Verizon to cut 13,000 jobs

[TexasProgresive]

Source: CNN

Verizon to cut 13,000 jobs
By Blake Ellis, contributing writerJanuary 26, 2010: 5:56 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After posting a fourth-quarter loss, Verizon Communications, Inc. said Tuesday it plans to cut about 13,000 jobs this year.

Verizon recorded a net loss of $653 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with a profit of $1.24 billion, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier.



The loss came after the company took a charge of $3 billion for cutting a total of 17,000 jobs last year in both its landline and wireless divisions. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 54 cents per share.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/26/news/companies/verizon_layoffs/

[marmar]

1. Because throwing tens of thousands of people out of work is the best way to get the economy rolling.

:eyes: Wall Street pretzel logic.

[DCBob]

3. No, but its the best way to improve the bottom line...

at least temporarily and keep investors happy.

[defendandprotect]

16. No -- it's the best way to put the nation into "shock and awe" . ..

and to move further into the downward spiral of fascism . .!!

[virgogal]

2. My son.with 20 years with the company,has been waiting for this.

Very tense at work,very tense.

[bluestateguy]

4. Un American and Unpatriotic

This needs to stop, through legislation if necessary.

[global1]

5. I Actually Posted The Other Day Saying That Companies That Lay People Off....

or fire people at this time with the problems we have is 'unpatriotic'. I do believe this. Let me just say that it didn't go over big here at DU.

Seems to me that laying people off; making them redundant; firing them is contrary to everything that should be done right now. Just the opposite needs to happen. It is the patriotic thing to give people a job and pay them a honest wage. People that are employed and feel secure not only are paying taxes and not being a burden in unemployment lines where the government has to cover their unemployment - but they begin to spend money. They entertain themselves. They go to restaurants. They go on vacation. They buy things - and every time they do that and the more people that do that - the more demand is built up. Manufacturers have to make more things to have to sell. Restaurants have to hire more people. And so on. You get the idea. It helps the economy almost exponentially as more people go back to work and continue to fuel the economy.

Therefore it was my hypothesis last week some time when I posed it - that it is unpatriotic and un-American to not keep people employed.

I don't see this as too hard a concept to grasp. I was shocked by some of the negatively I received. And until that begins to happen - keeping people employed and paying them decently - we will never crawl out of this hole that BushCo and the Repugs created for us.

Let's stuff it back in their faces. Remember when they criticized Obama for not wearing a flag pin and called him unpatriotic. Well he wears one all the time now. I don't see the Repugs doing the same.

So lets call it like it is. If you lay people off. If you fire people. If you make their jobs redundant. If you outsource their jobs overseas. If you don't pay them well. Well - you are just unpatriotic and un-American.

[CubicleGuy]

9. I'm sure my creditors consider me unpatriotic...

... since I don't have enough income to pay them at the present.

How the heck are you going to pay people if there's no money coming in with which to pay them?

They're not interested in working just for work's sake, they expect to be paid.

I suppose passing a law to force people to pay for health insurance that they already can't afford is a brilliant idea, too.

[global1]

10. I'm Puzzled By Your Screen Name.....

you post suggests to me that you may be an employer - but your screen name "CubicleGuy" makes it look like you are a worker bee like most of us here.

My answer the other day to a similar response to an employer - was - who put you in this position? It was the BushCo administration that put us in this hole.

We are not going to climb out of it until unemployment goes down - people are back to work and feel comfortable in spending again.

Some employers might have to sacrifice a bit - but in the long run they will benefit.

Employers are just digging the hole deeper by jettisoning workers.

I really feel for the small business owners here. My beef is really with the big corporations - like Walmart that is closing some Sam's Stores and letting people go. Or Home Depot that is going through an employee downsizing. Or Verizon that was mentioned above. These are companies that are only interested in the short-term outlook and their stockholders than they are with the stability of this country. They are the ones that are worsening this problem we have.

That is why I'm campaigning to make them be perceived as 'unpatriotic'.

[brentspeak]

14. Verizon is not running out of money; it is cutting jobs only to please shareholders

Simply running an efficient, modestly profitable business is not good enough in today's lemming economy; squeezing every last penny to satisfy shareholder greed is all that counts.

[Imajika]

17. Verizon's mission is to make money...

..and please shareholders.

Don't like Verizon's business model? Don't do business with them or work for them. It's that simple.

Everything a business does is about making money. Even its community work and charitable donations are about making money by appealing to the community to improve it's brand name.

You could have the government run more and more business's, but even government lays off workers. Thousands upon thousands of public sector workers have been and continue to be laid off. And even if you wanted the government to run half the economy in the hopes that less people would lose their jobs, the corporations in the other half would still lay employees off to make money - since making money is what businesses are created to do in the first place.

[brentspeak]

24. The topic of my post is excessive profit-margins and shareholder greed

Your post doesn't actually address my post, but it suggests you don't seem to know the difference between a business model that aims for sustainability, modest profits, customer satisfaction, and respects its employees as opposed to the recent corporate trend towards unsustainable and hell-bent shareholder-profits-only business model -- which has worked beautifully in driving the U.S. economy down to its knees.

[joeglow3]

28. You need to define what a reasonable profit margin is.

[Quantess]

18. You make good points.

I'm not sure how the government is supposed to prohibit Verizon or anyone else from cutting jobs. It just isn't reality.

However, they could start by not outsourcing jobs.

[HughBeaumont]

27. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

With no firing freeze in sight, consumers won't spend or purchase services.

News flash. Unemployed, foreclosed, homeless and destitute people . . . can't and don't buy stuff.

Underemployed people . . . don't buy stuff.

People scared of losing their jobs . . . don't buy stuff.

People uncertain of their job and company status . . . don't buy stuff.

Why are they not buying stuff?

Simple. Thousand-plus layoff notices are happening DAILY, not just weekly. Layoffs only lead to more layoffs, which leads to no one (not even employed and scared people) buying stuff, which leads to more layoffs, etc.

Sooner or later, corporations are going to need this little thing we in the reality-based community call "BUSINESS".

AAaaaand, they can't GET business if no one's BUYING stuff, because they can barely afford the cost of living and are scared of getting fired. Or, worse yet, they're already fired and can't afford to buy anything; multiply this by 14-16 million.

So what needs to happen first?

[Imajika]

8. Legislation to stop companies from being profitable?

You do realize that is why companies exist right?

Corporations are not make-work programs.

Like it or not, they are going to have to fire people if they are not making money. Companies answer to shareholders, not the government.

[global1]

11. And When Those Same Shareholders Can't Afford To Patronize Those Companies Or....

have to sell the stock to have some cash to pay the mortgage or buy food - then what are these companies going to do.

I'm sorry the thinking that quarterly profits is the most important thing to the long term existence of a company is really short-sighted and has worsened the situation we are in.

I went on in my education to get and MBA. I'm embarrassed now to admit that I have an MBA. I think the whole emphasis in the 90's on MBA's helped contributed to this situation.

When did marketing change from product, price, place and promotion to out and out deception and deceptive practices? There is a doctoral thesis here for some enterprising up and coming future business mogul - because it seems to me that whomever figures this out will be very successful in the future.

Don't get me started down this path.

[Imajika]

15. You may not like their business model...

..but a company is still not a make work program.

I mean, it is what it is. It is in business to make money. It is a literally a business in the first place to make money. I mean, we may be able to sit down and agree Verizon is being shortsighted. Their decision making may be awful here and this may be a stupid calculation, but it is how business works. This is nothing new. Verizon does not and can not sit around and worry about how these lay-offs will effect the rest of the economy, they can only concern themselves with how this effects their bottom line.

You can't legislate business not to hire and fire people. Do you realize that would unravel the entire economy? Do you want to nationalize all businesses that face laying off employees? Your just not being realistic here.

[global1]

19. Who Said Anything About Legislating Not To Hire/Fire People......

I'm just saying that they should be made to feel that what they are doing will impact this economy and is unpatriotic. I'm not saying that they can't fire people. I just want them to think a little more before they act and maybe they just might think of another way to help their business instead of axing employees. Let's see - what else might help. Hmmmm - maybe no salary increases for upper management. or maybe on bonuses. or maybe cut back on corporate travel. or maybe we can stop barraging people with direct mail every day and save some money. I bet if we asked people here at DU what they would do if they were Verizon to save money and maximize profits besides laying off employees - we would have a number of creative ideas. (I'm sure we'd have some really stupid ones too). But until one exhausts all other avenues - employees should not be touched because in the long term it comes back to bite you.

You see there are countless ways to pinch pennies and maximize savings besides firing people. I don't think people send their children off because they've become a burden and they can't afford them. No they figure out other ways to economize. That's what business has to do.

[Imajika]

21. Okay, so business builds all that in...

..and then when they can't make the profits their shareholders expect?

I mean, why would you think any of that would matter?

Business already cuts corners and pinches pennies. I'd guess everyone has worked in a department somewhere and seen ridiculous budget cuts.

They could also not fire any of those 13,000 people by cutting the salaries of the rest of the their work force right? I mean, everyone would still have a job but then the rest would make less. Or they could slash benefits.

At the end of the day you have to face the fact that Verizon exists to make money and please shareholders. There is just no other way around it. We can expect companies to be responsible community members, but even there we are kind of kidding ourselves aren't we? Every nickel they spend on reinvesting in the community is just a nickel that doesn't go into salaries, benefits, etc. Or it is a nickel they charge the rest of us. Verizon has a business model and they follow it.

Now, one thing we probably agree on here is that the top echelon at many/most corporations make far too much compared to the average worker. CEO's making 1000 times what the actual workers earn is insane. This is not something easy to legislate since the top brass always look for away around any restrictions we might place on them to level the playing field. And then you get all sorts of unintended consequences. There is most definitely a spirit of entitlement at the top of many/most corporations. A coarsening of the culture. A failure to see how wrong some of these pay disparities have become. It is disgusting really. If you want to talk about how to fix that particular problem, I am right there with you.

[joeglow3]

29. How do you know they did not already do that?

Last year, EVERYBODY above a certain level (hundreds of people) in my company took pay freezes (Fortune 500 company). Last year, the partners at the Big 4 CPA firm I used to work for took a 35% pay CUT and senior managers took a pay freeze. Until you show me they did nothing, I have to assume this was not a first choice.

[Dr.Phool]

22. Verizon is a very deceptive company.

We switched over to Verizon in our business a couple of years ago. The service we got was not what we signed up for. When we called to straighten it out, the kept trying to switch us over to a higher priced plan.

We said "No, we want what we agreed to in the contract". They kept trying, and refused to honor our agreement. We terminated service on the spot. Fuck them.

[bowens43]

25. complete and utter bullshit.........

this has nothing to do with making a profit. It has to do with maximizing profits no matter the cost. It is absolutely time to start nationalizing these large corporations.

[Imajika]

31. And you would nationalize them to what end?

Why on earth would you think the government could run Verizon?

How about we just nationalize everything? I'm not happy the local supermarket laid off my nephew in their latest round of job cuts, shall we nationalize them too?

I read threads like these and it is almost as if people simply have no clue what a business is created for, and how economies actually work.

[Psephos]

13. What's unpatriotic is herd-think economic ignorance being codified as law.

Layoffs suck, but acting like King Canute is not the answer.

[msongs]

6. so there's gonna be a corresponding cut of it's outrageous fees to customers??? nt

[peacebird]

7. so are they (like my company) sending our jobs to India?

college educated software professional with over 30 years experience, my hubby is same- and yet our jobs are in jeopardy because we are professionals with over 30 years under our belts. It is cheaper to hire a worker in India than to pay us. Cost of living in the US is higher than in India.

I guess the question is: Do we in America want to be brought down to the salary level of India? I know that I cannot afford that, can you?

[WestSeattle2]

12. My God, the amount of money I send that company every

month should be enough to keep 13,000 employees on the payroll!!!!!

[AwakeAtLast]

20. Oh goody! Now we get to wait 2 hours to get a breathing person instead of 1

:banghead:

[Jennicut]

23. Look for smaller long distance and wireless companies.

I used to work for a call center for smaller long distance companies. Better rates, you get live people. I only quit when I had two kids back to back, it got to be too much.
My Dad works for AT&T in CT and cuts are coming there too...for outside workers mostly.

[HughBeaumont]

26. Even MORE logs on the bonfire of Friedman Disaster Corporatism.

28 years in the making.

An unprecedented upward transfer of wealth reciprocated by a downward transfer of wage stagnation, risk, loss, layoffs, bankruptcy, depression, homelessness, hunger and hopelessness to the lower 95%.

A universal corporate climate that no longer values the contributions, services or talents of its workers.

Unemployment continues to soar with absolutely NO end in sight. The private sector is worse than useless when it comes to job creation. This continued foot-shooting will only lead to more and more and more layoffs, because the rich will not give an OUNCE of sacrifice or pay cuts.

"Job security", "pension", "morale", "loyalty" and "retirement" are soon going to become antiquated words/phrases; what we used to live for in the past but no longer can hope to acheive. Apparently, it's simply asking too MUCH anymore.

ZERO (soon to be NEGATIVE) net job growth in 10 years.

Wall Street and Wealth remain the ONLY sections that have recovered in this going-on three-year period of bleakness.

"Most Powerful Nation on Earth" my ASS. We're a Corptocracy awash in propaganda and militarism where only 5,000 people benefit on the backs of 150 million.

Friedman economics has ruined us, and if the layoffs continue, I fear it's just not going to be repaired. You're leaving far too many educated workers with too few jobs for them. They cannot start businesses if they have no money. They cannot get new jobs if there are no jobs to be HAD. They cannot migrate to other countries if there's nothing waiting for them when they get there. You can't have 25 million people living on our already inadequate safety net forever. This bloodletting HAS to stop. WHEN IS IT GOING TO STOP ALREADY??? WHEN?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

30. They could start by closing their retail stores....

Completely unnecessary. You can buy your phone and purchase your plan at an electronics retailer. I can't believe they have (in the strip mall near me) a storefront operation with a half dozen employees running around.

It's a fucking phone. I know how it works, thanks. I don't been a 20-year-old marketing major to show me how to access voicemail.

[w8liftinglady]

32. are these American or overseas jobs?