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Layoffs and Closings in Bushworld

3-7-2005

>From the Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/07/autos-109949.htm
LANSING - Union officials at the Lansing Craft Centre estimate the General
Motors Corp. plant will have to trim roughly 60 jobs as production continues
to slow down.  The world's largest automaker already is in the midst of a
temporary layoff at the assembly plant - which makes the Chevrolet SSR -
that will last until March 14.   The latest layoff estimate comes on the
heels of GM's announcement last week that it will stop production at Lansing
Car Assembly in May, which would impact 3,500 employees.

>From the Toledo (OH) Blade:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050307&Category=NEWS
24&ArtNo=503070344&SectionCat=&Template=printart
COLUMBUS - Steve Buck is among 18 state park employees who received a layoff
notice last week.  He's the final full-time worker at Mount Gilead State
Park in Morrow County, about 15 miles east of Marion.  In the summer, a
part-time naturalist and a part-time natural resource worker have worked
with Mr. Buck.  "But most of the year, I am the only one responsible for
taking care of 13 buildings, 210 acres, 61 campsites, and 2 lakes," said Mr.
Buck, a 29-year state parks employee.  Twenty-two of Ohio's 74 state parks
do not have any full-time state parks employees, including park rangers,
because of budget cuts.  Mount Gilead, a small park like many on the list,
soon will become the 23rd.  In northwest Ohio, the parks without full-time
state employees are Crane Creek in Oak Harbor, Independence Dam in Defiance,
the Marblehead Lighthouse in Marblehead, Middle Bass Island, Oak Point,
which is on the northwestern tip of South Bass Island, and Van Buren in
Hancock County.  Desperate for more dollars for education, prisons, and
Medicaid in the two-year operating budget, the state has cut the number of
full-time employees in the state Division of Parks and Recreation since 1989
from 840 to 481.

>From Crain's Detroit Business:
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=5544&print=Y
St. Clair Shores-based Federal Screw Works Inc. said Monday that it plans to
close its Chelsea manufacturing plant by April 30, affecting about 37
employees.   The manufacturer of fasteners and machined parts for the
automotive industry said the decision was in the best interest of the
company but declined further comment.

>From Dallas Business Journal:
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2005/03/07/daily8.html?t=printa
ble
Internet America said Monday it has cut its work force by 17 percent to save
about $1 million a year.  The Dallas-based Internet services provider said
it expects to take a charge of about $83,000 related to the reduction, but
it expects savings in wages and benefits of about $1 million annually.  The
reductions took effect March 4. The Internet America (BULLETIN BOARD: GEEK)
said Monday it has 90 employees.   Internet America's CEO and Chairman Billy
Ladin was not immediately available to discuss why the cuts were made.   "We
feel that this reduction will allow us to continue to grow our business and
earnings in future quarters," Ladin said in a written statement. "By
consolidating resources and simplifying operations of our wireless Internet
access business, we feel that we will be better positioned to execute our
strategy of acquiring dial-up Internet customers and growing our wireless
Internet operations."

>From Dallas Business Journal:
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2005/03/07/daily7.html?t=printa
ble
Financial services consultant Carreker Corp. said Monday that it will take a
restructuring charge of about $700,000 in the fourth quarter related to
work-force reductions.   Dallas-based Carreker said the charge will reduce
fourth-quarter operating results from the company's previous expectations.
The company plans to release its actual results, discuss the charges and
other items of interest to shareholders on March 15.  Analysts surveyed by
Thomson First Call expect a fourth-quarter loss of 1 cent a share.  Carreker
(Nasdaq:CANI) provides consulting services and software to financial
institutions. Carreker's services include consulting, project management and
software implementation.

>From Denver Business Journal:
http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2005/03/07/daily7.html?t=printa
ble
The number of additional Colorado homes under foreclosure in February rose
slightly from the month before, according to a new survey by Boca Raton,
Fla.-based Foreclosure.com.  The company said 694 new foreclosures were
filed last month, compared with 666 in Colorado in January and 1,136 in
December.

>From Pittsburgh Business Times:
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2005/03/07/daily3.html?
t=printable
Amtrak ended one of two Pittsburgh-Chicago routes on Monday because there
was not enough demand for the service after Amtrak stopped shipping mail for
the U.S. Postal Service.  According to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari, the
route, called Three Rivers, first ran from New York to Pittsburgh. In 1996,
Amtrak extended the route to Chicago via Akron and Youngstown, Ohio, in
order to meet the needs of its bulk-mail business.

3-8-2005

>From the Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/08/A01-110715.htm
Delphi Corp., the world's largest auto parts supplier, will stop paying
medical insurance in 2007 for 4,000 retired salaried workers and thousands
more future retirees.   Delphi will drop coverage for retirees once they're
eligible for Medicare benefits, which the parts maker will supplement with
private health care accounts, the company told employees Monday in an
e-mail.  The move is expected to save the cash-strapped supplier $500
million, but it means Delphi retirees who expected lifelong coverage can
expect to pay more for everything from doctor visits to surgery.

>From the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503080188mar08,1,5163510,print.s
tory?coll=chi-business-hed
The merger of Sears and Kmart is expected to dump scores of stores onto the
real estate market, but there's also likely to be a nationwide ripple effect
on the retailers' network of distribution centers.  About 10
states--including Illinois, Colorado and California--have overlapping
centers run by Kmart Holding Corp., which has 16, and Sears, Roebuck and
Co., which has 43, according to an analysis by Chain Store Guide.   Mark
Bond, research editor, guesses that the Sears facilities will be most
vulnerable.  "Kmart appears to have a more efficient supply chain and joins
the combined company with fewer distribution centers," he said. Also,
"Kmart's supply chain is more suited to" serving freestanding stores.  He
predicts that the overlapping states will see up to two distribution center
closings, with other regional sites being integrated into neighboring
regions, such as Utah and Nevada. "I expect Sears Holdings will ultimately
shutter between 20 to 30 centers," Bond said.

>From the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503080238mar08,1,3737543.story?c
oll=chi-business-hed
Maytag Corp. will continue cutting manufacturing costs by outsourcing more
of its production to foreign companies, the appliance manufacturer's chief
executive said Monday, as shares rose 8 percent in afternoon trading.  About
12 percent of Maytag's products are made overseas, said CEO Ralph Hake, in a
presentation at the 26th annual Raymond James Institutional Investors
Conference in Orlando.  Maytag, which completed the closure of a Galesburg,
Ill., refrigerator plant in 2004 and opened a new refrigerator factory in
Reynosa, Mexico, will continue to pursue less costly manufacturing options,
Hake said.  He said the company will likely find other areas where "cost
structure will not support us manufacturing here in the U.S."  Maytag will
make changes in production at factories making washers and dryers in the
coming year, Hake said.  The company operates laundry manufacturing plants
in Newton, Iowa; Herrin, Ill.; and Searcy, Ark.

>From the Guardian (UK):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1432603,00.html
Thomas Cook, Europe's second-largest tourism operator, said yesterday it had
failed to meet its target of halving losses despite a year of deep cost
cutting and capacity reductions. The group, jointly owned by Germany's
KarstadtQuelle and Lufthansa, reported a net loss for the year to October 31
2004 of ?176m (£121m), down from ?253m for the previous year.  Cost cutting
during the year had included a 5% reduction in the workforce, with most job
losses falling in Germany. New pay agreements throughout the company
included senior management taking a 10% salary cut.

>From the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vccollege8mar08,1,6641328,print.stor
y?coll=la-headlines-california
Facing a $1.6-million budget gap this fiscal year and a $6-million shortfall
next year, Ventura County Community College District officials are
considering laying off instructors, eliminating or reducing nearly two dozen
academic programs and shutting down cafeteria services at all three
campuses.  Scores of students and faculty are expected to turn out this
evening at the district's board meeting in Oxnard to protest the proposed
cuts, some of the deepest in recent memory.  District officials said the
budget deficits are driven largely by declining enrollment at the campuses
in Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura. Districtwide, enrollment has gone from
36,135 in the spring semester of 2003 to 32,182 this semester - an 11% drop,
attributed in large part to state budget cuts and increases in student fees.
District personnel stand to be hardest hit. In addition to laying off cooks
and custodians, the district has proposed eliminating the equivalent of
about 40 full-time teaching and counseling positions.   The majority of
those would be part-time employees.

>From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=t&refer=http://seattle
pi.nwsource.com/business/214870_lockheed08.html  MARIETTA, Ga. -- Lockheed
Martin Corp., the largest U.S. defense contractor, was hit by the third
strike in three years at a fighter-jet plant as workers in Marietta walked
off the job to protest planned cuts in health care for retirees.  Workers at
the plant that builds the F/A-22 and the C-130J transport struck Lockheed at
12:01 a.m. today, said Steve Brown of the International Association of
Machinists Lodge 709. The lodge represents about 3,000 employees, about half
the work force at the facility.  The strike precedes a Pentagon decision
scheduled for next month on whether to approve full production of the
F/A-22, the most expensive fighter. The program risks being halted early by
rising federal budget deficits. Lockheed wants to exclude new employees from
insurance coverage after they retire to contain rising health care costs,
according to the union.  The union turned down the company's latest offer
Feb. 27 mainly because it would terminate post-retirement health insurance
for new employees, Palmer said. No talks have been held since then, and the
last contract expired last Tuesday.

>From the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/08/BUG
RGBLTE11.DTL&type=business  Citizens to Save California, a business-backed
group with close ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, says it's committed to
creating new jobs.  And it's starting in India.  As part of a $10 million
petition drive to place the governor's proposed constitutional amendments
before voters, Citizens to Save California has hired an out-of-state firm to
verify signatures. That firm, in turn, is outsourcing the work to India.

>From the Ft.Worth Star-Telegram:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/11080020.htm?template=contentModules/pri
ntstory.jsp
FORT WORTH - RadioShack will shut down its Fort Worth wire and cable plant
in June and move the work to China, eliminating 69 domestic jobs and further
scaling back the company's local manufacturing ties.  Employees were
notified Monday. Those who stay until the June 24 closing date will receive
severance packages, company spokeswoman Kay Jackson said.  RadioShack began
consolidating its manufacturing businesses two years ago, closing a wire and
cable facility on McCart Avenue in Fort Worth and a sign-making operation in
Arlington after reviewing expenses at each department.  The retailer's Fort
Worth operations still include a distribution center on Terminal Road, along
with a new downtown headquarters with 2,400 corporate employees.
RadioShack's facility in China, where manufacturing costs are far lower,
makes a variety of products for RadioShack stores, including cables, radios
and toy cars.

>From the Ft.Worth Star-Telegram:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/11083953.htm?template=contentModules/pri
ntstory.jsp
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Unionized concession workers at Yosemite
National Park have threatened sit-ins and direct action this summer if their
company doesn't back off on a plan to increase the number of hours an
employee must work to receive benefits.  The Yosemite Chapter Local 535 of
the Service Employees International Union says Delaware North Corporation
Parks & Resorts wants to cut workers' benefits and increase employee health
benefit premiums 40 percent.  If talks break down, workers are considering
actions this summer that could impede concessionaire business. The contract
expired late Monday night.  The company, the park's sole concessionaire,
employs about 750 workers in the offseason, and up to 1,500 from late spring
to early autumn during the tourist rush.  Company spokeswoman Kerri Holden
said the company favors increasing the number of hours for permanent
employees because we "provide a lot of employee housing in Yosemite Valley,
and space is very tight. Having fewer people working longer hours is
desirable, but many of the people who come up here do so for the lifestyle,
and don't want to work full weeks."  The last large service labor dispute in
Yosemite was 1989 when workers staged a series of actions that disrupted
business. The concessionaire at that time was the Curry Company, owned by
MCA.

>From the Telegraph (UK):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/09/cnches09.x
ml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/09/ixcity.html  Chesterton, one of
Britain's older estate agents, has been placed into receivership, amid one
of the strongest property British markets in a decade.  Accounting firm
Grant Thornton, which has been appointed administrator, said yesterday the
commercial arm had lost £2m over the past seven months. About 300 staff have
been fired.  The business can trace its lineage to the Phillimore Estate,
owner of part of London's Kensington, which it has advised since 1805.  The
company's residential division, which specialises in houses and apartments
worth more than £500,000, is up for sale but it is unclear what will happen
to the commercial arm.  A number of the provincial offices have been
extremely profitable but the London region has had problems," said one
Chesterton manager. "We haven't been given the true picture by anyone
inside. "  The head of Chesterton's London City office, Paul Henwood,
declined to comment. Other offices across the country closed early or were
not taking calls. The company was delisted one year ago.

>From Bangor (ME) Daily News:
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/default.aspx?a=109669&template=prin
t-article.htm
BANGOR - Russell's Entertainment complex, which includes Movie City 8
cinemas on Odlin Road, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
from creditors. The complex and theaters still are operating, offering $3
second-run movies and discount popcorn, while its owner, Old Town resident
Alex Gray, tries to reorganize the company's finances.   Russell's
Entertainment and Movie City 8 are operated under the name Cues Inc. Gray
also owns the Ushuaia nightclub and the recently opened Finger Rock cafe in
Orono. Those businesses were not listed in the bankruptcy filing.   Cues
Inc. has $4.9 million in debts and $1.8 million in assets, primarily in real
estate, according to documents the company filed Friday afternoon in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Bangor.  The company's primary creditor is Miami North,
previous owners of the Odlin Road building and movie theaters.

>From Bangor Daily News:
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/default.aspx?a=108294&template=prin
t-article.htm
MONSON - Market conditions caused by cheap Chinese imports have resulted in
a layoff of eight people and a reduction in force of 13 positions at
Moosehead Manufacturing Co., which makes furniture.  "Business had been
slow," company president John Wentworth said Friday. He said that cheap
imported furniture from China has played a role in the poor economic
climate.  Wentworth was among a group of furniture makers nationwide who
petitioned the federal government last year to place duties on some Chinese
furniture imports. The petition accused Chinese companies of selling wooden
bedroom furniture at artificially low prices in the United States.
Moosehead Manufacturing Co., which has plants in Dover-Foxcroft and Monson,
employs about 200 people.   The company's sawmill in Monson has been
temporarily shut down because of an overabundance of lumber, resulting in
the layoff of eight employees, he said. Wentworth said the company would
restart the sawmill when market conditions improve.  Because Moosehead
Manufacturing Co. is certified for the Trade Act, the affected employees
will be eligible for extended training and extended unemployment benefits,
according to Bill Webb, Rapid Response coordinator for Piscataquis,
Penobscot and Hancock counties.

>From Bangor Daily News:
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/default.aspx?a=106687&template=prin
t-article.htm
BAILEYVILLE - Fifty people learned earlier this week that their jobs have
been axed at Domtar Industries' pulp and paper mill, and people in this mill
town are shaking their heads wondering what this community of nearly 1,400
will do next. The layoffs will take place over the next 12 months.  Those
employees who are being let go will be eligible for financial assistance and
be given access to outplacement services. Work force reductions also will be
achieved through attrition.

>From the Portland (ME) Press-Herald:
http://business.mainetoday.com/news/050308stinson.shtml  Earlier this month,
Pierce and her 50 co-workers at the Stinson Seafood sardine-canning factory
learned that the Bath plant will close on May 3.  The news left workers like
Pierce wondering about finding other jobs, and represented a blow to an
industry that has declined steadily since it peaked in the 1950s. Other than
a sardine factory in Prospect Harbor - also owned by Stinson's owner,
Connors Bros. Ltd. of Canada - Stinson was the only cannery left in the
United States.
Today's Layoffs, Closings, Bankruptcies,etc.: 3-9-2005

>From the Lansing (MI) State Journal:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050309/NEWS0
3/503090359/1150&template=printart  The closing of General Motor Corp.'s
Lansing Car Assembly plant on May 6 will take a toll on United Auto Workers
Local 724, even though the union doesn't represent workers at the closing
factory.  The union local - whose members work at auto-part suppliers such
as Delphi Corp., Lear Corp. and Tec-Mar Distribution Services, as well as
other businesses - says up to 383 of its 2,300 members could be laid off.
Those members supply parts or services to Lansing Car Assembly.  "It's going
to be significant. We could lose one out of every six of our people
potentially," union President Dean Poggiali said.  And unlike UAW members
who work at GM plants, Local 724 members can't look forward to supplemental
unemployment benefits that pad state unemployment checks.  Already, 100
members who work at a Delphi plant in Delta Township have been told that
their factory will close when Lansing Car Assembly makes its last Pontiac
Grand Am and Chevrolet Classic.  People who work at Lear plants in Holt and
Mason also are vulnerable. Lear's 550 people in those locations make front
and rear seats for the Grand Am and Classic, among other vehicles.  "We're a
supplier (to Lansing Car Assembly) and they're the automaker and we serve
them. And if they close, that's going to have an effect on us," said Mel
Stephens, vice president of communications for Lear, a company with net
income of $422.2 million last year.  Stephens said he didn't know how many
people would be laid off. But Jennifer Trefry, an employee of the Mason Lear
plant, said it could be as many as 170.

>From the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503090150mar09,1,6413286,print.s
tory?coll=chi-business-hed
Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc., in a move aimed at cutting costs, said it
expects to reduce its salaried workforce in the Quad Cities area by about 20
percent. The move will eliminate the jobs of about 80 white-collar Alcoa
workers, a spokesman said.  The Pittsburgh-based company, noting that its
Davenport Works facility last year hired nearly 400 additional production
employees to meet growing demand, said "orders for products we make in the
Quad Cities are strong, but our cost structure is still too high" to be
competitive in a global market.


>From the Guardian (UK):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1433628,00.html
Britain's biggest insurer, Aviva, today agreed to buy the motoring group RAC
for £1.1bn in a takeover that will lead to the loss of 1,700 jobs. Aviva
said it will cut 900 head office jobs and move 800 administration and
processing jobs overseas, from a combined workforce of 24,000. The job cuts
will be from both Aviva and RAC, the company said.  Aviva said it will try
to avoid compulsory redundancies and that the annual staff turnover of the
Aviva company Norwich Union UK exceeds the proposed cuts. The company did
not say over what period the cuts would be made.

>From the Guardian (UK):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1433334,00.html
The UK's largest drugs firm, GlaxoSmithKline, cut more than 3,000 jobs last
year, mainly in sales, administration and marketing, the firm's annual
report reveals.  The company employed an average of 99,837 people last year
globally, compared with the 108,201 before the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and
SmithKline Beecham in early 2001. Last year there were 3,330 fewer posts on
average, compared with 2003.  Manufacturing staff were the main target of
last year's cuts as plants were closed. The number employed in selling drugs
and in administration also fell substantially, although there was a slight
rise at the end of last year due to the acquisition of anti-bloodclotting
drugs Arixtra and Fraxiparine from Sanofi Aventis.  "The global figure
results from a reduction in headcount across the world as a result of the
elimination of duplication following the merger," said a Glaxo spokesman.
The cuts mainly affected the US and the Asia-Pacific region, not Europe.
The firm's chief executive, Dr Jean-Pierre Garnier, has signalled that the
company will look at further cuts in its US salesforce if rivals do so, as
is expected in the industry. In the annual report, the company also
acknowledges that reforms in the US could lead to a cut in American prices.
In 2006, the US government will start paying for drugs for those who do not
have medical insurance. The free market in the US has, historically, made
the country the most lucrative in the world for the industry.

>From the Guardian (UK):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1433344,00.html
MPs yesterday warned ministers that plans for job cuts in Labour's pensions
service would undermine efforts to increase take-up of means-tested
retirement benefits. The work and pensions select committee said the
government should tackle a severe drop in the number of pensioners signing
up for its top-up pension benefits before moving to shed hundreds of staff.
Help the Aged said: "Despite the department's failure to get to grips with
this problem, it still plans to cut pension ser vice staff numbers by 60%.
It seems the government is now unwilling to pay for the bureaucracy needed
to help pensioners navigate through its highly complex system of
means-testing."  The committee said the cuts are already hitting frontline
services, with local advice surgeries closing and 400 staff cut from local
offices.

>From the Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/education/3075187
About 30 neighborhood residents and supporters met Tuesday outside Clinton
Park Elementary School in east Houston to protest a proposal to close the
school.  The school at 158 Mississippi is one of six schools that the
Houston Independent School has proposed closing at the end of this school
year. Clinton Park students would be bused more than three miles to
Pleasantville Elementary.  Shelia Hewett, president of Clinton Park PTA,
said she is worried about kids who miss the bus and walk that distance, an
area that covers two sets of train tracks and includes registered sex
offenders and other hazards.

>From the Ft.Worth Star-Telegram:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/11089091.htm?template=contentModules/printst
ory.jsp
GRAPEVINE - Elliott's Hardware, a long-standing and much-loved anchor for
Grapevine's Main Street, will soon close its doors after 14 years.  The
hardware store -- known for stocking the right wrench for the right dirty
job -- ends its run April 2, a victim of increased competition, dwindling
sales and increasing property tax bills.  A bank plans to buy the almost
5-acre lot for a new headquarters, Bond said. He did not name the bank. City
officials also did not release the name, saying no construction or permit
plans have been submitted yet.  A storewide sale continues through the
closing. Some of Elliott's almost 50 employees will transfer to the
business's two other locations, in Plano and Dallas.  Bond attributed the
demise of Grapevine's last family-owned hardware store partly to a
well-known orange-and-white giant: Home Depot. The proliferation of Lowe's
Home Improvement Warehouses didn't help either, he said.  When Elliott's
opened at 108 W. Northwest Highway in 1991, the hardware and lumber store
"was the only game in town," Bond said.  Jerry Elliott, Bond's
father-in-law, opened the first store in Dallas in 1947.

>From the Windsor (Ontario, Canada) Star:
http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/business/story.html?id=4241f9
08-4ce1-4581-ba1c-a5245c0710a0
A couple of hundred of General Motors of Canada workers are facing an
indefinite layoff at Windsor Transmission Plant this summer due to a GM
plant closure in Lansing, Mich.  The layoffs will take effect June 13 and
run indefinitely, the company said -- although some of those laid off might
be called back in the fall when new work materializes.  GM said last week
that it will close its historic Lansing Assembly in May after the plant
fills the last orders for the Pontiac Grand Am and the Chevrolet Classic.
Both models, which are sold only to fleet owners, are to be discontinued.
The U.S. closure means Windsor loses a standing order for 900 four speed,
automatic transmissions per day, or 23 per cent of its daily output. About
1,500 hourly employees currently build 3,840 units on three shifts per day.
A silver lining in the layoffs, which will be issued next week, is that GM's
Windsor plant is expecting to land some new supply work in the fall. The
size of the new programs, however, is expected to be less than half the size
of the lost Lansing orders.   Windsor Transmission will continue to produce
the 4T40 and 4T45 transmissions for the Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Ion and
Saturn VUE, the Pontiac Sunfire and Chevy Cavalier, Malibu Maxx, and the
Pontiac G6.  Discontinued are the Pontiac Grand Am and the Chevrolet
Classic, which is sometimes referred to as the Malibu Classic. About 3,300
hourly workers will be laid off in Michigan, but most will be going back to
work next year in a new GM plant being built near Lansing.

>From the Telegraph (UK):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/10/cncnw10.xm
l&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/10/ixcity.html  Cable & Wireless revealed
yesterday that it would slash a further 480 jobs, 10pc of its UK workforce,
in yet another shake-up designed to reverse the fortunes of its struggling
British business.  The international telecoms operator has already made 300
jobs cuts in the UK since November. The new round of redundancies will be
made in sales and marketing over the next 12 months.  Last January The
Telegraph revealed that Cable & Wireless was planning to cut as many 1,000
jobs in the UK as it fought a price war in the fiercely competitive business
telecoms market.  The union, which represents about 54,000 of BT staff -
more than half the workforce - is calling for an 8pc wage rise for members.

>From the Charlotte (NC) Observer:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/11086707.htm?template=conten
tModules/printstory.jsp
Bernhardt Furniture Co. will cut more than 200 jobs and halt manufacturing
at a Lenoir plant, company officials announced Tuesday. The layoffs will
take place at Bernhardt's Plant No. 2 in Lenoir, about 70 miles northwest of
Charlotte, officials said in a news release. Bernhardt will start winding
down manufacturing operations at the plant immediately and will cease
production there within 60 days, officials said. The company plans to put in
a new product development laboratory, a larger warehouse and shipping
operation at the facility, officials said.Affected employees will be
guaranteed at least 60 days of employment, including benefits, and those who
remain while Bernhardt concludes manufacturing operations will receive a
retention bonus, officials said.  Founded in 1889, Bernhardt operates 10
manufacturing plants in Western North Carolina and employs about 1,700
people, officials said. The company cited increased competition from imports
as a chief factor in its decision to cut jobs. -- HEATHER HOWARD

>From the Charlotte Observer:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/11086707.htm?template=conten
tModules/printstory.jsp
In another step in its FleetBoston Financial Corp. acquisition, Bank of
America Corp. said Tuesday it will consolidate back-office operations for
its mutual fund unit in Boston. The Charlotte-based company said part of the
work will be outsourced to State Street Corp. and DST Systems Inc., which
will move about 100 positions to Boston.The combined back-office operations
will handle transfer agency, accounting and other functions for Columbia and
Nations mutual funds.  Bank of America said last year that it was basing its
wealth and investment management business, which includes mutual funds, in
Boston, Fleet's former headquarters.

>From the Charlotte Observer:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/11091271.htm?template=conten
tModules/printstory.jsp
As a necessary step toward finalizing a sale with Toronto-based Onex Corp.,
Boeing will issue 60-day layoff notices to employees in Wichita, Tulsa and
McAlester, Okla., on Friday.  Employees received a memo about the plans from
Boeing general manager Jeff Turner this morning.  The notice "is a step in
Boeing's redeployment process in connection with the sale of (Boeing
Commercial Aircraft's) Wichita, Tulsa and McAlester locations," Turner said
in the memo.

>From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/11085256.htm?template=contentMod
ules/printstory.jsp
The head of Woman's Medical Hospital asked employees yesterday whether they
would be willing to take temporary 10 percent pay cuts to keep the East
Falls hospital open.  Coming days after more than 200 workers lost their
medical coverage because the hospital had not paid $494,000 to their benefit
fund, the move has angered union leaders and has prompted them and one
community leader to call on cardiologist Nancy Pickering to resign as
Woman's chief executive officer.  Pickering raised the threat of closure in
meetings with employees yesterday, stoking fears among hospital workers,
many of whom survived the Allegheny health system collapse in 1998 and Tenet
Healthcare Corp.'s threatened shuttering of the hospital last year.  The
hospital has 50 beds and employs more than 500 people.  On Monday, Pickering
held a meeting with representatives of three unions representing hospital
workers to propose the pay cuts.  Last month, more than 200 unionized
technical, administrative and maintenance workers were informed that their
health benefits would be terminated because the hospital had not paid
$494,000 to their health and welfare fund.