Latest Rounds Of Job Layoffs

Caterpillar: 21,200 jobs

Eastman Kodak: 3,500 to 4,500 jobs

Cessna Aircraft: 2,000 more jobs for a total of 4,600 jobs

StarBucks: 7,000 more jobs (Jan. 28th)

Boeing: 10,000 jobs (Jan. 28th)

Target: 9 percent of its headquarters staff, shut a distribution center in Little Rock, Ark, impose a salary freeze for senior management and reduce planned store openings. (Jan 27th)

Corning: 3,500 jobs (Jan 27th)

Texas Instruments: 3,600 jobs (Jan 26th)

General Motors: Cutting shifts at 2 factories for roughly 2,000 job cuts.

Home Depot: 7,000 jobs and closing Expo Design chain.

Sprint-Nextel: 8,000 jobs

Pfizer: Pfizer announced Jan. 26 it will lay off 8,000 workers now, and as many as 12,000 more later, as it buys competitor Wyeth for $68 billion.

Harley-Davidson: Scaling back 1,100 jobs over 2 years.

Microsoft: 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months (Jan 23rd)

Huntsman Corp: (Chemical company) 1,175 job cuts by the end of this year (Jan 22)

United Airlines: 1,000 more jobs (Jan 22)

Williams-Sonoma: Williams-Sonoma announced Jan. 21 that it would cut 1,400 jobs, close a call center in Camp Hill, Penn., and a distribution facility in Memphis, Tenn.

Intel: As many as 6,000 job cuts (Jan 21)

bhpbilliton: (Mining) 6,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Yankee Candle: 330 jobs (Jan 21)

Ericsson: 5,000 jobs (Jan 21)

Eaton Corp.: 5,200 jobs (Jan 20)

Clear Channel Communications: 1,850 jobs (Jan 20th)

Warner Brothers: 800 jobs (Jan 20th)

Bose: 1,000 jobs (Jan 20th)

General Electric: Announcement to employees of intended layoffs, no public disclosure of how many, employs 75,000 people

Advanced Micro Devices: 1,100 workers (Jan 16th) - 9% of workforce

Hertz: 4,000 jobs (Jan 16th)

Wellpoint: (Health Insurer) 1,500 jobs (Jan 16th)

Saks Fifth Avenue: 1,100 Jobs (Jan 15th)

Google: 100 recruiting jobs (Jan 15th)

Delta Air Lines: 2,000 jobs (Jan. 15th)

Motorola: 4,000 more jobs (Jan 15th)

Neiman Marcus: 375 jobs (Jan 13th)

Seagate Technology: (Manufacturer of hard drives) 10% of workforce (no actual numbers given) (Jan 12th)

Walgreens: 1,000 corporate management jobs

EMC Corp: (World's largest manufacturer of external disc drives) 2,400 (Jan 7)

Alcoa: 13,500 jobs (Jan 6th)

That was the list for this year. There were more for the end of last year, but you get the picture. This is billions of dollars of lost employment wages - at least. All of these people are being or will be sent out into the cold - and then what? What is going to happen to those people? What is already happening to those that have already lost their jobs?

Where is this all going to end? I was thinking maybe I better go buy myself another large tent and camping equipment - might have to live in it someday. Our company continues to lay off people in smaller numbers, freeze on hiring and not replacing those that quit for whatever reason.

Just a little look at the reality going on in our little world.

Friday

Left work at 2:30 - but there were a lot of people there - doing a full inventory. I didn't feel sorry for them and I left quite happily. Corporate HQ says that drivers cannot participate in the inventory. I have never heard a reason WHY we can't - but inventory is quite tedious, dull and boring work. You count everything, write the count next to each item on a sheet, then take it back to the office. Somebody there checks the physical count against what's in the computer system. When the 2 clash, someone else is sent out there to do a second count. A third count. After enough repetitive counts are made, and it's still bad, then they cost off whatever it is, or if there are too many, bring them into the system. As I said, I don't particularly care for it. They will be doing it into the night today and tomorrow as well. Usually takes til' Saturday afternoon to finish.

Mary got paid today - which totally escaped me as I don't really care at this point. See her in court on Tuesday is all I can say about that.

Superbowl Sunday - bring it on! I'm not necessarily the most well-received individual in Phoenix when I hear people talking about the Cardinals and I say "Go STEELERS!!" Especially in the bank today - they were like, huh? People have less of a problem if you're a Steelers fan in this town when you tell them you were born and raised there, versus the people that are Steelers fans that never stepped a foot in the city of Pittsburgh, or the entire state of Pennsylvania for that matter. I don't quite understand that, either. If I were from here, I would undoubtedly be a Cardinals fan. It won't kill me if the Cardinals won it, but - I would love to see Sixburgh happen. That's the latest craze, I've heard, it's no longer Pittsburgh, it's Sixburgh. lol.

Oh, and Mary - has totally stopped working/doing anything around here. Not even watering the plants out front. I don't really care to be honest - but, it just dawned on me that I was going to go out there the other day and water all that stuff out front and - I didn't do it. Fortunately this time of year plants don't need near as much water. A thing on my list of things to get done around here is to install a drip watering system. Of course, that's WAY down the line. Actually, I haven't looked into see how much it would cost to install Much more effective way of watering plants - a deep watering - and much easier as you can put the thing on a timer and it will come on whenever you want it to.

Hooray for me!! I DID get the Safe Driver Award for 2008! A full week's pay coming on next paycheck. If ONLY it were NEXT year I would get getting TWO week's pay! What am I going to do with the money? Pay bills - hooray again!!! Yayyyy, I get to spend all of my money on bills, isn't it wonderful?

Oh, and what would I LIKE to do with that award money? Buy a big screen TV. Not a fancy HD thing, just a nice, 50 inch rear projection or something that is cheaper than all this newfangled expensive stuff. I was offered one - a rear projection version - for $200 - the catch is the TV is in a cabin in Pinetop, AZ. Look that up on the map. I doubt the boss is going to want me using the company truck to drive clear up there for a TV, even if it is a steal of a bargain.
What else would I like to do with it? Buy landscaping rock for my back yard. Fix the windows, buy some trees, put ceramic tile in the living room - umm, - lots of things, really.

Done for now.
ben