Your Friday afternoon layoff report. Real people, real jobs.

[Bluebear]

Warning to these people. Shortly, bankruptcy will NOT be an option! Refer all questions to Senator Biden.

===

NORTH CAROLINA - Celestica said Thursday that it will shut down its operations in Morrisville and lay off about 170 workers as the electronics manufacturer cuts costs to compete.

Celestica makes the products that companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard sell. Those customers are demanding that it provide services at lower costs. To do so, Celestica said it must shift work to Asian and other locations where expenses are lower.
===

WASHINGTON - Cingular Wireless has issued layoff notices to 73 employees at facilities in Bothell and Redmond, according to a notice sent to the state Employment Security Department. The terminations are effective April 29.
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KANSAS - Gary Cochran, president of Machinists Local 834, said that the company told him Monday that it would issue 60-day layoff notices on Friday. He said Thursday that the company later told him it didn't know which day it would issue the notices.

Boeing Wichita spokesman Dick Ziegler said that, as of late Thursday afternoon, the company hadn't made a decision on when to issue the notices. But there's no doubt that notices will be issued to all 7,300 employees of the Wichita/Tulsa Division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and may be extended to some of the 1,700 employees of the company's Shared Services Group.
===
ILLINOIS - The Illinois Department of Human Services plans to layoff more than 450 workers, including 10 at the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford. Officials say the notices will be sent out next Friday.

Cuts include eight mental health technicians, one clerical worker and one life skills coordinator.
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CALIFORNIA - PASADENA -- - The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education voted Thursday night to send layoff notices to four counselors, two nurses and an adult education teacher and reassign 45 administrators. The board also voted to lay off a mechanical supervisor and a food services supervisor, effective April 18.

===
CALIFORNIA - The Vallejo school district will send nearly 80 counselors, teachers, nurses and teacher aides notices that they will be laid off as part of State Administrator Richard Damelio's efforts to slash the deficit by as much as $12 million.
===
MICHIGAN - General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off nearly 3,000 hourly workers at its Lansing Car Assembly plant later this spring.

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INDIANA - A soft retail market for its recreational vehicles is forcing Monaco Coach Corp. to lay off 5 to 10 percent of its work force in Elkhart County, Ind., a company spokesman told an Indiana newspaper Tuesday. The Coburg-based RV manufacturer currently employs about 2,700 workers at plants in Elkhart and in Wakarusa, Ind., meaning as many as 270 workers could lose their jobs, Monaco spokesman Craig Wanichek told the South Bend Tribune.

===
VIRGINIA - The Red Cross blood service based in Roanoke announced it must lay off about one in four employees to save money this year.
The organization said the changes would not disrupt the blood supply, but left unsaid how it planned to operate with significantly fewer personnel.
The not-for-profit organization said it will cut about 55 jobs as part of a nationwide overhaul of Red Cross blood operations announced a few months ago.

===
NORTH CAROLINA - BURLINGTON, N.C. - General Electric plans to eliminate 54 jobs at its plant in Mebane by the end of this week, the company has announced. The staff reduction is the result of "a decline in orders affecting several production lines," said Bill Futch, the plant's human resources manager.

===
TEXAS - GLADEWATER - The city of Gladewater is reeling after news came last week that its second largest employer would close its manufacturing operations and eventually lay off 127 employees.

"It was a real shock to our community," said Lon Welton, executive director of the Gladewater Economic Development Corp. "That's a big loss, especially (for) the size of a community as Gladewater. It's quite a blow to us.
===

[Megahurtz]

1. Shit!

What the hell are all these people going to do???

[Mandate My Ass]

4. Not bankruptcy that's for sure. n/t

[Maddy McCall]

2. I lived in Gladewater, TX. It's a conservative, little, fundie town.

I am sure the mass majority of Gladewater residents voted for Bush. Welp, they got what they deserved.

[Blue to the bone]

7. Yeah, they sure got what they deserve....maybe they'll get cancer too!

Right? Wish nothing but the worst on fellow Americans. That'll gain some sympathy and understanding for our side.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Quick tip.

With as few posts as you have, it's not wise to lecture others. Not if you plan on staying for any length of time.

FSC

[atreides1]

11. We tried for sympathy and understanding

We got purple heart bandaids.

True they are fellow Americans, but they fell for the hype and the fear, and now they are paying for a lack of wisdom.

I am truly sorry that they have lost their jobs, and can only hope that this opens their eyes to the truth, but I'm not counting on it.

[Maddy McCall]

13. What an idiotic post.

No, I do not wish cancer on them. I do not wish joblessness on them. However, if they insist on voting for an administration whose policies run diametrical to their own interests, then they should be prepared to reap what they have sewn.

When you've spent several years in Gladewater, get back to me. It's ninety percent back-water hicks who are unabashedly redneck, and 10 percent back-water hicks who pretend to be culturally refined.

If you've lived there, feel free to tell me where I'm wrong.

[fudge stripe cookays]

8. You're right.

And it was just beginning to dig itself out of the oil crush of the 80s with its "Antique Capital of East Texas" thing.

reprehensor and I were there the weekend just before September 11th for antiquing and shopping there and in Canton. The last time things seemed remotely normal in life.

It is full of fundies though. No mistake there.
FSC

[Maddy McCall]

15. If you really want to go to the Antiques Capital of East Texas...

visit Jefferson or Marshall. When we lived in Gladewater, we found every excuse we could to spend weekends out of town, on small daytrips.

Jefferson and Marshall are shoppers' paradises. And the people there are friendlier, in my opinion, than they are in Gladewater.

I have reasons for my strong opinion of Gladewater denizens. I'll be happy to tell you more, if you ever want to chat through PM. :-)

[PA Democrat]

17. Cognitive dissonance prevents most of these people from making connection

between their vote and their personal circumstances. That's been my experience.

Here in PA, Gov. Rendell (D) is proposing some pretty nasty cutbacks in Medicaid. Why? We rely on the federal government for about 2/3 of Medicaid funding, and the Bush administration's budget has not only failed to keep pace with the increase in Medicaid costs to the states, but is actually cutting funding by about $60 billion. PA has a Republican house and senate and the Pubs are pushing for tax cuts.

My Republican friend who will be affected by these cuts sent me an email calling Rendell every name under the sun. I sent her an article which outlined the Bush administration's cuts to Medicaid funding and explained how Rendell was put in a pretty bad situation by Republicans. I haven't heard back, and based upon past experience, I don't think she will ever admit that she is wrong for supporting Bush.

What can possibly explain this type of behavior? Ego trumps self-interest?

[oneighty]

3. Erie county, New York

1500 county employees going or gone. County parks closed. Libraries shorted. Police gone. DA's office cut back. Comptroller's office cut back.

Hoooray for low taxes. State and federal mandates (Unfunded). Yipeeeee


180

[mhr]

5. Weakest job recovery on record

www.jobwatch.org

Since the start of the recession 46 months ago (March 2001), a negligible 62,000 jobs have been added in the U.S. economy. Private sector jobs are still down by 703,000, a contraction of 0.6%. Both represent the worst job performance since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting monthly jobs data in 1939 (at the end of the Great Depression).

To put this performance in historical perspective, in every previous episode of recession and job decline since 1939, the number of jobs had fully recovered to above the pre-recession peak within at least 31 months after the start of the recession. (The average, excluding the 1991 recovery, has been a full recovery of jobs by the 21st month). In the three downturns since the early 1970s, the economy had not only recovered all the jobs lost during the recession but had also generated 5.7% more jobs than existed at the start of the recession. If this historical standard had prevailed, the economy would have had a positive job gain of 7,568,000 by what is now the 46th month of recovery, or 7,502,000 more jobs than we have today.

[ultraist]

12. Bush sets another record!

>Weakest Job Recovery on Record
>Biggest US Deficit in History
>Historic High Personal Debt Loads
>Historic Low Personal Savings
>Highest Rate of Mortgage Foreclosures

And we have four more years...we are so screwed.

[mhr]

6. U.S. planned cuts rise 17% (100,000 Jobs For February)

By TAVIA GRANT
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Globe and Mail Update

Planned U.S. job cuts rose above the 100,000 mark for the fourth month in five in February, with almost half of the layoffs stemming from corporate mergers, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Wednesday.

For the month, U.S. employers announced plans to cut 108,387 jobs, a 17-per-cent increase from January's levels and 40 per cent more than in February, 2004.

For the month of February almost half — 43 per cent — of the job cuts stemmed from companies' plans to merge, especially in the telecommunications industry. On Feb. 2, for example, SBC Communications Inc. said it expects to eliminate about 13,000 jobs after its acquisition of AT&T Corp. closes, though the telephone company said many cuts could be through attrition.

Snip ......

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050302.wchallenger0302/BNStory/Business

[KharmaTrain]

10. State Jobs In The Blue States...Small Business In The Red

The rich get richer.

Looking at the list and location, most of the losses in the Blue states are in school districts, health care facilities and other agencies that rely on federal funds and income taxes to maintain their existence. Thanks to this regime's big tax giveaways, those revenue bases have vanished and, with many states stuck with balance-budgets services get cut further and further.

The red states are the more interesting and they're small and medium size industrial jobs...the ones that left the "rust belt" in the 70's & 80's...escaping the unions, and now ready to pack off to Mexico or further south (when CAFTA gets rammed through)...or by products produced in China or Indonesia...anything that means bigger profits for the tops on the corporate food chain.

CNNServative had a White House spin doctor out there trying to put lipstick on this pig by saying the number of jobs gained this month should mean more than the numbers lost (coughbullshitcough)...despite this regime never mentioning what the new jobs are...and how many aren't Wal-Mart cart shaggers.

This economy is suffering a death by 1,000 cuts as those who can't afford to lose more, lose more and as they do get silenced and more depressed, while the rich quietly stash away their big dividends and play the markets on the backs of those who are too busy worrying about Michael Jackson or Gays marrying or Praying in Schools or <pick your special interest>.

[Bluebear]

14. Notice the mental health & counselling layoffs going on too

Education, services kaput, welcome to Bush's America.

[Anakin Skywalker]

19. Why, For Crying Out Loud?

Won't more laid off people need counseling and mental health than ever? Or are we all FAITH-BASED now in this Bu**sh** reign and have no need for other types of support???

Just pray very hard to god to get one's job back, huh?

[ultraist]

24. Those mental health job cuts are due to Bush slashing social programs

And then funneling OUR TAX dollars to churches, so they can evangelisize with our tax money and tell pregnant teens that abortion is murder.

Many of those programs rely on soft money and it has been cut off. Other programs rely on hard funding and that has been drastically decreased.

[KharmaTrain]

21. Also Donations Are Down

People can't give what they don't have. I get more solicitation letters from social services...many that rely on a combination of federal/state money and corporate donations to properly operate. Over the past 5 years the combination of tax cuts, job losses (that hurt both the number of tax dollars in the local system and the dollars lost by companies closing down) and the large pool of non-profits from special political interests to religious organizations to alumni assocations that compete with these agencies for the few dollars still out there.

Even more gauling is that since the rich are getting more money back, they're not as concerned about the donations they can deduct...why get a $1,000 deduction when you can by Exxon and ride it with the price of oil or General Dynamics as this regime buys bigger toys for the Iraq invasion and so on.

[ultraist]

16. Mergers and Acquistions account for 43% of job cuts

Mergers and Acquistions= Conglomerate MEGA Corporations and fewer small businesses

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/02/ap/business/mainD88IVCK00.shtml

Report: Job Cuts at U.S. Companies Rise
NEW YORK, Mar. 2, 2005

AP) Job cuts announced by U.S. corporations in February increased 17 percent from the prior month, according to a report Wednesday.

Announced job cuts for February totaled 108,387, compared with 92,351 in January, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

It was the fourth time in five months that job cuts were above 100,000. The report attributed the jump to "the new surge in merger and acquisition activity. It was directly responsible for 46,977, or 43 percent of February job cuts."

[Bluebear]

20. Yet Bush always crows about small businesses at his little meetings

His focus groups always point to helping the 'little guy' stay in business when in fact the opposite is happening.

[Anakin Skywalker]

18. All Right! "The Economy is Strong", Baby!

Bush 3:16 is infallible, damn it! Stop presenting contradicting EVIDENCE!

:)

[ladyVet]

22. This hits close to home . . .

. . . NORTH CAROLINA - BURLINGTON, N.C. - General Electric plans to eliminate 54 jobs at its plant in Mebane by the end of this week, the company has announced. The staff reduction is the result of "a decline in orders affecting several production lines," said Bill Futch, the plant's human resources manager . . .

My brother-in-law is one of the lucky ones: he only had to take another job on second shift, because he had enough senority to miss this round of lay-offs. My family believes the company may be hoping he will retire early (he will be 62 in November) and take a loss on his company pension.

But, hey folks! Greenspans says the economy is turning around, so what have we got to complain about?:scared:

[cosmicdot]

23. is there a common link to these?

should billboard space be bought in these communities as a daily reminder and to reinforce the reality of 'why' this is happening - not to be cruel, but to educate?

[ultraist]

25. Yes, the common link is BUSH and his elitist cronies