Motor
1400 GM job losses at Port Elizabeth plant as import model cut.
An ‘imported vehicle line’ has been cut from General Motors South Africa’s model range as the Port Elizabeth-based company continues to cut costs, an exercise which has resulted in more than 1400 jobs lost.
Total losses = 1400
More Monday blues for hundreds of credit crunch victims.
- Park Nicollet Health Services annouced today they were laying off 233 workers and would not be filling another 69 open positions. The reductions which take effect from Friday, represent 1.8 percent of St. Louis Park-based Park Nicollet’s work force. A decline in services has seen investment suffer, although most believe the recession is to blame.
- Georgia-Pacific say they will lay off 39 hourly employees by mid-May.
- General Motors Corp. started firing 1600 white-collar workers Monday in order to qualify for more government loans (doesn’t make sense now does it?). GM has said it will eliminate 47000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2009, but the cuts may go even deeper as the company moves toward its deadline.
- Renewable Environmental Solutions, last month filed for Chapter 11 in bankruptcy court in New York and today laid off about 50 employees at the plant. Read the story.#
- Legg Mason laid off 40 admin and support workers, including 5 at its Baltimore HQ.
- Herbert Smith is to cut up to 84 members of staff from it London office and is also reversing all associate pay bands.
- The DSM chemical plant is cutting 80 people to cut costs, effective at the end of June.
- The Quincy school district announced its second and final round of cuts. 15 employees were honorably dismissed who worked as educational support personal. That includes library staff, computer staff and paraprofessional personal.
- Tele Atlas, a New Hampshire-based company that makes digital maps is laying off 120 employees at its Lebanon headquarters and 140 jobs in North America.
- It has been reported in The Herald Journal that 27 lecturers and research lab workers who have lost their jobs at USU in the latest round of cuts.
- Sun-Times Media Group Inc. has cut about 140 jobs companywide as it tries to trim costs during its bankruptcy reorganization. The cuts, which affected both managers and non-managers, amounted to about 10% of the company’s non-union staff.
- Robert Bosch Corp. announced Monday that 225 workers from its North Charleston plant would be laid off.
Total losses = 2798
Ford to lay off 330 workers in Argentina.
AutomotiveWorld.com reports,
Ford is laying off 330 workers in Argentina due to falling demand, reports Associated Press. According to Ricardo Pignanelli, head of Argentina’s automotive mechanics’ and workers’ union, the job cuts will take effect 1 May.
Ford’s Pacheco plant in Buenos Aires started operations in 1961 and currently builds the Focus and Ranger models.
Like many markets around the world, Argentina is suffering from falling demand. Sales fell more than 30% in February, with production down 55.7% year-on-year. Honda recently postponed the start of production at its first plant in Argentina to mid-2010.
Total losses = 330
Button and Barrichello show their Brawn and Branson, but 270 jobs will go.
Despite BrawnGP finishing off a remarkable weekend, where their two drivers came 1st (Jenson Button) and 2nd (Rubens Barrichello) in the Australian Grand Prix and Virgin owner Richard Branson signed a sponsorship deal, chief executive Nick Fry (dickhead) announced 270 job losses at the team’s Brackley factory in England.
It’s very unfortunate that we’ve got to do that but it’s the change of technical regulations and obviously we are now a private team. We are about 700 people at the moment and we talked to the staff about going down to about 430.
Shame on you Mr Fry. You could have waited until Monday or Tuesday to announce to the world your bad news. You got to wonder what type of person gives bad news on the day when they (BrawnGP) have done so brilliantly well.
Total losses = 270
2010 British International Motor Show Cancelled.
Organisers have cancelled the 2010 British International Motor Show because of the car industry downturn. It will be the first time the event has been called off since the Second World War.
Following a thorough consultation with the UK motor industry, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has taken the difficult decision to cancel the 2010 British International Motor Show.
Bentley slash 220 jobs from their Crewe plant.
The 220 redundancies will be across the board and all departments will be affected and if that is not bad enough, the remaining employees’ pay will be reduced by 10% between April 1st and December 31st this year.
Job losses = 220
Nissan announces 20000 job cuts worldwide.
Nissan has posted it’s first anual loss in over nine years and as a result 20000 jobs or 5% of it’s workforce will be lost. Most of the jobs will be lost in Japan.
Job losses = 20000
Ford focus on 850 job losses.
Ford is to axe up to 850 jobs in the UK this after they announced that new car sales had slumped by more than 30% last month compared with January 2008.
They are hoping to make 500 voluntary redundancies at the Southampton plant which makes Transit vans.
Job Losses = 850
200 people given the Axeon!
The Dundee-based company said sales of its batteries to the handheld power tool market had suffered and it has cut the equivalent of more than 200 full-time jobs in the past five months. With the company also feeling the effects of slowing demand from the car industry, Axeon said it expected an operating loss of up to £3 million for the year
Job losses = 200
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Japanese glass maker NSG to cut 5800 jobs.
Japanese glass maker NSG, which bought St Helens-based Pilkington in 2006, said its decision to cut 5800 jobs over the next year was a direct response to the global downturn.
Quoted from the Guardian.co.uk
The company said all three of its business units had been hurt by the credit crunch, with its automotive division taking the worst hit. It was also scaling back production of float glass – the process used to make large sheets of glass – removing the equivalent of two production lines in Europe and a 15% cut in capacity elsewhere.
Job losses = 5800
GKN to make 2800 people redundant (242 jobs) going in UK.
GKN in Great Britain has cut 242 jobs — 95 permanent staff and 147 temporary employees — from its four automotive plants in the West Midlands. The 2800 job cuts from its global workforce of 42000 are double the number it had predicted in October.
Job losses = 2800 (UK = 242)
Just another manic Monday.
If losing 3500 jobs from Corus was bad enough the following companies also announced job losses:
- Adams let go 267 people. They went into administration last year.
- Barrett & Priceless the shoe chains look like they are in big trouble. They employ over 5400 people. They have called in one of the big four administrators (Deloitte’s), that in itself is a big clue.
Over in the USAÂ a total of 48000 jobs were lost today, a lot of them from big named companies:
- Caterpillar, the world’s largest heavy equipment maker announced Monday it was slashing up to 5000 jobs.
- Pfizer announced cost cuts that will include slashing about 8000 jobs.
- Sprint Nextel said it would be eliminated about 8000 positions in the first quarter as it seeks to cut annual costs by $1.2 billion.
- Home Depot said it would reduce about two percent of its associates, or about 7000 jobs.
- General Motors slashes 20000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio as the recession slams sales of its vehicles.
In Europe:
- Dutch banking and insurance group ING announced 7000 job cuts.
- Philips, Europe’s largest Electronics manufacturer said it was cutting 6000 jobs globally.
100 aerodynamics heads to go at Renault F1.
Renault is in the process of restructuring and as a result are letting 100 people go through voluntary redundancies. (who wants to be fired? any volunteers?)
It has been suggested that the aerodynamics department will take the brunt of the cuts due to FIA cost cutting measures with regards to wind tunnel usage. That means what to the car? It’s performance last year was nothing to shout about, this will just mean disaster!
To think that F1 is a multi-million pound business and they pay their drivers millions of pounds in salary to drive a car around a track, the very least they should do is reduce their drivers salaries. Alonso alone could probably save those 100 heads by reducing his pay.
The question to ask – Do those 100 heads add up to £14 million a year in salaries? (Because that is what one driver is getting at the moment).
Job losses: 100
Bad news for at least 18 companies or 21000 jobs.
Quoted from Bloomberg
Not a great Friday after news that roughly 21000 jobs would be lost for at least 20 companies.
- Hertz, the second-largest U.S. rental-car company, said it will cut more than 4000 jobs.
- WellPoint, the second-largest U.S. health insurer, will end 1500 jobs, which include 600 workers and 900 open positions.
- Clear Channel Communications Inc. will lay off 1500 employees on Jan. 20, mostly in ad sales.
- ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner, announced after the markets closed that it plans to cut 4 percent of its workforce, or about 1350 jobs.
- Advanced Micro, the second-largest producer of personal- computer processors, said it will eliminate 1100 jobs by the end of the first quarter.
- Amonil said it will cut 45 percent of its staff, or 389 jobs, this year.
- Magneti Marelli will eliminate 800 jobs in Brazil, or 10 percent of its workforce there.
- General Electric Co.‘s finance arm may cut 7500 to 11000 jobs, or at least 10 percent of its workforce.
- De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, said it will cut jobs at its six mines in South Africa, totaling “less than” 1000 people.
- Interwoven Inc., the provider of data-management software, announced after trading hours that it would cut 70 jobs.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will cut up to 1000 jobs in 2009.
- Renold Plc, the maker of the chains that drive the clock in London’s Big Ben, announced 350 job reductions.
- WS Atkins Plc, the U.K.’s biggest engineering-design company, plans to eliminate 210 jobs at its Middle East operations.
- Scania AB, Sweden’s second-largest maker of heavy trucks, said it won’t renew contracts for 2000 temporary employees to adjust production because of weaker demand.
- Haynes International Inc., the manufacturer of alloys for use in aerospace and chemical processing, said it will eliminate 12 percent of its global workforce.
- Varian Inc., manufacturer of scientific instruments and vacuum technologies, will shed 240 jobs.
- Banco Santander SA, Spain’s biggest bank, eliminated 400 jobs in Brazil after buying ABN Amro Holding NV’s Banco Real unit in the country.
- Harry & David Holdings, a fruit and food retailer, said it would cut more than 100 positions.
Job losses: +-21000
Original article By Oshrat Carmiel, ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net
Mini factory loses 380 jobs.
Quoted from the BBC
Oxford’s Mini plant has revealed that an extra 90 agency staff were told not to return to work after Christmas.
Last year BMW, which owns and operates the site, said 290 agency staff would go but the final figure is now 380.The company has also said that fixed holidays are being brought in for employees in 2009 and the Friday late shift has also been scrapped.
Imagine being told when you must take your holiday! 
Job losses: 380
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