Bye Bye Manufacturing Jobs

(Associated Press: Boston Globe 1/3/06 C2)

• the loss of manufacturing jobs -> less jobs, lower wages, less benefits, loss of pensions
• Mittal Steel Co. cut 800 jobs last month
• GM plans to cut 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008.
• Ford has plans to be announced, poss. 15,000 workers affected in US and Mexico. TBA this month.  More 1000s of white-collar workers.
• Delphi Corp. bankruptcy ; 34,000 workers may have their wages cut in half or more; loss of some healthcare benefits

Frozen Pension Plans

IBM (NYT, Jan. 6, 2006, A1), also Verizon, HP, Motorola and Sears, and others in “troubled companies in the steel, airline and auto industries”.