United Technologies plans another 1,500 job cuts

[OhioChick]

Source: Economic Times of India

27 Jul 2010, 0032 hrs IST,AGENCIES

HARTFORD (Connecticut): United Technologies Corp says it plans to cut another 1,500 jobs through 2011 after eliminating 900 positions in the first half of this year.

The parent company of jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft and other businesses said Monday in a regulatory filing that it will take restructuring and other costs of $121 million in 2010 related to the cuts.

The company didn't specify where the job cuts are coming. It says it cut about 900 jobs as of June 30 and expects to complete most of the remaining cost-cutting this year and in 2011.

United Technologies announced 11,600 job cuts in 2009. It employed 206,700 workers as of the end of 2009.

Shares rose 49 cents, to $71.39 in afternoon trading.

Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/United-Technologies-plans-another-1500-job-cuts/articleshow/6221044.cms

[asdjrocky]

1. There's something wrong with a market that goes up based on people losing their jobs.

[SocialistLez]

4. There really is. NT

[reformist2]

7. Short-term gain for them, long-term loss for everyone.

It's the business model of every transnational: Lower the cost of production (i.e., move jobs overseas) and then sell the products back in the US at the same price they were selling them before. It's a short-term win for the company that does it, since 99%+ of Americans aren't affected by the job cuts at one company, and profit margins go through the roof. But when enough companies get in on the act, the overall buying power of Americans will fall (as we're seeing now), and surprise, surprise, they can't sell their products at the prices they wanted anymore, and there go the profits, down the drain. Party over!

[pampango]

2. Hartford Courant: UTC To Cut 1,500 More Jobs Through 2011

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-utc-job-cuts-726-20100726,0,7490517.story

United Technologies Corp. expects to trim its global workforce by an additional 1,500 positions by 2012, a net reduction of about half of 1 percent. So far this year, the company has cut about 900 jobs worldwide, including at least a couple hundred in Connecticut, where it employs about 26,000.

The further cuts, disclosed today in a filing with federal securities regulators, continue a massive restructuring of the Hartford-based industrial conglomerate that began in earnest in March 2009, when UTC said it would cut 11,600 jobs that year alone.

The company did not say in the filing how many of the 1,500 new job cuts would come from operations in Connecticut, where the company is the largest private employer. The new reductions will affect both hourly and salaried employees. As of the end of 2009, UTC employed nearly 207,000 people worldwide.

Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky Aircraft, Hamilton Sundstrand, Otis Elevator Co., Carrier Corp. and UTC Fire & Security are all UTC divisions.

[superconnected]

3. Very sad. There really aren't jobs out there.

I'm lucky to be employed but my brother has been working literally minimum wages jobs since getting laid off from his real job 2 years ago making 30 something an hour. Believe me he is always looking for a better paying job. His latest is he may get a job at a rent-a-center - that could pay up to $12. I know this because he lives with me, including his wife and teenage son. His wife went from office worker to cashier at Walmart when she got laid off. I really feel for these 1500 people. Most will lose their houses and most will not find another job anywhere near what they were making if they find a job at all.

[superconnected]

5. 1500 is a lot to lay off without resulting to foreign manufacturing

From another article on the economy but relates to Americans being cut from jobs:

"The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay."

From this article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=

[Jennicut]

6. There have been rumors of more cuts for a long time. My mother in law works at Pratt and Whitney.

Two other family members do too. They have been telling me they thought there was more likely more cuts coming.