Seagate to cut 2,900 jobs

[Renew Deal]

Hard drive manufacturer announces restructuring plan

By Tom Krazit, IDG News Service June 03, 2004

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology LLC will lay off about 7 percent of its global workforce, or about 2,900 employees, under a restructuring plan announced Wednesday.

The Scotts Valley, California, company plans to reduce its operating costs by $150 million this year, said Stephen Luczo, chairman and chief executive officer. Part of those cuts will include staff reductions, he said.

Seagate got off to a difficult start in 2004, losing market share among notebook PC manufacturers and having to reduce hard drive prices to stay competitive with companies like Maxtor Corp. The situation was exacerbated by an oversupply of notebooks in the first quarter that also affected companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Intel Corp.

HP said the problem had eased in its quarterly earnings conference call last month, but Seagate is still experiencing problems from that buildup in supply, Luczo said. The company expects its mobile hard drive market share to fall by 2 percent to 3 percent, and prices across all of its products are expected to decline 5 percent, he said.
<snip>

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/06/03/HNseagatejobs_1.html

[Trajan]

1. But WAIT ! ....

DUer economic geniuses (Geniae ??) have declared that ALL Bush's claims of employment nirvana are TRUE ! ...

Yea: ... STOP that negativity, and BOW before the god of utterly incredible employment numbers ! : George W. Bush ! ....

Er .... perhaps those folks at Seagate can look for some crumbs while they are bowing and kowtowing and genuflecting and stuff ...

Mewonders ? ... HOW can we know for sure about INCREASES in the Job Market when all the indicators in the media are news about DECREASES ? ...

When a Co says "We will be cutting 2900 jobs", are there stories saying "We will increase employment by 2900 jobs" ? ... 3900 Jobs ? ... 4900 ?? ... Am I missing something here ???

How many mom and pop stores are there picking up the slack ? ...

For the GOP to show job increases, they MUST show that positions have opened in excess of those being lost: ... it will take 2900 new mom and pop operations to suddenly pop out of the gloom to hire each of those laid off workers: and that means FLAT employment .... NOT a gain ....

IF large companies were hiring like mad, as they would have to be to match the indicated losses: would they not broadcast it ? ...

POINT to those new jobs, supporters of Bush's claims of Job Creation ... <edit: It is against DU rules to call another DUer out, so I erased the name>

Tell me about ANY of them ....

Something about all this smells, big time ...

[Frodo]

2. "New jobs coming"

Expansion by nine companies will create more than 8,600 jobs in Michigan, state officials say. Among them:

* General Dynamics Land Systems of Sterling Heights will add 325 new research and development jobs, fostering 180 spinoff jobs.

* Quicken Loans/Rock Financial of Livonia will add 1,200 jobs in Troy, creating 4,695 spinoff jobs.


www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0405/18/b01-155968.htm


Of course... this is a ridiculous exercise (but since you "called me out" :-)). The government reports well over three hundred thousand jobs lost every week. The fact that you can find reports listing a couple thousand of WHO those people are does not make a diffence. This isn't 2900 PLUS whatever gets reported next week.

[Trajan]

3. Laughs ....

After 27 years in Electronics ...

After 25 years in Aerospace ...

After 23 years in manned space projects, unmanned satellite projects, submarine inertial navigation, ships control systems projects .... in electronic systems analysis ...

I was laid off last September ....

No aerospace jobs available ....

I had to sell my house (BOUGHT during the heady days of the Clinton Era, remember them ? ... ) ....

I had to sell my house, which I could no longer afford to live in ...

I had to sell my house (which I thankfully was able to buy when Clinton was president), because even AEROSPACE wasnt safe from the ineptitude of the party in power to successfully manage a world class economy ....

EVEN during a fucking WAR: I could not hold onto my job in DEFENSE electronics ....

And neither did my faithful co workers ... They are STILL out of work ... losing cars ... losing homes ..... dislocating family ...

I had to sell my house: and disconnect my children from the lives and friends they had developed during the salad days of Democratic Rule ....

EHem ...

Dont tell ME how wonderful things are: .. they arent ...

Furthermore: Bush has been keeping the upper class VERY well off indeed ..... he has TIME and TIME again satisfied their greedy desire to slough off 'taxation' for the benefit of 'profit' ...

Is it too much to ask that they hire a few fools before the election ? ...


"But Sir? ... WHAT shall these new workers do ? .. Sales have been reduced or level for three years now " ...

"I DONT CARE what they do: .. HIRE them ... They can push a goddamned broom around in circles as far as I care: I gave YOU infinite tax breaks: I gave your succor and solace on the sunny Cayman Islands ... I gave you FREEDOM without Price: I gave you ROADS without toil .. I gave you access to the BIGGEST BUNCH of losers that money cant EVER buy: .....

ALl I ask: is that you hire a few thousand people .... JUST for a few months ... JUST until the election is over ....

The sorry SAPS will suck it up like mothersmilk ... again ...

And: There will be others who will stand up and sing our praises to the masses: .. there will be those who will declare "the end of all badness and suffering' ... They will say 'we are a success' ...

Then ? ... come december ? ... FIRE their asses ....

We can then blame it on Carter .... " ....

Not only do I believe it CAN happen: I beleive it WILL and IS happening ... Call me a skeptic: Ive been around the block a few times: and I know a Carney when I see one ...

You know Frodo ? .... Those numbers are very nice: ... but they come up somewhat short of the MANY MORE that were lost due to GOP graft and plain greed .... so hawk your discordant wares of "GOP success" in another marketplace ... I have had enough: thanks ....

and DONT worry about me : Ill be ok: .... I took the house that CLINTON let me buy: and I sold it for a killing .... IM starting my own business, and crossing my fingers that customers actually walk through the door ....

If they Dont ? ... My kids go hungry .... Do they still have Food Stamps ? ... damn I hope so: ... I never voted them down ....

New jobs comin ? ....

Check is in the mail ....

[Robert Oak]

5. analysis of the BLS numbers

Something stinks in BLS land and it has to do with lower paying
jobs replacing career oriented positions.

If you want to join up with forces that know exactly what you're
talking about (and isn't it great that they destroyed any sort
of social safety net in the 80's and 90's so now there is nothing
but a big fat cliff to get pushed off of by multinationals)...

www.rescueamericanjobs.org is one of the biggest grassroots..
but pick a grassroots specific on outsourcing, H-1B, L-1 and
also age discrimination and get active.

Stories like yours are getting buried it goes against the media
image of how Americans view themselves but more and more this is
the real image of middle class America.

[Robert Oak]

4. expect a flurry of outsourcing after election

Most corporations are holding off on firing Americans and replacing
them with cheaper foreign counterparts until after the election.

It's imperative we make this an election issue, try to get
legislation passed NOW and make sure you vote for the least objectionable congress/state representatives who will not
be the free traitor/multinational's puppets.