Dell Computer: Déjà vu 8,800 Last Year, 8,800 This Year

Last year I wrote an article: Dell Computers; Layoffs, Issues And More Layoffs. At that time I had no idea that I would be writing practically the same article this year. But Dell is like their service, consistently bad.

Dell has never given out straight forward information about their plans for staff reductions but rather they throw out a target number for the national business media and the small local layoffs get reported on in the smaller news markets around the country. The most accurate information has come from a NETWORKWORLD article by Dan Nystedt and reports that Dell has already completed 3,200 layoffs with another 5,200 happening soon.

Even though desktop computer sales improved by 10% last year, they will be closing their desk top facility in Austin, Texas and many that aren’t losing their jobs will be forced to take unpaid time off.

For more than a year Dell has been going through an audit that they claim was caused by certain departments fudging their numbers. As a result they will restate their earnings reports from 2002 through 2006 by a mere $150 million. That's a lot of fudge.

Dell is also being sued on two fronts, first for not performing on their extended warranties sold directly to customers and second for falsely advertising the terms being offered by their company owned financial arm. It has been reported that Dell’s financing division is now up for sale.

Dell, IBM, Intel, Cisco, HP and Microsoft have all gazed into the crystal ball and have seen their future in Asia and India. Doing business in the U.S. has just become too tenuous.

Gloucester Pregnancies – Bush Did IT!

Of course this depends on the meaning of “it”.

Earlier this week I watched the press conference held by Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk concerning the high pregnancy rate at their high school. The story of a "pregnancy pact," by at least eight students, was reported on by Time Magazine who listed Principal Joseph Sullivan as their source. Since then Principal Sullivan has been mum and because of privacy concerns only several girls have come forward who claim no knowledge of a “pact.”

What amazed me about the press conference was that Mayor Kirk insinuated that sex education has been cut because of Bush’s No Child Left Behind Program. Yes, it was Bush’s fault that these girls got pregnant. Since the mandated program was under funded the school system had no choice but to cut other programs such as Sex Ed. The fact that Governor Patrick refused to accept a $700,000 funding package to help pay for abstinence training had nothing to do with it.

What would have happened if these girls took a virginity pact, for sure there would much less attention and publicity, I would also assume they wouldn’t become the Prom Queen. But then at least they would have a Prom without a baby strapped to their back.

What media ignore about teen pregnancy pact by Jill Stanek

Principal Sullivan has just issued a written public statement.

The Media Spotlight Catches Nielsen Outsourcing, Downgrading Full-Time Too Part-Time And Aggressively Abusing H-1B Visas

Theresa Blackwell penned a very good article in the St. Petersburg Times on the commitment by the powers at Nielsen to do everything possible to cut payroll. The controversy justifiably received national attention on the Lou Dobbs Show who emphasized the H-1B Visa abuse. Nielsen while putting Americans out of work is replacing the positions with H-1B Visa holders from India.

I’ve consistently written about H-1B Visa abuse and how companies, tech companies and our universities in particular, have shamelessly imported staff where there should have been more than a sufficient supply of qualified Americans to fill the positions. The only motive for the push to hire foreign staff would be to cap salary ranges.

From Ms. Blackwell’s article:

“Just four days ago, Nielsen gave up $3.1-million in future incentives for creating new jobs in Oldsmar, saying the controversy over the government money had become a distraction for employees and a source of conflict with the city.”

This would not be such a controversy or distraction if the Nielsen Company wasn’t absolutely committed to replacing U.S. workers with H-1B Visa holders.

One other point of contention that the article brings up but does not emphasize is the ratio of full time to part time employees at their Dunedin facility. With 4.4 part-time or temporary workers to every full-timer demonstrates that a desire to cut costs by cutting benefits.

Would this be the type of company you want to work for; maybe if you’re from India. You can browse the Nielsen Careers Page here.

Our Universities Have To Go Offshore To Find Talent
Companies Hiding Offshoring
LSI - More “Partnering” Lay Offs Coming To Kansas City?
Sun Micro's Jonathan Schwartz The Genius?
American Axle Moving More Jobs Out Of The U.S.
California Sending DMV Data To Mexico
Altria Optimizes Worldwide Cigarette Production
Dell Computers; Layoffs, Issues And More Layoffs
Freightliner The Long Haul From North Carolina To Mexico
IBM An Extreme View On Offshoring

Country of Origin COOL Will Finally Happen

According to the USDA website: “On May 13, 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, more commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill, became law.” This legislation was delayed twice and is now scheduled to be implemented September 8, this year.

The part that doesn’t make sense is that the fruit, meat and vegetables that we import are already identified, on the outside of there packaging, with the country of origin. It would be a small inconvenience to carry that information to the display. The only reasoning for not posting the Country of Origin with the product being sold would be that the retailer doesn’t want to handle the questions or comments that their customers might have.

But this is a huge step forward in the fight to keep jobs in America. Would Hershey be so aggressive in their closing of the Reading, Pa, plant if they knew that their Peppermint Patty Brand would have to be labeled “Hecho en Mexico”