Free Republic

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mulally predicts bottom next year, better in 2004 After handing out pink slips for months, The Boeing Co. expects layoffs to taper off at around 30,000 employees, Alan Mulally, head of its commercial aircraft unit, said yesterday. Barring unforeseen jolts to existing market forecasts, production rates will bottom out in 2003 and improve in 2004, according to Mulally. If the estimates hold, total layoffs would hover at the high end -- 30,000 -- of projections Boeing made after the terrorist attacks rocked commercial aviation in September. Mulally had said the company...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. INMAN, S.C. (AP) — Mettler-Toledo plans to cut 150 jobs within a year at its Inman plant to consolidate operations in Worthington, Ohio, and Changzhou, China. Officials at the Ohio-based company that manufactures weighing instruments announced the cuts Thursday. The company will keep about 30 employees at the Spartanburg County facility for product marketing and research and development activities. Jeff Adams, general manager of the local plant, said the goal of announcing the cuts so early was to give employees as much notice as possible. ``The most important thing for us...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — Citing a downturn in orders, DENSO International America Inc. announced Thursday that it was eliminating a total of 177 jobs at two of its California facilities. The North American arm of Japan-based DENSO Corp. said it was cutting 80 jobs at its DENSO Wireless Systems America Inc. manufacturing facility in Vista, Calif., and 97 positions at its LA Laboratories facility in Carlsbad, Calif. The company will provide the laid-off employees with severance packages and career transition assistance, he said. DENSO Wireless Systems America will continue producing automotive...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp. is counting on a reincarnation of the car nicknamed ``the Goat'' to give its Pontiac division the sales kick it needs. The automaker released the first sketch Thursday of what will be the 2004 Pontiac GTO, a 21st century version of the popular muscle car that went out of production in 1974. Unlike the old ``Goat,'' the new kid is based on the Monaro, built by GM's Australian subsidiary Holden. But it will be pumped up with an LS1 aluminum engine and beyond 300 horsepower...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Merrill Lynch cutbacks hit Nasdaq trading desk Wall Street may lose as many as 35,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, in the coming year, analysts said. Yesterday, Merrill Lynch continued its cutbacks, slashing 45 people in New York and New Jersey from its Nasdaq trading desk. The volume of trading has collapsed this year along with the prices of most Nasdaq stocks with the tech-heavy index plunging again yesterday below 1,500. Meanwhile, analysts said Morgan Stanley — which yesterday reported quarterly earnings fell 14% — has quietly cut 1,337 jobs,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Parker Hannifin Corp. will cut 850 to 1,000 jobs, largely due to slow sales of semiconductors, and take various charges against some of its assets, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. The suburban Cleveland-based manufacturer of technical parts made about 60 acquisitions in the past 10 years. It will take a charge of $37 million related to the decline in value of those acquisitions as required by new accounting rules. The company announced the financial issues Wednesday, and in a conference call a company official mentioned related job...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. CLEARFIELD, Pa. -- When the 360 employees at FCI Electronics learned their plant would be closing in October, they didn't apply for new jobs -- they applied for a new company. The workers are promoting themselves online and in trade magazines as a made-to-order work force in a last-ditch effort to remain neighbors in their small central Pennsylvania town. "A lot of us have grown up here, we walk to work and our kids go to school here," said Jim Afton, a 37-year-old senior staff engineer who has worked for FCI...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Farmland Industries Inc. cut 103 administrative and management jobs to reduce costs as it begins its court-supervised reorganization. Farmland -- North America's largest farmer-owned cooperative -- filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 31. Weak fertilizer sales led to a cash shortage at the Kansas City-based company, triggering payment pressures from its lenders and other creditors. The job cuts, announced Monday, affect 103 of the company's 1,682 management and administrative employees, Farmland said. Forty-seven of the jobs were in Kansas City, while 56 were at other Farmland...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MOLINE, Ill. -- Deere & Company will lay off about 300 employees, close two plants and cut back production at a third as part of a streamlining effort, the company announced Monday. Facilities in Williamsburg, Va., and Jeffersonville, Ind., will be closed, and operations at Horicon, Wis., will be reduced as part of an effort to lower costs in Deere's commercial and consumer equipment division. The job cuts represent 7 percent of the division's work force. The Williamsburg and Jeffersonville plants are expected to close by Oct. 31, the end of...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SAN FRANCISCO -- ChevronTexaco Corp. announced Thursday it will lay off 100 employees from a credit card division in Concord. The San Francisco-based company said the positions at a customer service center fielding inquiries about its Chevron credit card will be transferred to the Philippines. Official termination notices will be distributed in September and the layoffs will come in November and December, ChevronTexaco spokeswoman Nicole Hodgson said. The center has 170 employees. The layoffs are part of a plan to eliminate 4,500 jobs as part of cost-cutting program undertaken after Chevron...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WICHITA, Kan. -- Bank of America will layoff 575 workers in Wichita at its regional call center by mid-August, saying the Internet and other technologies are making the center's customer service jobs obsolete. Bob Landers, president of the Bank of America operations in Kansas, told Wichita television station KAKE that the company has 10 to 15 such call centers, and it made sense to downsize the Wichita office. Before the layoffs, the center employed 800 people.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. DUQUBUE, Iowa -- A John Deere engine-production line shut down at the plant here on Wednesday and will be moved to Mexico. "I knew it was coming, but nobody wanted to see it because of the quality of work we did out there," said Jim Jones, a longtime worker at the plant's engine department. "The engine division was the heart of that plant." The Dubuque Works division had around 400 employees last year. The previous year, Deere & Co., based in Moline, Ill., announced the division would close; it later said...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Weyerhaeuser Co. said Thursday it will close three facilities -- in Woodburn, Ore., Simsboro, La. and Denver -- eliminating 206 jobs. The moves come as Weyerhaeuser works to align its operations with those from its $6.2 billion acquisition of Willamette Industries. The consolidations and cuts are designed to help the forest products company achieve $300 million in annual savings over the next three years, Weyerhaeuser said in a statement. The company will phase out production of engineered lumber products at the Woodburn plant and close it by...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. HORICON, Wis. -- The John Deere plant is laying off 240 workers for five months beginning in July. It is the first time the company is implementing a voluntary manufacturing leave, said human resources manager Chuck Evans said. The layoffs begin July 29. During the layoffs, employees will receive about 65 percent of their normal pay, which is the rate for employees on medical disability. That's instead of claiming unemployment. "This would allow the more junior employees who cannot afford to take a layoff to remain employed throughout the summer while...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PLANO, Texas -- French phone-equipment giant Alcatel cut 450 U.S. jobs this week, including 330 at its U.S. headquarters in Plano. The company said this week that its work force in North Texas has fallen by 1,500 since November, to 4,000. It has 9,000 workers in the United States, down from 17,000 at the beginning of last year. The telecommunications industry has been hard hit in the past two years, as orders for new equipment have stalled. Last month, Alcatel reported a first-quarter loss of $746 million and said it had...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MONTICELLO, Ill. -- General Cable Corp. will close its 47-year-old Monticello plant this summer, affecting 114 workers. General Cable, based in Highland Heights, Ky., says it will cease operations here Aug. 16, because of a continued downturn in the telecommunications industry. The company said it will also close its plant in Sanger, Calif., this summer. The two closings will leave General Cable with five telecommunications plants in North America. Monticello, a town of 4,500, is located about midway between Champaign and Decatur.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. INDIANAPOLIS -- Guidant Corp. announced plans to cut about 200 jobs from three California facilities as it restructures its divisions. The work force reductions will be at endovascular solutions operations in Santa Clara, Menlo Park and Temecula, Calif., with about half expected to be offered positions at other Guidant sites. Guidant said Wednesday it will take a one-time charge of $28 million to $31 million in connection with the restructuring. The company said that its key product development initiatives would continue as planned and that the work force restructuring should be...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Energy wholesaler Aquila Inc. announced plans to cut 150 more jobs on Tuesday, a day after rating agency Moody's said it would review the company's debt status for a possible downgrade. Moody's Investor Services currently rates Aquila debt one step above junk status. It decided on the review after Aquila's first-quarter earnings slid 40 percent from the same quarter last year, and cash from operations "fell well short of investment needs," Moody's said. In response, Aquila said its "primary focus" for the rest of the year is...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. CHICAGO -- Sara Lee Corp. said Friday it is closing four U.S. bakeries and laying off 380 employees as it continues to consolidate operations since the acquisition of Earthgrains. The decision will eliminate 140 jobs in Memphis, Tenn.; 99 in Chicago; 96 in Chattanooga, Tenn.; and 45 in Albuquerque, N.M. Employees were notified Friday. "It's always a difficult decision to close bakeries, but with our overcapacity in certain areas it's a necessary decision," said Matt Hall, a spokesman for Sara Lee's St. Louis-based bakery group. Sara Lee is adding about 40...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SEATTLE -- The Boeing Co. issued layoff notices to 1,500 employees Friday, including 1,100 in the Puget Sound region, in the latest round of job cuts announced by the aircraft manufacturer after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The layoffs take effect July 19. Chicago-based Boeing had announced in mid-September that it would slash its labor force by 25,000 to 30,000 employees by the end of this year due to the impact of the September attacks on commercial air travel. The pink slips bring the total number of layoff notices since September...