is the highest in Zurich, followed by Basel and Geneva.... Tokyo is 12th, measuring 74.7 against the base of 100 for Zurich, the survey said....

4. Pepper...and salt, cartoon by Dave Carpenter, WSJ, D12.
   [1 frame: 2 little boys walking past soccerfield fence, both looking tired with drooping eyelids, one carrying soccerball underarm - jersey #24 says to jersey #17 -]
   "I can't wait until I grow up and have some unstructured time."
   [Stay tuned for disillusion in America.]

5. Fear of litigation stifles hospitals' efforts to improve patient safety, press release by Greg Nelson (510-238-1040) of California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), BusinessWire 08/19/2003 08:03 Eastern via AOLNews.
   ...or drives them underground, according to the latest article in a journal series that harnesses the power of individual case presentations to educate heathcare providers about medical errors.... The article is seventh in the series called "Quality Grand Rounds."... Future articles in the series will include case studies of ICU, outpatient, and diagnostic errors along with house-staff work-hour limits, communication and teamwork, and the role of media in patient safety..\..
   The [latest] article "Patient safety and medical malpractice..." appears in the 8/18/03 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine and can be accessed at [*the CHCF website]....

1. International Business Machines, Dow Jones via WSJ, B6 (//NYT, C1).
   ...laid off 600 workers nationwide, including about 500 at its Vermont chip-making plant.... Many of those laid off were in higher-paying positions, the computer maker said. IBM had more than 315,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2002, with 6,000 in Vermont..\..
   [600/315000 is 0.2% of its global workforce, so a 1-minute-a-day corporate work&pay week reduction would have avoided this. However, there is some timesizing, not downsizing going on here -]
   IBM said an additional 3,000 workers in Vermont will be required to take a week off without pay next month. While IBM, Armonk NY, posted profits for its Q2, it lost money on its microelectronics business as the industry suffered a sharp downturn....
   [Let's estimate that without this timesizing of 3000, 20% of that number would have to have been laid off - an additional 600 jobs saved. The fact that higher-paid people are beginning to be laid off - with presumably too much of a financial buffer to be rendered catatonic - and that more people are beginning to be timesized - motivating activism without financially hobbling - may mean that we'll get some additional support for the timesizing movement. God knows the every-firm-for-itself/every-CEO-for-himself strategy, even coupled with Bill Gates' milk&charity approach, is just taking us all further down.]

2. Teleworkers still on the job over holidays, ITAC survey finds; Results correlate with ITAC 2003 broadband research, Business Wire, 08/18/2003 09:55 Eastern via AOLNews.
   WAKEFIELD, Mass...- Bolstering recent reports that Americans are working more and vacationing less, two-thirds of the respondents to an informal survey by ITAC [International Telework Assoc. & Council], the association for advancing work from anywhere, said they teleworked during their July Fourth holidays. More than one half said they routinely work during vacations....
   [This is not progress.]
   Telework refers to work independent of location. Anyone who works at home, at a client's office, in a satellite office or a telework center, or on the road is teleworking..\.. "Telework increases our choices," said Tim Kane, Pres. of ITAC.... "We can leave the office behind and go away for a family vacation, and still connect when we want to. The ability to work from anywhere is a vital contributor to balancing work and family needs."...
   [Maybe, but the inability to set limits and boundaries on work is a powerful detractor from balancing work and family needs. Phil Hyde was raised in a country general store in the middle of Toronto (Hyde's Groceries and Confectionery, since 1903, 40 Harbord St, Toronto 4, Midway 0441). From 8 am to 10 pm, 6 days a week with 15 minutes closed for dinner from 12n-12:15pm, if anyone in the family heard one of the front doors open = a customer coming in, s/he had to know there was a family member there to mind the customer - or get there him/erself. Phil Hyde knows all about the costs to a family of an inability to set limits and boundaries on work = living in a continuous state of invasion or invadibility.]
   Curious about the changing relationship between work and vacation, ITAC polled its members, who are active practitioners of working from anywhere, during July 2003. The survey questions covered the holiday just past and vacation practices in general, so that the findings would likely apply to the upcoming Labor Day weekend as well.
   Though the sample is too small to be statistically significant, the survey results appear to correlate with the findings in Teleworking Comes of Age with Broadband, ITAC's latest Telework America Report, funded by the AT&T Foundation. For example, the broadband report found that those with broadband access work more hours than those with dial-up access; this proved true for the July vacationers as well. Those with vacation broadband access reported working more time per day, on average, than vacation dialup users.
   In keeping with the broadband report's findings that broadband users collaborate more with co-workers, communicate more with colleagues and customers, and are more productive, the July survey found that those with home broadband access were more likely to work during vacation than those with home dialup, even if broadband was not available to them on vacation.
   Additional tabulations from the July survey fill in the picture further:
   • 80% of respondents were employed by a company with more than 50 employees...
   • 30% worked 2-3 hours per day
   • 20% dedicated specific time each day for work related matters
   • 24% found working during vacation more stressful, while 21% had the opposite experience, saying working during vacation was more relaxing
   ...Several respondents commented that they worked during vacation to reduce the pileups they would face when they returned....
   [Thus supporting our feeling that shorter workweeks are better avenues of timesizing that shorter workyears/longer vacations.]
   The complete July survey results are posted on the *ITAC website. Information about the Telework America broadband research report is also available on the website....

3. Contract at Hyundai raises sights of Korean workers, by Don Kirk, NYT, W1.
   ULSAN, South Korea - ...The pact that emerged earlier this month after a 47-day strike was, by Korean standards, groundbreaking. For the first time, a powerful industrial company accepted a 5-day workweek, a relative rarity in a country where most workers also put in a half-day on Saturday. Workers will also have a labor-management panel to review their concerns, and they will receive an 8.6% wage increase, a substantial raise in an economy that is slowing.
   And the impact of that settlement promises to ripple through industry, and investment here. Union leaders are vowing to secure the 5-day workweek for all workers, without any bartering of gains already made....
   Not surprisingly, workers at Kia Motors, a small affiliate of the Hyundai Motor Group, promptly said that they also wanted a guaranteed 5-day week and that they would stage partial strikes this week to demand shorter working days and higher wages. Other unions are echoing the same demands.
   On the other side of the table, some business executives fear that investors may be motivated to head across the Yellow Sea to China, where wages are lower and the demands of workers rarely result in headaches for managers....
   Hyundai Motor yielded to labor's central demands after having lost more than $1 billion as a result of sporadic walkouts of anywhere from 2 hours to 12 hours a day since late June.... Nonetheless, the strike settlement has upset other business leaders worried about the generosity of a company that can afford to pay an average of 50m won ($42,400) a year to each of its 39,000 workers....
   In an effort to keep Korea competitive, the government has sponsored legislation that would mandate a 5-day workweek, but would take back some holidays and vacation time. (Korea has 17 public holidays.) The bill would also cut wages.
   Labor groups have threatened strikes if the bill passes. They have also recently stood up to any move perceived as a threat to job security.
   [Reducing the workweek and with it the labor surplus as a threat to job security? These people must be brain damaged.]
   ...Yun Jin Ho, professor of labor relations at Inha University, estimat[es] that workers at small companies average only 1.5m won ($1,270) a month [$15,240 a year] while working more than 50 hours a week - well above the 44-hour legal limit.
   [This is the first explicit statement we've heard that South Korea currently has a 44-hour maximum workweek.]
   In addition, more than half of Korea's salaried workers are day laborers or workers on short-term contracts and do not have nearly the pay or privileges of the regularly employed, said Peter Tergeist, who specializes in labor issues at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, an agency of the U.N. in Paris....
   [Here's a parallel Reuters story that picks up on the labor groups that have threatened strikes if the 5-day workweek bill passes -]
   S.Korea's top labour unions threaten strikes, Reuters 08/18/03 05:33 ET via AOLNews.
   SEOUL...- South Korea's two influential trade unions...the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU)...with 940,000 members..\..and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) [with] 595,000 members..\..threatened on Monday to launch a strike if the National Assembly voted to revise a labour bill which they say includes unfavourable terms for workers. The National Assembly plans to vote this month on a government proposal to introduce a 5-day workweek. Labour unions fear a shorter workweek may lead to thinner wages and unfavourable working conditions...
   [Labour stupidity rolls on. Apparently Korean labour never heard the American labor jingle that worked so well -
   Whether you work by the piece or the day,
   Decreasing the hours increases the pay.
   - because it reduces labor surplus and increases labor leverage and bargaining power. Demands for higher pay without shorter hours buck market forces and deliver neither goal. Demands for shorter hours without higher pay reframe market forces in a new context of labor scarcity and deliver both goals. To the FKTU and the KCTU we can only say, quit shooting yourselves in the foot!]

4. French official resigns after heat deaths, by Jamey Keaten, AP 08/18/03 16:15 EDT via AOLNews.
   [This is a fuller version of "French official quits over toll in heat wave," by John Tagliabue, NYT, front page, which mentions August vacations in France but not the 35-hour workweek, so you lose, John - we're going with Jamey -]
   PARIS...- A senior health official resigned Monday after France's Health Minister admitted that up to 5,000 people, many of them elderly and alone, might have died in the heat wave - almost twice as many as previously estimated.
   [France needs to hear two words = air conditioning. But now we solve the mystery of who started blaming the 35-hour workweek -]
   ...Lawmakers from the ruling UMP coalition have blamed a law enacted by the previous Socialist government that limited France's working week to 35 hours.
   [In short, Chirac, who has tried to dilute the law ever since the spoiled indiscipline and disunity of the left let him, corruption and all, back in as president. So how do they figure a 35-hour workweek is to blame for France's lack of air conditioning?]
   That law, combined with the August holidays, left medical centers and hospitals short-staffed, critics allege....
   [Like a 4-hour reduction in the workweek that was finished and adjusted-to two years ago - with the hiring of additional employees which was its whole point - is going to kill 5000 elderly French people, most of whom couldn't get to a medical center or hospital anyway. The "work hard to get ahead" mindset, obsolete in the age of robotics, is dying hard. Perhaps if the French workweek-cap design had provision for workaholics, as our Timesizing design has in Phase Two and especially Phase Three. Briefly, you can work as many hours as you want, as long as you shift gears at the workweek cap and start reinvesting overtime/overwork earnings in jobs for others via training and hiring. "No overtime alone!" In effect, the workweek really defines a range of freely spendable earning time. Beyond that time, you can still earn but all earnings are earmarked for training and hiring in overtime-targeted skills, thus making the whole phenomenon of the work-hoarding and overloading characteristic of overtime into a self-solving problem.]

5. Big firms cut Canadian production to save power, by Rajiv Sekhri, Reuters 08/18/03 17:02 ET via AOLNews.
   TORONTO...- The auto industry in Ontario scaled back production on Monday after the provincial government urged energy conservation in an attempt to return the power system to normal after the worst blackout in North American history. Steel companies also cut back to help Canada's largest province...
   [Geez, the ignorance of Reuters' reporters! Quebec (594,860 sq mi) is by far (44%!) the largest province. Ontario (412,582 sq mi) is the richest province and may by now be rivalling Quebec in population, considering that Toronto beat Montreal in population some years ago. Compare middling Alaska, 586,400 sq mi and piddling Texas, 267,339 sq mi. If an Anglo-Canuck (tainted with American citizenship) may adapt a Flanders&Swann rhyme,
   "Canajuns, Canajuns, Canajuns are best.
   We wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest."
   especially for American taxpayers hemorrhaging under the stifling, expensive and meddling regime of Geo. Dubya Bushwhack.]
   ...and the government asked non-essential workers to stay home....
   [Our words of advice to Ontario - cut Ohio out of your grid.]
   General Motors of Canada said about 11,500 of its workers across Ontario were either laid off temporarily [timesizing] or were working shifts during non-peak hours [rescheduling] to help save power.
   Ford Motor Co. of Canada said it had cut the day production shift at its Oakville, Ont., plant and closed its HQ for the day to save power [more timesizing]. About...1,000 workers build Ford cars during the day shift at Oakville and 600 people work at headquarters, Ford Canada spokeswoman Lauren More told Reuters....
   GM and Ford said they did not know if they would step [back] up production on Tuesday. "At this point, we are taking it on a day-by-day basis," Ford's More said..\..
   DaimlerChrysler Canada said it was eliminating nonessential lighting and electrical use at all of its facilities across Ontario. Its assembly plant in Windsor, Ont. [right across (south!) the wide St. Clair River from Detroit, the only major city in Canada that has a twin city in the contiguous States directly north of it) was shut on Monday and its casting plant in Toronto was operating at 50% capacity. The company said it had idled two laboratories. DaimlerChrysler said the Windsor assembly plant would operate the midnight shift but the day and afternoon shifts on Tuesday would be canceled. Its trim plant in Ajax, Ont., would not operate for the week [timesizing by the week].
   One of Honda Motor's plants in Alliston ONT cut down the length of its shifts to help conserve energy. The morning shift ended after 1.5 hours and the night shift on Monday will be cut to six hours...company spokesman Ron Lietzke in Ohio said....
   [Honda apparently has the sense to implement a less disruptive, more gradual form of timesizing.]
   Toyota Motor Canada said it was shutting down both shifts assembling its Lexus model at its Cambridge ONT plant in addition to cutting back on lights and air conditioning.
   The electrical supply in Ontario was still not at full steam on Monday as several nuclear generators that went out of service during Thursday's blackout were not yet back on line. More than a third of the province's electricity comes from nuclear stations....
   [Oh yeah? What do they do with the spent fuel rods? Ontario, with all its hydro potential, appears almost as self-destructive as France in its nuclear dependency.]
   "We've had major cooperation from the major sectors," said Ontario Premier Ernie Eves, who on Sunday urged energy users, especially big firms, to cut electricity use in half as the workweek started.
   [Hey, where else do you get a state-governor equivalent named Ernie?]
   (US$1 = Canadian $1.39)

1. Power outages a mere hiccup for giant US economy, by Stella Dawson, Reuters 08/15/03 08:23 ET via AOLNews.
   ...The pinch will be seen in hours worked this month. In the auto industry, for instance, 23 of Ford Motor Co's 44 plants were closed down Thursday and 9 of Chrysler's 13 North American final vehicle assembly plants [were] hit. GM Corp also said it had auto plants in every affected region.
   These closures will show up in [a] shorter working week in the all-important monthly U.S. employment report, for which the U.S. Labor Dept. is surveying this week to release Sept. 5....
   [Well now we know what it takes to get lots of US businesses to shorten the workweek.]

2. NY State factory index retreats in August, Reuters 08/15/03 08:30 ET via AOLNews.
   NEW YORK -...The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said [on Friday] its Empire State Manufacturing Survey index of business conditions fell to 9.98 in August [a bit premature!] from a revised 20.83 in July, \meaning that\ overall business conditions for NY State manufacturers stayed positive for a 4th straight month in August, though there was some pullback from July.... The survey provides an early snapshot of factory activity during the month and has at times served as a leading indicator for other regional manufacturing measures. But it has a short history [started when??] and the correlation has not always held up....
   Of the Empire State survey's components...employment measures improved somewhat but remained soft overall. The number-of-employees index edged up to 0.0 from -9.47, while the average workweek moved to -2.48 from -6.28....
   [A change of 9.47 is "edging up" while a change of (6.28-2.48=) 3.80 is merely "moving to"?? We must congratulate the Fed (&/or Reuters) on making these employment measures 100% opaque. We assume that the average workweek has lengthened, so that hailing this as a good thing reflects the prevailing technology- & overwork-ignoring obsolescence in the Fed's thinking.]