No Worker Left Behind

Fwd: Hello

2009-11-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

What the hell?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: james gabriel <jamiel2112@att.net>
Date: Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Subject: Hello
To:

JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR LIMITED NUMBER OF FOREIGN WORKERS.

GOOD DAY SIR/MA,

THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT MAI LINH CORPORATIONS AND VIETNAM EMPLOYMENT AGENCY (JOINT STOCK COMPANY) IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF VIETNAM. HAS SIGN TREATY WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS REGARDING THE IMMEDIATE JOB EMPLOYMENT OF 12,500 (TWELVE THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED) NUMBERS OF FOREIGNER WORKERS NEEDED IN VARIOUS FIELD OF PRODUCTIVE JOBS/PROFESSIONS IN HANOI.. THIS IS IN RESPONSE OF THE EXPANDING INFRASTRUCTURES THAT WAS AIMED TO BOOST THE DECLINING ECONOMY OF THE COUNTRY AT VARIOUS LEVELS AND SECTOR. WITH SALARY RANGE FROM 10,150 TO 6,720 USD PER MONTH. EXCLUDING ACCOMMODATION AND ALLOWANCE. INTERESTED AND WILLING APPLICANTS/PERSONNEL SHOULD PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE VIA EMAIL OR PHONE IMMEDIATELY FOR MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE APPLICATION AND PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EMPLOYMENT IS VALID UNTIL THE 21ST OF DECEMBER 2009.

VIETNAM EMPLOYMENT AGENCY,

20 LY THUONG KIET STREET,

HANOI, VIETNAM.

TEL. 84-8-9422532

FAX.84-8-9423748

EMAIL: viet.vntrade@gmail.com

MOBILE. +841674986592

CONTACT MR. NGUYEN DUY TON.

EMPLOYMENT MANAGER.

Fwd: Your E-mail Was Selected !!!

2009-07-12T20:44:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mrs Cindy Howard <uk@winner.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 6:17 AM
Subject: Your E-mail Was Selected !!!
To:

You have just been awarded,the sum of £1,000,000,00 in the tobacco Award
2009, Anniversary Bonanza.

Names:............. Address:..............
Country:................ Age:..........

Fwd: I am Mark Measday a staff of Natwest Bank Plc,UK. I am the head of the accounts and an account officer to numerous customers of our bank.The sum of (£10.7M), has been floating as unclaimed since 2002 in my bank as all efforts to get across the r

2009-07-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Measday <markmeasday1992@libero.it>
Date: Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Subject: I am Mark Measday a staff of Natwest Bank Plc,UK. I am the head of the accounts and an account officer to numerous customers of our bank.The sum of (£10.7M), has been floating as unclaimed since 2002 in my bank as all efforts to get across the relatives of our customer who died of Cardiac Arrest in 2002 without a registered nest of kin have hit the stones. If you are interested and capable to handle this transaction, please get back to me quickly on this email (markmeasday1966@yahoo.com.hk) for further details.
To:

Fwd: REPLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED

2009-07-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: brama mahamadi <mahamad.brama2@msn.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Subject: REPLY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED
To:

Good day,

I'm Mr. Brama Mahamadi an accountant with the bank of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I'm currently in need of a silent foreign partner whom I can use as the next of kin to a deceased customer of the bank to transfer the sum of 18.000.000 us dollars (Eighteen million dollars) into his or her account for both of us . This money is presently in a domiciliary account in the bank of Africa here in Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso.

If you are interested write back to me so that I will send to you the details and how it will be possible to be executed. I promise that there will be no risk as it will pass through international banking laws and all the necessary information will be given to you as soon as I receive you acceptance letter.

I wait your urgent respond and contact me through this email address :

mahamadi_brama01@yahoo.fr

Mr. Brama Mahamadi

URGENTLY NEEDED OF YACHT WORKERS

2009-06-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I am Capt. Henry Walter, 50 Years Old from (England) United Kingdom. I work with Princess Diana - Luxury Motor Yacht in United Kingdom.We are seeking applicants to work on the new year-round UNITED KINGDOM flagged Passenger ship. Its a private own yacht, Accommodation will be provided by the Company.

I will like to know if you are interested in working on the ship.

I will be waiting to hear from you soonest

Capt. Henry Walter
henry.walter66@live.com

klehrke@gmail.com has sent you some interesting reading

2009-06-03T20:55:00.001-07:00

From: klehrke@gmail.com

Subject: klehrke@gmail.com sent you a Yahoo! story: Tips for a Safer Job Search

From: klehrke@gmail.com

Message from sender:

Tips for a Safer Job Search

(http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/hotjobs/confidentiality/hotjobs-01.html)

--------------------------------

Find related stories here

Yahoo! Help (http://help.yahoo.com)

Please remember that your use of Yahoo! products and services is subject to Yahoo! Terms of Service

(http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/) and Privacy Policy (http://privacy.yahoo.com)

The sender's email has not been verified.

Fwd: Yours resume

2009-05-26T20:03:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <richardhaines47@gmail.com>
Date: 2009/5/26
Subject: RE: Yours resume
To: klehrke@gmail.com

Hello

After studying your resume, we concluded that your application meets the needs of our Society. We are prepared to offer the vacancy of Regional Agent. At first we would like to introduce ourselves.

The company "Sigma Realty Group has begun work on the property market in early 2003. In this period we made known as a secure, respectable, competent, able to resolve more complicated issues in short terms.

Our managers are qualified and experienced in real estate who regularly update their professional training courses held by the Society.

We gathered the common purpose - to find a new kind of society on the real estate market that has the safety features, the clarity of each business and the care that goes out to every customer.

The company "Sigma Realty Group is interested in recruiting of working people, persevering, who probably have no experience working in real estate, but are willing to improve and have a nice gain.

Working diligently at the Society "Sigma Realty Group" You can not only acquire the profession of "regional agent", but also make a nice career going by the agent-trainee to "top-manager". For employees who want to achieve success in their career organize studies: a series of training courses and seminars. The Sigma Realty Group is working on the property market more than 6 years, for this reason provides its employees with the security relationship. The profession of agent and a job well paid and unique. As a high-technology development of the Internet makes it possible to do business at the other end of the world without leaving home, now we become non-compulsory presence of the employee in the office that can find 3-5 hours per day, depending on availability.

The tasks of the specialist in question are:
Research information regarding the sale of properties in the region of residence;
Publicity about the lots already placed in the database of the Society;
Conclusion Affairs;
Processing payments of the Society clients.
The Society offers:
Seminars and training courses
Working Hours flexible
Opportunity to build a career
The salary of 1200 US dollars to the initial stage
Extraordinary dividends and awards depending on the results of work.
If you are interested in our offer, we are waiting for your confirmation of consent to the email address: richardhaines47@gmail.com. On receipt of the Confirmation dispatched all the documents to be signed.

Yours sincerely,
HR-manager, Richard Haines

Fwd: Fw: Re: CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPYTRY IT !!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-26T20:02:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diann Szambelan <szambi2@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, May 26, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Subject: Fw: Re: CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPYTRY IT !!!!!!!!!!!
To: Larry <themacedonian@peoplepc.com>, Karen Lehrke <frazzingrenderings@gmail.com>, shari kuschel <sharikuschel@hotmail.com>, Andrew Mcmahon <mcandrew2119@yahoo.com>, Angeline McMahon <amcmahon3131951@yahoo.com>, Mary Towns-Ross <townsma@aol.com>, "Isaac E. Jones" <isaac_jones@email.com>, Debbie Froh <debfroh@sbcglobal.net>, daffy982002@yahoo.com, Dorothy <dlangs01@yahoo.com>, dottie szubeczak <dszubeczak@yahoo.com>, jessica szubeczak-grimes <polish2410@yahoo.com>, jkayfrazier@gmail.com, Bruce Johnson <Brucejohn48240@yahoo.com>

Diann F. Szambelan

szambi2@yahoo.com

--- On Sat, 5/23/09, doris deihl <brooksdeihl@att.net> wrote:

From: doris deihl <brooksdeihl@att.net>
Subject: Fw: Re: CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPY, TRY IT !!!!!!!!!!!
To: "Sandy Allen" <sallen712@hotmail.com>, ashirelover@cox.net, "laurie susan burnett" <sueburnett58@yahoo.com>, "kim" <kb1107@gmail.com>, "Betty noe" <alwaysbetty@aol.com>, "Denise Padgett" <justdee_2006@hotmail.com>, "helen porter" <twoshoes1sock@comcast.net>, "Alice schell" <msdazy316@peoplepc.com>, "phyllis sears" <dpbrnch277@yahoo.com>, "Diann Szambelan" <szambi2@yahoo.com>, "judy trevino" <trevinoj@wwschools.net>
Date: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 2:36 PM

-----

---

-----

Okay...hold on..if my phone rings.....then I am a believer!!

Ok guys, this truly is freaky, the
Phone literally rang as soon as I read
The last word of this email!!!!!

I am taking the bait -
What do I have to lose right?

Hope it works!

Supposedly The Phone Will Ring
Right After You Do This.

Just read the little stories and
Think of a wish as you scroll all
The way to the bottom. There is
A message there - then make your
Wish.

Stories

I'm 13 years old, and I wished
That my dad would come home from
The army, because he'd been having
Problems with his heart and right
Leg... It was 2:53 p m.. When I made
My wish. At 3:07 PM. (14 minutes
Later), the doorbell rang, and
There my Dad was, luggage and all!!

I'm Katie and I'm 20 and I've been
Having trouble in my job and on the
Verge of quitting... I made a simple
Wish that my boss would get a new
Job. That was at 1:35 and at 2:55
There was an announcement that he
Was promoted and was leaving for
Another city.. Believe me.....this
Really works!!!

My name is Ann and I am 45 years
Of age. I had always been singl e
And had been hoping to get into a
Nice, loving relationship for many
Years. While kind of daydreaming(and right after receiving this email)
I wished that a quality person would
Finally come into my life. That was at
9:10 AM on a Tuesday. At 9:55 AM
A FedEx delivery man came into my
Office. He was cute, polite and
Could not stop smiling at me. He
Started coming back almost everyday(even without packages) and asked me
Out a week later . We married 6
Months later and now have been
Happily married for 2 years.

What a great email it was!!

Just scroll down to the end, but
While you do, think of a wish.
Make your wish when you have completed
Scrolling. Whatever age you are, is the
Number of minutes it will take for your
Wish to come true. Ex.you are 25 years< BR>Old , it will take 25 minutes for your wish
To come true).

However, if you don't send this to
People in 5 minutes, you will have bad
Luck for years!!

Go for it!!!
!

SCROLL DOWN!!!!
*

**

***

****

*****

******

*******

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*************

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*******
******

*****

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**

*

STOP!! !
Congratulations!!! Your wish will
Now come true in your age minutes.

Now follow this carefully....it
Can be very rewarding!!!!

If you send this to 10 more
People, other than the 5 that you
Already have to send to, something
Major that you've been wanting
Will happen.

Message: This is scary!

The phone will ring right after
You do this!

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Fwd: Find new work.

2009-05-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: crowe erhard <erhard1sharpqg@live.com>
Date: Sat, May 23, 2009 at 9:23 PM
Subject: Find new work.
To: klehrke@gmail.com

A Job for You!

We thought you would be interested in this job:

Job Information


	Job Title: Money Manager Assistant		Req'd Education: Not Specified

	Company: Insurance Company		Req'd Experience: Not Specified

	Job Location: United States		Base Pay: $ 2,000/month

	Employee Type: Part-Time/Home-Based		Bonus: Yes

Work at home Money Manager Assistant
(part-time vacancy; 2000 usd / month):

We value your response back regarding the open vacancy Insurance Company is offering. We're currently seeking motivated and responsible individuals to attend the post of a 'Work at home Money Transfer Assitant'. This remote position itself covers a broad range of directions an individual would have to perform. It's a part time position, which let's you perform your duties directly from your home location. In the nearest future, we're planning to achieve the expansion of our company throughout the United States of America and United Kingdom, providing local offices and departments in the vast areas, where logistic and insurance services are definitely in demand. Until then, we're trying to fill in our personnel with new individuals, which will increase the efficiency of the services we're catering. If you wish to apply or have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact me back either via e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon.

In order to reduce the corporate overhead, we've implemented the thrift solution of disseminating bases of control over certain regions of the United States of America. It provides a great opportunity for beginners to participate in the standard operations of the future subsidiary departments. Besides the expansion project, the upcoming regional accountants are expected to learn a great deal about different realms of the insurance market mainly through digesting the experience gained from the large scale practical assignments.

1) This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with any other work.

2) The fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% instantly from each payment processed by you.

3) You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.

4) You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.

5) To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.

6) You can work 2-3 hours per day.

7) This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.

8) Your education and status don't matter.

9) We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.

Now I will explain the details of this job.

1) An ACH or Wire transfer will be made to your bank account from our client. I'll let you know it's exact transfer amount and date.

2) You should receive the transfer and send me the confirmation that you've received it. Then you'll have to cash out this transfer at your bank.

3) Then you'll have to sent the money you took from you bank account via Western Union. I'll let you know all the necessary information on this transfer(the name of person who will receive the money and destination city/country).

4) Then you should send an email to me to confirm the Western Union transfer is sent. This email should include sender's name, name of the city the transfer has been sent from, exact Western Union transfer amount, and Western Union MTCN (it's essential for receiving the money).

5) We communicate with our agents mainly by e-mail, but we will also communicate by phone (if your e-mail is not available). It is your responsibility to check your e-mail daily and inform us about any change in your contact information. Supporting communication is your top-priority obligation.

6) The fixed monthly salary which is 2000 usd will be sent to you by direct deposit after 30 day period from first transfer.

Let's see how it works. For example, 2000 usd have been transferred to your account. The amount you'll receive for each transfer is 5% from the initial payment to your bank account. 5% from 2000 usd is 100 usd so you'll have to send 1900 usd via Western Union. Western Union fee(it's about 100 usd) should be deducted from 1900 usd.

Please ask me with more questions or just let me know you're ready to get started.

We do not need access to your bank accounts. This is information that you can see at any check and only let us to send ACH and Wire transfers to this accounts.

Note: Actions depicted below, are authorized by Our Company, and therefore sustain legitimacy status. Our venerable organization doesn't condone or incite improper or out of border incentives, which may contradict to federal law.

Apply Now

Money Manager Assistant

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at rcsekret75@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

See all the ways you can stay connected to friends and family

Fwd: Become a part of our company

2009-05-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: fransisco peter <peterboonejha@live.com>
Date: 2009/5/23
Subject: Become a part of our company
To: klehrke@gmail.com

A Job for You!

We thought you would be interested in this job:

Job Information


	Job Title: Money Manager Assistant		Req'd Education: Not Specified

	Company: Insurance Company		Req'd Experience: Not Specified

	Job Location: United States		Base Pay: $ 2,000/month

	Employee Type: Part-Time/Home-Based		Bonus: Yes

Work at home Money Manager Assistant
(part-time vacancy; 2000 usd / month):

Apply Now

Money Manager Assistant

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at rcsekret80@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. It's easy! Try it!

Forward an article

2009-05-22T11:58:00.001-07:00

To ensure delivery of this email please add monster@route.monster.com to your Address Book or Safe List.

Forward an article

Dear klehrke.noworkerleftbehind@blogger.com,

I was visiting Monster and thought this article would interest you: Energy, Healthcare, Other Stimulus Initiatives Expected to Spur Technology Job Creation

If the link above does not work, please copy and paste the following link into your browser address field: http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/economic-stimulus-technology-jobs/article.aspx

klehrke@gmail.com

Helpful Hint

GET MORE CAREER ADVICE

Looking for guidance in your job search and career? Monster's Advice section can help. From writing your resume and preparing for the interview to managing workplace issues and continuing your education, Monster provides insightful tips and advice to keep your career moving forward. Visit Monster Advice now!

Sincerely,

klehrke@gmail.com

Questions? Email us directly by visiting http://my.monster.com/contactus/.
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Fwd: Message from Careerbuilder: Become an independent contractor.

2009-05-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mrs. Patricia Norberg <candidateemail@site.careerbuilder.com>
Date: May 18, 2009 5:07 PM
Subject: Message from Careerbuilder: Become an independent contractor.
To: "Mrs. Patricia Norberg" <candidateemail@site.careerbuilder.com>

Your Career Builder Resume

Dear Candidate,

We have come to the conclusion that you are perfectly fit for our open position, as a part time overseas associate.

Our company needs a person, who has 2 hours per day, able to print 200-500 invoices per day. Your obligation it will be only to print the company's invoices.

We support all expenses, including shipping fees, printer, ink, paper and envelopes. We offer 0.30 US Dollars per invoice printed and shipped, with a guarantee $1,800.00 salary per month.

We have at least 200 invoices to print daily for our US clients and it takes less than 1 hour to print 500.

Your job will be to print our invoices and ship those using Fedex mailing services, using the company's prepaid account. You can choose to receive the invoices in the morning or evening.

Benefits:

- Working from home...

- Flexible program-2 hours anytime on the day.

- No selling; No telemarketing; No hot calls.

- Checking e-mail, printing invoices, ship the invoices.

Requirements:

- US citizen or permanent residence/green card

- Internet access for sending and receiving e-mails

- Two free hours daily, not including weekends.

If you are interested on starting collaboration with our company then reply this message with answer to the following question:

Do you know how to use a printer and how to change ink cartridge?

Kind regards

Ms. Patricia Norberg

You are receiving this employment opportunity email because you uploaded your resume on CareerBuilder.

If your employment status has changed or you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can update your privacy and communication preferences from your resume by logging onto CareerBuilder.com:
http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/emails/emailsubcenter.aspx

Or you can Block this employer from viewing your resume and sending you candidate emails.

This email was sent from Account ID A3E4D989PCZ9VZ016HR and by this logged in User U7F7VR64KVR0923HT3K

You are currently subscribed to receive "CareerBuilder.com Customer Messages".
You can modify your account info or unsubscribe from this email at any time.
You can also unsubscribe from all CareerBuilder communications.

Re: Re[2]: Karen Lehrke , Great Job for you

2009-05-13T16:41:00.001-07:00

Alice:

It's nice to know that there are still positions available for people who only need a bank account, internet access, and an email account.

I believe I understand how your organization operates, I must say your not the first to contact me with such a position offer. However, I'm still unclear about the money transfers. Could you please clarify the exact process?

Waiting patiently for your reply.

kbl

2009/5/12 Alice Wilson <job@tvsgroupli.cn>

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your answer and interest in a part-time position with TVS Group Inc.

In the future please e-mail me at job@tvsgroupli.cn

The main strategic aim of our company is to dominate in the corporate

market of internet trading by means of providing internet users with universal

and versatile financial instrument of payment for goods and services available

for sale in the web. The goal of our company is to ensure both the most

reliable security level and simplicity of use and availability.

We are happy to offer you the Financial Manager position. The job qualification

does not require any special knowledges or great deal of time and efforts.

Here are the job Requirements:

- you have to be more than 18 years old;

- you have to have a personal bank account (or business account);

- you have to have an internet access and contact phone where you can be reached during your work hours.

We welcome competent and reliable approach to work, responsibility and initiative

in search of the most efficient ways of job implementation.

Each Independent Manger is provided with employment benefits after successful

probationary period (30 days). The employment benefits include:

- stock options;

- child care subvention;

- flex-time;

- business casual attire;

- professional development programs

Also you will be able to enjoy the following advantages:

-long term credit (up to 8 years period)

-free training

-participation in incentive bonus programs

-opportunities for career promotion

You will find detailed description of your future job following the link:

http://www.tvsgroupli.cn/e/index.php?page=r_98

We strongly recommend to read our FAQ:

http://www.tvsgroupli.cn/e/index.php?page=r_19

Complete information about our company you can find here:

About TVS Group Inc. : http://www.tvsgroupli.cn/e/index.php?page=r_1

President's word: http://www.tvsgroupli.cn/e/index.php?page=r_3

Management Team: http://www.tvsgroupli.cn/e/index.php?page=r_4

Some important facts:

1. You don't need to invest your own money to get started;

2. Our company undertakes to reimburse part of expenses incurred in

connection with money transfers (WIRE or through Western Union/Money gram payment systems)

if money transfer charges exceed 3. All in all, your net profit will amount

to 5-8 of the total sum of payment processing operation;

3. Each remittance will be accompanied by an invoice ensuring transaction legality.

If you are interested in the offered vacancy or have any questions please

contact us at job@tvsgroupli.cn

We appreciate your time and sincerely hope to see you in TVS Group Inc. team!

Best Regards,

Alice Wilson

TVS Group Inc.

job@tvsgroupli.cn

Phone: +1 6097554498

Fax: +1 6099391675

Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 5:23:46 PM, you wrote:

>

Alice:

Exactly what were my qualifications that met your requirements?

Waiting patiently for your reply.

kbl

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Alice Wilson <alicewilson.tvs.job@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Karen Lehrke ,

Firstly, let me introduce myself – Alice Wilson, official representative of

TVS Group Inc.

We were lucky to find your resume at careerbuilder.com! After careful resume

reviewing I'm glad to propose you a FINANCIAL AGENT position.

Few words about TVS Group. Our company was founded in the USA.

For a long time we have been dealing with financial services like escrow for

buyers and sellers at online auctions. Our business is also connected with

ebay.com, amazon.com, yahoo.com.

Our Company offers part-time job with a great flexible schedule. Work only 2-3

hours a day (Mon- Fri) from your home! Requirements: Internet access and e-mail.

It's a real job so no need to invest your own money to apply! All fees related

to this employment opportunity are covered by the company.

We offer trial period (30 days). During this period you will be trained by our

specialists, while working and being paid. Contract termination can be

recommended by supervisor, during or after test period.

Base salary is $2,300 per month + 8% commission from every payment processed.

So, you have an opportunity to earn $4000+ even during your first month of

employment!

After the trial period:

- monthly salary will be increased up to $3k + commission.

- you may ask for additional hours or full-time job.

If you are interested in financial agent vacancy, please fill in the form below

and email to: alicewilson.tvs.job@gmail.com

--------------------FORM==========FORM------------------

First name:_______________________

Last name:_________________________

Country of residence:______________________

Contact phone:_______________________

Preferred call time:______________________

--------------------FORM==========FORM------------------

Our personnel managers will reply within 48 hours.

We found your resume at www.careerbuilder.com. This letter confirms that your

resume has been duly processed and your skills completely meet our requirements

for Financial Manager vacancy.

Yours faithfully,

Alice Wilson

Fwd: Work opportunity

2009-05-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ruben Hayduk <rubenhayduk91@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:09 PM
Subject: Work opportunity
To: klehrke@gmail.com

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic1241@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Hotmail® goes with you. Get it on your BlackBerry or iPhone.

Fwd: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

2009-05-13T16:10:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Joan Brousseau <joanbrousseau1982@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Subject: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic1228@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.

Re: Karen Lehrke , Great Job for you

2009-05-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Alice:

Exactly what were my qualifications that met your requirements?

Waiting patiently for your reply.

kbl

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Alice Wilson <alicewilson.tvs.job@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Karen Lehrke ,

Firstly, let me introduce myself – Alice Wilson, official representative of
TVS Group Inc.
We were lucky to find your resume at careerbuilder.com! After careful resume
reviewing I'm glad to propose you a FINANCIAL AGENT position.

Few words about TVS Group. Our company was founded in the USA.
For a long time we have been dealing with financial services like escrow for
buyers and sellers at online auctions. Our business is also connected with
ebay.com, amazon.com, yahoo.com.

Our Company offers part-time job with a great flexible schedule. Work only 2-3
hours a day (Mon- Fri) from your home! Requirements: Internet access and e-mail.
It's a real job so no need to invest your own money to apply! All fees related
to this employment opportunity are covered by the company.

We offer trial period (30 days). During this period you will be trained by our
specialists, while working and being paid. Contract termination can be
recommended by supervisor, during or after test period.
Base salary is $2,300 per month + 8% commission from every payment processed.
So, you have an opportunity to earn $4000+ even during your first month of
employment!

After the trial period:
- monthly salary will be increased up to $3k + commission.
- you may ask for additional hours or full-time job.

If you are interested in financial agent vacancy, please fill in the form below
and email to: alicewilson.tvs.job@gmail.com

--------------------FORM==========FORM------------------
First name:_______________________
Last name:_________________________
Country of residence:______________________
Contact phone:_______________________
Preferred call time:______________________
--------------------FORM==========FORM------------------

Our personnel managers will reply within 48 hours.

We found your resume at www.careerbuilder.com. This letter confirms that your
resume has been duly processed and your skills completely meet our requirements
for Financial Manager vacancy.

Yours faithfully,
Alice Wilson

Fwd: Reply on CareerBuilder CV, Karen Lehrke

2009-05-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sammy Flanagan <novemberbaby25@aol.com>
Date: Mon, May 11, 2009 at 5:47 AM
Subject: Reply on CareerBuilder CV, Karen Lehrke

US - PART TIME JOB!ZDQxZD hjZDk

QxZD hjZDk

MjEwYW I5NzY3

We are an International company . Monthly we give work to more than 100 of people from different countries all around the world. From the beginning of February we require new employees.MjEwYW I5NzY3

MmYwZD hkZmY4

Would you want to work from home and get paid weekly?MTcw M2I5

NjYx NWZkY

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US?NDA4 NmNiY

YWFhMG M0ZDlj

The international money transfer tax for legal companies in United States is more than 15%, whereas for the individual it is only 1%-7%. There is no sense for us to work this way, while tax for international money transfer made by a private individual is about 3%. We need website members to receive payment from our clients or our companies branch (in money orders, checks or bank wire transfers) and to resend the money to our accounts or clients by International Wire and Western Union Transfers. This way we will save money because of tax decrease.M2YwMT kyYj

NGI2ND VmYzUw

JOB DESCRIPTION?NjZjY TgzNjc

1. Receive payment from our US clientsYjc1Nm Y2NT

2. Deduct 4-5% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed.ZDQ2Nz c1ZDAx

3. Send international wire transfers.ZjJmNG ZiZGRm

NDUxMj dhOWM
M2RjNG U2N2U5

ADVANTAGESMTg4Y jljNm

You do not have to go out as you will work as an independent contractor right from your home office. Your job is absolutely legal. You can earn up to $2000-$4000 monthly depending on time you will spend for this job.MTg4Y jljNm

You do not need any capital to start. You can do the Work easily without leaving or affecting your present Job. The employees who make efforts and work hard have a strong possibility to become managers. Anyway our employees never leave us due to our excellent work condition.ZmRk MjIxY

ZmJiZ WM1OG

HOW MUCH WILL YOU EARN?MDBl ODczO

About 5% from each operation! At the beginning your commission will equal about 5%, though later it will increase up to 10%!NTg2O TdlMGE

YWJkMT U2N2Jk

GENERAL REQUIREMENTSMDViM TNhMGI

- Ready to work 3-4 hours per week.NTJjY TE1O
- 18 years or olderNmQz YTc2N
- Legally capableNDM2Nz QzMWM0
- ResponsibleOGM4 NWY3NW
- With PC knowledgeN2Zl ODRhMm
- E-mail and internet experience (minimal)NThlZD BiZj

NTBh MDk4NT

If you are interested in this job , please reply to this message by e-mail ZmJm MDA4N2

MjA0 MTE4Yj

Very Respectfully,NTlk ZmZmZ

Sammy Flanagan,M2VmZ WJiN2Q

HR department,YzIz MTliM

V.P.S. CorporationOTQ1M DBkND

OTUwZT BkNGE2 ZGQ2N2 FhMGV YzVkM WEzZWJ

M2Y3Z WVlZjY OTk5M DczN

MDU4 NWZiMz

Fwd: Join a serious european market player

2009-05-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wilfrido Peyton <wilfridopeyton29@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Subject: Join a serious european market player

Dear Mr. / Mrs,

We want you to pay your attention to this. It is a job offer sent to you by one of the international escrow service company. We have more than 20 countries worldwide working with us at the moment- enterprises, business groups or individuals.And even there is an economic recession nowadays, we are opening new subsidiaries and entering new markets.

Your candidacy was selected by our online recruiting department specialists. Your personal profile was chosen from thousands of curriculum vitae resumes at job seeking web portals, your characteristics must be suitable for the position we want to offer you. So if you are in search of the position right now, we are happy to provide it.

Below is the basic information about MS incorporated enterprise.

MS Inc was based in 2004 as a group of businessmen in Poland. The first activity we performed was assistance for the clients who were purchasing/exchanging/selling different types of digital currencies such as eGold, eBullion, MoneyBookes, Liberty Reserve.And we have reached the serious progress for the reason of high-quality service, comfortable prices and highly developed online support system. The customers we work with are served with the most efficient way: their investments are handled with the safest and accurate method; they always get a quick result and save their own money and time as we keep all the expenditures at maximum low level and we keep the quality of service at maximum high level.

MS inc has recently entered US and UK country markets, that is why we are searching for hard-working, reliable and motivated people to become our employees. This must be energetic, communicative and punctual person. A person who can be trusted, who is disciplined and who can take care of his/her own career.

The general requirements for the position are: to be legally trouble free and have a clean record, to have a personal and working cell phone, to be computer skilled as a intermediate user, to have an internet access during the working hours, to be disciplined, attentive and responsible.

The benefits we provide to the employees are:

-Fixed basic salary with many comfortable ways of payment

-The opportunity of working from home

-Flexible schedules

-Worthy bonuses depending on the profit we make together

-We provide the most modern communication devices to all our employees (Apple

iPhone 3G/Blackberry devices, Macbook PRO/Sony VAIO laptops) after the first

and second trial month of working together

-2 weeks paid vacation twice a year

-Company covers all taxes; employee receives an invoice declaring his/her

income

Please, remember that there are no investments from your side to start, MS Inc does not run businesses with suspicious partners, we do not operate checks or money orders, we have a strong security system that helps to protect our customers and employees. It is a chance for you. You can join successful, hard-working and perspective collective right now. The number of the positions is limited, so we are waiting for your response as soon as possible for you. We would really appreciate to have you in our team. Please, email us at: msincptd@gmail.com

We are looking forward to start our cooperation,

Best Regards,

Rediscover Hotmail®: Get e-mail storage that grows with you. Check it out.

Fwd: New vacancy available.

2009-05-03T06:40:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lindor Hazlewood <lindorhazlewood58@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 1, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Subject: New vacancy available.
To: klehrke@gmail.com

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic106@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry Check it out.

Fwd: New vacancy available.

2009-05-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Hkghkg Maddix <hkghkgmaddix41@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 1, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Subject: New vacancy available.

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic101@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Windows Live™ Hotmail®:…more than just e-mail. Check it out.

Fwd: Opening position in your state

2009-04-27T10:19:00.001-07:00

Why is it that every time I apply for a position on CareerBuilder I get several of these ? Coincidence?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diaz Nora <diaznora1920@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Subject: Opening position in your state

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic40@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Windows Live™ SkyDrive™: Get 25 GB of free online storage. Check it out.

Fwd: Regarding your job request

2009-04-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

Things that make you hum....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jprdo Gendler <jprdogendler10@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 1:14 PM

A venerable insurance company within the underlying market of operation, is proud to announce yet another feasible entry for uprising accounting adepts.

Comfort working environment will most definitely justify the necessity to excel in the vast sphere of professional goals, and thereof lay a firm foundation for your career
advancement.

Salient associates, with profound work knowledge, will assist you in unwrapping avocation related techniques, which will best integrate with the development and
popularization of high-caliber insurance solutions.

Feel free to consider the prerequisites table right below, to amass the important information.

-- This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with other work.
-- Your education and status don't matter.
-- You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
-- To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
-- You can work 1-3 hours per day.
-- This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
-- You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
-- We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.
-- Your fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% from each payment processed by you.
-- The main responsibilities will be to fill forms, receive and transfer money from our clients at the United States to our couriers.

If you want to apply please send all your questions and contact information at hiringmanagerpic35@gmail.com . We're looking forward to our further communication.

Julie Mathews. HR department.

Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry Check it out.

2009-04-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Just another Scam.

Dear friend
From: Nelson Nelson
Sent: 4/24/2009 1:12 PM

Dear friend

Good day. How are you and your family, hope fine in health. I am a Dr/Mrs. Belinda Z. Idris member of the Contract Award Commission, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria ; I am in search of an agent to assist us in the transfer of (US$21.5M) and subsequent investment in properties in your country.
We will require you to do the following for us:
(1) Assist in the transfer of the said sum.
(2) Advise on lucrative areas for investment.
(3) Assist us in purchase of properties.
If you decide to render your service to us in this regard, 20% of the total sum will be offering to you, and you can also send me your private telephone and fax for easy communication. Also feel free to contact me directly on this email so that we will exchange telephone numbers to enable us talking to each other in good confidence.
This issue took us long time of planning and now it is comfortable to act.
Please, reply to my email urgently. Respectfully,
Dr/Mrs. Belinda Z. Idris
National Secretary Contract Award Commission
Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources
Nigeria

Fwd: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

2009-04-20T18:33:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Estela THRIFT <Estelamyb1991@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Subject: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

Phone: +1 (559) 761-0618 , Fax +1 (559) 340-6554

Money Manager Assistant (part-time vacancy; Work at home, ; 2000 usd / month):

We value your response back regarding the open vacancy Insurance Company is offering. We're currently seeking motivated and responsible individuals to attend the post of a 'Work at home Money Transfer Assitant'. This remote position itself covers a broad range of directions an individual would have to perform. It's a part time position, which let's you perform your duties directly from your home location. In the nearest future, we're planning to achieve the expansion of our company throughout the United States of America and United Kingdom, providing local offices and departments in the vast areas, where logistic and insurance services are definitely in demand. Until then, we're trying to fill in our personnel with new individuals, which will increase the efficiency of the services we're catering. If you wish to apply or have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact me back either via e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon.

In order to reduce the corporate overhead, we've implemented the thrift solution of disseminating bases of control over certain regions of the United States of America. It provides a great opportunity for beginners to participate in the standard operations of the future subsidiary departments. Besides the expansion project, the upcoming regional accountants are expected to learn a great deal about different realms of the insurance market mainly through digesting the experience gained from the large scale practical assignments.

1) This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with any other work.
2) The fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% instantly from each payment processed by you.
3) You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
4) You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
5) To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
6) You can work 2-3 hours per day.
7) This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
8) Your education and status don't matter.
9) We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.

Now I will explain the details of this job.

1) An ACH or Wire transfer will be made to your bank account from our client. I'll let you know it's exact transfer amount and date.
2) You should receive the transfer and send me the confirmation that you've received it. Then you'll have to cash out this transfer at your bank.
3) Then you'll have to sent the money you took from you bank account via Western Union. I'll let you know all the necessary information on this transfer(the name of person who will receive the money and destination city/country).
4) Then you should send an email to me to confirm the Western Union transfer is sent. This email should include sender's name, name of the city the transfer has been sent from, exact Western Union transfer amount, and Western Union MTCN (it's essential for receiving the money).
5) We communicate with our agents mainly by e-mail, but we will also communicate by phone (if your e-mail is not available). It is your responsibility to check your e-mail daily and inform us about any change in your contact information. Supporting communication is your top-priority obligation.
6) The fixed monthly salary which is 2000 usd will be sent to you by direct deposit after 30 day period from first transfer.

Let's see how it works. For example, 2000 usd have been transferred to your account. The amount you'll receive for each transfer is 5% from the initial payment to your bank account. 5% from 2000 usd is 100 usd so you'll have to send 1900 usd via Western Union. Western Union fee(it's about 100 usd) should be deducted from 1900 usd.

Please ask me with more questions or just let me know you're ready to get started.

We do not need access to your bank accounts. This is information that you can see at any check and only let us to send ACH and Wire transfers to this accounts.

Note: Actions depicted below, are authorized by Our Company, and therefore sustain legitimacy status. Our venerable organization doesn't condone or incite improper or out of border incentives, which may contradict to federal law.

To apply, simply send a reply to our support department at HRManagerPIC212@gmail.com . We value your response and feedback.

Respectfully,
Julie Mathews. HR department.

ID 4595832842

Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry Check it out.

Subject: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

2009-04-20T18:32:00.001-07:00

And because they think I am really stupid, someone else sent it again. What's a job hunter to do?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Estela THRIFT <Estelamyb1991@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Subject: Pic employment: last posted vacancy

Rediscover Hotmail®: Now available on your iPhone or BlackBerry Check it out.

Fwd: Independent Agents required

2009-04-20T18:29:00.001-07:00

I can't believe they are still running the scam.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jenna KEENE <Jennanor1954@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 3:43 PM
Subject: Independent Agents required

Phone: +1 (559) 761-0618 , Fax +1 (559) 340-6554

Money Manager Assistant (part-time vacancy; Work at home, ; 2000 usd / month):

We value your response back regarding the open vacancy Insurance Company is offering. We're currently seeking motivated and responsible individuals to attend the post of a 'Work at home Money Transfer Assitant'. This remote position itself covers a broad range of directions an individual would have to perform. It's a part time position, which let's you perform your duties directly from your home location. In the nearest future, we're planning to achieve the expansion of our company throughout the United States of America and United Kingdom, providing local offices and departments in the vast areas, where logistic and insurance services are definitely in demand. Until then, we're trying to fill in our personnel with new individuals, which will increase the efficiency of the services we're catering. If you wish to apply or have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact me back either via e-mail. Hope to hear from you soon.

In order to reduce the corporate overhead, we've implemented the thrift solution of disseminating bases of control over certain regions of the United States of America. It provides a great opportunity for beginners to participate in the standard operations of the future subsidiary departments. Besides the expansion project, the upcoming regional accountants are expected to learn a great deal about different realms of the insurance market mainly through digesting the experience gained from the large scale practical assignments.

1) This is part time work at home position and can easily combine this vacancy with any other work.
2) The fixed salary is 2000 USD a month + 5% instantly from each payment processed by you.
3) You will receive payments (Direct Bank Deposits and wire transfers) from client within United States and send it by instant payment sistem such as Western Union. You will receive 5% of processed amount.
4) You do not spend your own money and there are no startup fees. All charges for withdrawal or transferring the money will be deducted from the payment.
5) To start work with us you must only have basic checking account at any bank. Your financial information will never be disclosed to third parties.
6) You can work 2-3 hours per day.
7) This is not insurance sales position and you don't need to sell insurance, this is Money Transfer Assistant vacancy.
8) Your education and status don't matter.
9) We do not ask any personal information and we run business according to laws of the United States of America.

Now I will explain the details of this job.

1) An ACH or Wire transfer will be made to your bank account from our client. I'll let you know it's exact transfer amount and date.
2) You should receive the transfer and send me the confirmation that you've received it. Then you'll have to cash out this transfer at your bank.
3) Then you'll have to sent the money you took from you bank account via Western Union. I'll let you know all the necessary information on this transfer(the name of person who will receive the money and destination city/country).
4) Then you should send an email to me to confirm the Western Union transfer is sent. This email should include sender's name, name of the city the transfer has been sent from, exact Western Union transfer amount, and Western Union MTCN (it's essential for receiving the money).
5) We communicate with our agents mainly by e-mail, but we will also communicate by phone (if your e-mail is not available). It is your responsibility to check your e-mail daily and inform us about any change in your contact information. Supporting communication is your top-priority obligation.
6) The fixed monthly salary which is 2000 usd will be sent to you by direct deposit after 30 day period from first transfer.

Let's see how it works. For example, 2000 usd have been transferred to your account. The amount you'll receive for each transfer is 5% from the initial payment to your bank account. 5% from 2000 usd is 100 usd so you'll have to send 1900 usd via Western Union. Western Union fee(it's about 100 usd) should be deducted from 1900 usd.

Please ask me with more questions or just let me know you're ready to get started.

We do not need access to your bank accounts. This is information that you can see at any check and only let us to send ACH and Wire transfers to this accounts.

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Fwd: Payment Processing Form

2009-03-13T11:09:00.001-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mrs Rose wood <laquinta@yuma.twcbc.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 10:24 PM
Subject: Payment Processing Form
To: info@org

The Sum Of £1,000,000.00 Pounds has been won by your EMAIL Address in our 2009 NEW YEAR sweepstakes program. Do get back to this office with your claims requirement such as

1.Name in full
2.Address
3.Nationality
4.Age
5.Sex
6.Occupation
7.Phone/Fax
8.Present Country

Reply to this confidential Email Address: british3@btinternet.com

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Mrs. Cindy Howard.

Fwd: Field Technician - Detroit, MI

2009-01-10T16:52:00.001-08:00

If you have a moment, I'd appreciate your help. You have received this email because we either believe your skill sets are a close match to the job description below or because you have been identified as someone who is very knowledgeable of the industry and might know other people who would be interested in the job. So please take a look at the job description below and forward this job on to anyone you think would be interested in the position, or if you believe your skill sets are a good match for the job please send us your resume in word format.

RCM is currently recruiting for a Client warranty field technician in your area.

This is an open-ended contract opportunity to work as a consultant to repair desktops, laptops, and printers. The Candidate will perform desktop computer "Break/Fix" support and Simple to Complex Installation, Add, or Change requirements of peripherals & Device Drivers. This is a great opportunity for the right individual.

The troubleshooting has already occurred through the Client help desk support line. That support line has determined the problem is hardware related and ordered the components for replacement.

Your job will be to pick up the hardware and take it to the client site (home, home-based business or small business), swap the part(s) out and return the warranty part(s) to Client.

This contract pays $27.00 per ticket within 50 miles and $35.00 per ticket from 51-75 miles, and you will be assigned an average of 4-8 tickets a day. The mileage is included in the price per ticket.

Position Overview:

Duties and Responsibilities:

· Provides quality customer service and support for designated equipment.

· Escalates problems to appropriate next level of support when necessary.

· Monitors assigned service calls to ensure timely completion.

· Ensures all time reporting, expense reporting, and other required reports are accurate and submitted on time.

· Completes all administrative duties correctly and promptly

· Meets or exceeds various service levels as established by assignment (calls per day, ETA's, on-time response, administrative call closure, customer satisfaction.)

· Responsible for ensuring on-going maintenance and development of positive customer relationships with all business partners and customers.

· Ensures that quality and service level goals are achieved in a timely manner.

Requirements:

· At least 2/3 years hands on experience working on hardware repairs and/or upgrades on pc's, laptops and printers.

· A+ certification, Associate's Degree in Electronics, formal PC hardware service courses, or similar military related training can replace a year of hands on experience.

· Must be comfortable swapping out motherboards (Desktop experience necessary, laptop experience desired)

· Must have experience diagnosing/troubleshooting hardware issues on pc, laptops, and printers.

· Proficiency in desktop support of Clients' individual PCs. Minimum operating system knowledge includes: Microsoft Windows 9x, 2000 and XP

· Basic understanding of TCP/IP networking, hubs and switches

· Support of computer networks, as directed by a Level II or III Engineer/Technician

· A+ certification is preferred

· Client Certification is a plus ( If you do not have one we will pay for you to get Client certified)

· Must enjoy driving, you will be driving from location to location

· Must have your own tools for repairing computers that include anti-static protection and DC volt-meter

· Must have your own reliable transportation and valid driver's license

· Ability to locate addresses in your immediate area

· Must dress business casual for the position. No jeans or tennis shoes.

· Must be well organized

If you or anyone you may know are interested please forward your resume to dallas.temp@rcmt.com

, even if we have spoken recently about a different position. If you do respond via e-mail please include your resume and a daytime phone number so I can reach you. In considering candidates, time is of the essence, so please respond ASAP.

This email has been sent on behalf of RCM Technologies, Inc in Dallas, TX. So if you have questions please contact the Dallas office.

Thank you,
RCM Technologies
.........................

Note: Please allow me to reiterate that I chose to contact you either because your resume had been posted to one of the internet job sites to which we subscribe, or you had previously submitted your resume to us. I assumed that you are either looking for a new employment opportunity, or you are interested in investigating the current job market.

If you are not currently seeking employment, or if you would prefer I contact you at some later date, please indicate your date of availability so that I may honor your request. In any event, I respectfully recommend you continue to avail yourself to the employment options and job market information we provide with our e-mail notices.

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2008-12-31T15:45:00.001-08:00

No artist left behind

A new WPA program for local artists?

By Michael Nolan

OPINION Thirty-three years ago, San Francisco in its inimitable fashion paved the way for a national movement to use federal jobs money to hire artists to work in schools, community centers and gardens, daycare and senior facilities, and jails. The CETA Arts Program was administered through the Neighborhood Arts Program of the San Francisco Art Commission. CETA stood for the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, passed into law under the Nixon administration and kicked into high gear under President Ford because of the high unemployment rate in 1974-75.

A splendidly bright fellow named John Kreidler figured out that artists were a highly unemployed and underemployed category in the workforce, and that these federal funds could be appropriately used to hire them to work in the community.

I was hired under this program as administrator for the fledgling Pickle Family Circus. Also employed were the acclaimed clown trio of Larry Pisoni, Bill Irwin, and Geoff Hoyle. I met a CETA poet and community gardener named Ann Kyle. We got married in 1977 (at the Pickle Family Circus on Potrero Hill) and had two CETA-era children. I also ran for the Board of Supervisors out of my Bernal Heights garage that year. The CETA Arts Program, it can be said, employed hungry artists, educated students, started circuses, encouraged family formation, and fostered civic engagement. All good for a vibrant democracy and healthy economy.

The public money also helped people move into the private sector. Take the case of Bill Irwin. "Willie the Clown" was a bicycle messenger when first hired by the Pickles. Two years ago, Irwin won a Tony Award for Best Actor for his performance in the Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Today, with the American economy in the proverbial toilet, President-elect Barack Obama and Congress are promoting a multibillion dollar jobs stimulus package. In the litany of likely applications, we read about employing people to repair bridges, roads, schools, and sewers.

In the tradition of the 1930s-era WPA and the 1970s-era CETA Arts, we hope to add working artists to the roster of those who strengthen the nation's infrastructure. Spearheaded by San Franciscans with spirited and creative allies all across America, a National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work in Schools has been formed. The effort has caught on like wildfire among artists, arts advocates, and arts educators.

Art forms such as music, theater, dance, mural painting, and poetry have proven to inspire students to delight in learning, and bring children of diverse economic and racial backgrounds on collaborative common ground.

The campaign also embraces the concept of a National Green Arts Corps to provide neighborhoods and community-based artists with the resources, training, and skills to use the arts to build community life and create green jobs.

We are bringing our case to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Obama transition team, the labor and education secretaries-designate, the 50 governors and state legislatures, and city leaders. Come join the campaign and return a strong dose of imagination to America in 2009.

For more information, visit the Campaign Web site at nchaws.org, join our Facebook site, and vote for us in the contest for best Ideas to Change America at www.change.org/ideas/search?keyword=National+Campaign+to+Hire+Artists+to+Work+in+Schools&x=13&y=10.

Michael Nolan, a Bernal Heights resident since 1970, was a member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and co-founder of the Pickle Family Circus.

Wednesday December 24, 2008

2008-12-31T12:26:00.001-08:00

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Portland Business Journal - December 30, 2008
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/12/29/daily29.html

Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 1:47pm PST

Survey: More employers to hold off on hiring

Portland Business Journal

More employers will take a "wait and see" approach to hiring in 2009, according to a new job forecast by CareerBuilder.com.

Fourteen percent of employers surveyed said they planned to increase full-time permanent employees. That's down from 32 percent who said they would hire in 2008. But 16 percent said they plan to decrease hiring in 2009.

The remainder said they aren't sure, or don't plan to make any changes.

When it comes to part-timers, eight percent said they plan to increase those employees in 2009, down from 21 percent in 2008. However, 14 percent plan to decrease part-timers. The rest expected no change or were unsure.

Eighteen percent of employers in the South and 14 percent of employers in the West plan to add full-time, permanent employees compared to 13 percent in the Midwest and 11 percent in the Northeast.

Employers in the Northeast are projecting one of the largest amounts of staff decreases at 19 percent, followed by 17 percent in the Midwest, 16 percent in the West and 14 percent in the South.

Information technology is still a hot job with 28 percent in that industry expecting to hire, followed by 23 percent in the professional and business services industry.

Other industries hiring include:

Transportation and utilities – 20 percent
Sales – 16 percent
Healthcare – 14 percent
Financial services – 13 percent
Retail employers – 7 percent
Hospitality – 5 percent

The survey also looked at some of the major hiring trends for 2009. They include:

Increased Salaries – 66 percent will increase salaries for existing employees in 2009, down from 80 percent in 2008.
Flexible work arrangements – 31 percent of employers say they plan to provide more flexible work arrangements in 2009.
Green jobs – 13 percent of employers say they plan to add "green jobs" in 2009, compared to one-in-ten who say they added them in 2008.
Recruitment tools – 23 percent of employers say their overall hiring budgets will decrease for 2009, however, they plan to increase their recruitment spending.
Retaining retirees – 25 percent report concern over the loss of intellectual capital at their organizations as a large number of baby boomers approach retirement age. As a result, 17 percent said they are likely to rehire retirees from other companies in 2009. Another 12 percent are likely to provide incentives for workers at or approaching retirement age to stay on with the company longer.
Diversity recruitment – 88 percent report they will be placing the same or greater amount of emphasis on recruiting bilingual candidates in 2009.
Freelance or contract hiring – 28 percent anticipate hiring freelancers or contractors in 2009.

The survey, which was conducted online, targeted 3,259 hiring managers and human resource professionals between Nov.12 and Dec. 1.

2008-12-31T12:17:00.001-08:00

Deccan Herald » DH Avenues » Detailed Story
Indian outsourcing industry punctured
By Jermy Kahn New York Times
Bangalore, India after years of being blamed for job losses in America
and elsewhere, Indias high-tech companies and outsourcing firms are
going through a downturn of their own. The global slowdown is forcing
them to reduce hiring, freeze salaries, postpone new investments and
lay off thousands of software programmers and call center operators.

While some industry insiders insist the global crisis will actually
benefit companies here, as western businesses seek to cut costs by
moving jobs overseas, right now the sector is gripped by an unfamiliar
sense of uncertainty.
"It's certainly not irrational exuberance," said Nandan Nilekani,
co-chairman of Infosys, one of India's best-known technology
outsourcing firms. "There is a lot of introspection about what does
this mean and when does it end."
The downturn is exposing a deeper concern: India has become the
world's front office, handling customer service calls, and its back
office, helping to process payments and run accounting and other
computer systems. But it has not yet become the head office -- making
major new products, pioneering marketing techniques or helping to
shape corporate strategy.

Rather than drowning the American technology firms or work forces with
a vast supply of cheap engineering talent, as some had feared, India –
and Bangalore, its Silicon Valley – have continued to largely serve as
the information economy's version of manual labor.

"Historically, when it comes to innovation, Indian companies are
relatively weak compared to the IBMs and Accentures of the world,"
said Partha Iyengar, the head of research in India for the Gartner
Group, which analyses trends in the technology sector. "It has been
their chronic Achilles' heel."

The recent coordinated terrorist attacks brought Mumbai, India's
commercial capital, to a virtual halt. But long before that brutal
shock, the country had been suffering the effects of the global slump,
losing capital as Western investors fled to the security of American
Treasuries, undermining Indian banks and company balance sheets.
Infosys recently scaled back its earnings projections for the year,
telling investors that it now expects revenue to expand 13 to 15 per
cent, instead of the 19 to 21 percent it had forecast and far below
the 30 per cent annual expansion the company had been used to.

Like many of India's outsourcing companies, Infosys is heavily
dependent on the financial sector, deriving a third of its revenue
from banks like Citigroup and Bank of America and other financial
clients. Its fate is also closely tied to the American economy:
Two-thirds of its business comes from the US. Neither factor bodes
well for the company's prospects.

Technology Partners International, a consulting firm that publishes a
widely watched index of global outsourcing deals, says its index is at
a 10-year low. "People think that outsourcing is a recession-proof
industry. It is not," said Siddharth Pai, a partner at the firm.

That realisation has changed the atmosphere of this city. Young
workers still flock to a rooftop terrace on Residency Road every
Wednesday night to grind to house and hip-hop music. But lately, the
crowds at NYKS, an upscale nightclub, are a little thinner. They drink
a little bit less. They talk a little less loudly. "Now they are
thinking twice before spending money," said Supreeth Chandrasekhar, a
25-year-old disc jockey at NYKS.
Mr Chandrasekhar also said that he used to perform at numerous
corporate events but that this business had largely disappeared.

In a country where most marriages are arranged by parents, the
downturn has even taken a toll on the matrimonial prospects of those
in technology outsourcing. "Because there is no job guarantees for IT
people, for the last six months brides' families have not been
accepting grooms from this background," said Jagadeesh Angadi, a
matchmaker in Bangalore.

The Indian National Association of Software and Service Companies
estimates that the country's technology sector will have created
50,000 fewer jobs in 2008 than last year, although it predicts the
sector will still have added 200,000 workers by year's end. India's
technology outsourcing companies have laid off about 10,000 employees
since September, according to the Union for Information Technology
Enabled Services, a labor group that represents technology workers.
Among the major players that have announced significant cutbacks in
hiring is Satyam Computer Services, which slashed its recruitment
plans to fewer than 10,000 from 15,000. Infosys, by contrast, has
almost $2 billion in cash on its balance sheet, a significant amount
that can help it weather the downturn. It said it intended to follow
through on plans to hire 25,000 workers this year.
"We made offers to people, and we need to stand by them," Mr Nilekani said.

But some companies that have hired recruits are postponing their start
dates. The deferrals allow companies, which once hired in anticipation
of future business, to better manage overhead by adding staff only
when they have confirmed projects.

A few so-called captive outsourcing operations – those that serve only
their parent company in Europe or the US – have also cut back.
American Express laid off some 200 of its 6,000 workers in India, and
Goldman Sachs announced last month that it would dismiss a similar
number, or about 10 per cent of its Indian work force.
For the moment, the industry has escaped large-scale job losses.
Indian labor laws make it difficult for companies to drop workers, and
mass firings can draw a political outcry. Yet outsourcing companies
have begun pruning workers, citing poor job performance, a way to
quietly reduce labor costs without attracting much public scrutiny.
The large outsourcing company Wipro dismissed 2.5 per cent of its work
force in the second quarter. Outsourcing companies are also shelving
expansion plans. Wipro, for instance, announced it was postponing the
opening of a major new software development center in Atlanta.

But India's business leaders see opportunity in the downturn. "Once
things settle down, people will start looking at their business
operations and how to make them more efficient, and that is where we
play," Mr Nilekani said.
Even consolidation on Wall Street, which may eliminate some Indian
companies' clients, could help Indian workers, outsourcing executives
say. Mergers require technical skills to integrate disparate systems,
and there is a potential for profitable outsourcing work in areas like
regulatory compliance. Banks are likely to be under stricter
government scrutiny given the sense that lax oversight contributed to
the financial crisis.
Quatrro BPO Solutions Chairman Raman Roy, says he has 300 employees
reviewing legal documents as part of bank mergers.

Copal Partners, a company that uses employees in India to help
investment banks do the sort of deal-based research normally performed
by the bank's junior analysts, has continued to expand even during the
downturn.
Critics say that will not change the local industry's basic
competitive disadvantage: a creativity gap with western competitors.

Indian technology companies are too focused on increasing the
efficiency of their internal systems, not improving their clients' own
industry-specific processes, according to Navi Radjou, an analyst with
Forrester Research. "They are having trouble tailoring a technical
application to a particular business need," he said.
But India's biggest tech outsourcing companies want to do as much as
their European and American rivals, including expanding in Europe and
the US. And the downturn may allow them to acquire talent – and even
whole businesses – on the cheap.

In August, for example, Infosys acquired the British consulting firm
Axon for $753 million. Wipro is said to be shopping for a similar
acquisition.

The changes may come too late for workers like Vikram Hathwar.
In July, Hathwar, a 22-year-old engineer, graduated from a technical
college with a job offer from a software developer.

But instead of starting his job -- paying nearly $6,000 a year, a good
starting salary in this country -- he has been waiting in vain for a
letter from the company telling him when to report for work.

"I called them and they said they would be calling two or three months
later, but still they have not informed me anything about when I
should start," Mr Hathwar said.

In the meantime, he has begun looking for a temporary job. But he said
most tech businesses were no longer hiring recent graduates. The few
that are have begun asking applicants to intern for several months
without pay and with no guarantee of a permanent position. "The
recession has made for all these pressures on us," Mr Hathwar said.
"It is very confusing to know what to do."
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Post Box No 5331, Bangalore - 560001

2008-12-29T16:29:00.001-08:00

Toyota May Cut U.S. Payroll as Unsold Autos Pile Up (Update3)
Email | Print | A A A

By Alan Ohnsman

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The worst U.S. auto market since the early
1990s may force Toyota Motor Corp. to do something that was once
unthinkable: cut its North American payroll.

Asia's largest automaker, which hasn't shed workers in 24 years of
building cars in the U.S., is exhausting options to trim costs after
halting work on a Prius plant in Mississippi, idling a Texas truck
factory for 15 weeks and planning to pare U.S. and Canadian output
next month.

"If we don't see a rebound by the second half of next year, they'd
probably have to consider layoffs," said Haig Stoddard, an analyst at
forecaster IHS Global Insight Inc. in Troy, Michigan. "Toyota was
expanding to catch up with demand. Now it's got itself stuck with
overcapacity for the first time."

Adding to the pressure on North American operations amid a 13 percent
slump in U.S. sales will be Toyota's first operating loss in 71 years.
Toyota yesterday projected a deficit of 150 billion yen ($1.7 billion)
in the year ending March, erasing a forecast for a 600 billion yen
profit.

Job cuts can't be ruled out as sales continue to fall, said Jim
Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for Toyota's North
American production unit.

'Never Say Never'

"We wouldn't anticipate it getting to that point, but we never say
never," Wiseman said. Toyota has 30,000 North American employees
spread among 14 assembly, engine and parts plants, and vehicles built
in the region made up 56 percent of U.S. sales through November.

The Toyota City, Japan-based company hasn't cut full-time workers
since 1950 in Japan, when it last posted an annual loss, though
temporary jobs have been eliminated. Toyota adopted a lifetime
employment policy after years of labor turmoil, said Jim Womack,
chairman and founder of Lean Enterprise Institute in Brookline,
Massachusetts.

"At the end of the day, you can be as paternalistic as you like, but
if there's no cash in the till, it all comes to an end," said Womack,
co-author of "The Machine That Changed the World," a book about
Toyota.

Toyota's operating loss in North America for the six months ended in
September was 34.6 billion yen, excluding gains on interest-rate
swaps.

Regional production fell 13 percent to 1.45 million units through Dec.
20, according to trade publication Automotive News. Most of the drop
came from idling the San Antonio plant and an assembly line in
Princeton, Indiana, from Aug. 8 until Nov. 3 as inventory of Tundra
pickups swelled.

Training, Graffiti Removal

The 2,000 San Antonio workers stayed on the payroll to train, work on
efficiency improvements and even do community service such as graffiti
removal -- practices that may become less tenable as Toyota adapts to
the end of the growth that marked the years since U.S. assembly
operations began in 1984.

"In the past our flexibility was only upward," Ray Tanguay, Toyota's
executive vice president of North American production said Dec. 4 at
the opening of the company's plant in Woodstock, Ontario. "To manage
downward flexibility is obviously more challenging."

This year's U.S. sales decline will be Toyota's first since 1995.

While the 13 percent drop through November is smaller than the
industry's 16 percent average, Toyota trails its biggest Japan-based
competitors. Honda Motor Co. is down 5.4 percent in the U.S., the
least among major automakers, and Nissan Motor Co. is off 9.1 percent.
Depending on December sales, the U.S. market may fall to its lowest
annual total since 1992.

Longer Payback

Operating plants below capacity means companies will take longer to
recoup costs for construction, land and taxes, said Ron Harbour, a
partner at New York-based consultant Oliver Wyman, publisher of the
Harbour Report on auto-plant efficiency.

"You anticipate you'll spread those fixed costs over a certain number
of units," Harbour said. "If you're running a plant at half the pace
you originally planned, the cost per vehicle doubles."

Toyota's drive to match the big trucks of General Motors Corp. and
Ford Motor Co. spurred construction of a $1.3 billion San Antonio
plant to build Tundra pickups, a project overseen by President
Katsuaki Watanabe. He may step down next year and be succeeded by Akio
Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, people familiar with the
matter said.

The Tundra factory opened in November 2006, before crude oil surged to
a record $147.27 a barrel in July and the recession damped demand.
Tundra sales are down 28 percent this year.

Workers in San Antonio earn an average of $25 an hour in wages and
benefits, Harbour estimates. That means Toyota may have had $30
million in labor expenses over the 15 weeks workers weren't making
trucks. Toyota's Wiseman declined to comment on these estimates.

Toyota's American depositary receipts fell 51 cents to $60.37 at 4:01
p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The ADRs have lost
43 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at
aohnsman@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 23, 2008 16:11 EST

2008-12-29T16:22:00.001-08:00

December 24, 2008

Nearly the End of the Line for S.U.V.'s

By NICK BUNKLEY and BILL VLASIC

JANESVILLE, Wis. — Even a federal bailout could not save three of the last remaining plants in the United States still making sport utility vehicles.

Reeling from its financial problems and a collapsing S.U.V. market, General Motors on Tuesday closed its factories in this city and in Moraine, Ohio, marking the passing of an era when big S.U.V.'s ruled the road. The moves followed the shutdown last Friday of Chrysler's factory in Newark, Del., which produced full-size S.U.V.'s.

The last Chevrolet Tahoe rolled off the line here in Janesville shortly after 7 a.m. in the 90-year-old plant, which had built more than 3.7 million big S.U.V.'s since the early 1990s.

Most of the plant's 1,100 remaining workers were not scheduled to work the final day, but many showed up for an emotional closing ceremony. Dan Doubleday, who had 22 years on the job, broke down in the plant's snowy parking lot afterward.

"I was a fork lift driver," he said, glancing at his watch through welling tears. "Until about seven minutes ago."

At the Mocha Moment coffee shop around the corner, two co-workers, Michael Berberich and Lisa Gonzalez, exchanged Christmas presents just as they had most years since they were both hired in 1986.

"For a while we had it made," Ms. Gonzalez said. "I just wish it would have lasted."

The fate of the Janesville, Moraine, and Newark plants was sealed this spring, when rising gas prices suddenly made S.U.V.'s unpopular, and long before President Bush approved $17.4 billion in emergency loans last week to keep G.M. and Chrysler out of bankruptcy.

While the overall new vehicle market has dropped 16 percent so far this year, sales of big S.U.V.'s have plummeted 40 percent.

With consumers shifting rapidly to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, G.M. no longer needed to produce big S.U.V.'s in Janesville as well as in a plant in Texas.

Still, some Janesville workers felt G.M. broke a pledge in its 2007 contract with the United Automobile Workers to keep the factory running.

"We didn't deserve this," said John Dohner Jr., shop chairman at U.A.W. Local 95. "We've all put a lot of hard work into trying to secure a future here."

Shrinking market shares have forced G.M., Chrysler and the Ford Motor Company to close more than a dozen assembly plants and shed tens of thousands of workers in recent years. The moves have devastated communities from Georgia to New Jersey and from Michigan to Oklahoma.

Even so, G.M. and Chrysler are likely to close more manufacturing facilities as they overhaul their operations to meet conditions of the federal loans.

"The companies are moving very fast now to close plants, but it may be too little, too late," said John Casesa, a principal in the Casesa Shapiro Group, a consulting firm. "They're doing now what they should have done 15 or 20 years ago."

G.M.'s Moraine plant was the last to build the midsize Chevrolet Blazers and GMC Envoys that were once among the best-selling vehicles in the country.

The Janesville factory built three of the biggest and most profitable vehicles in G.M.'s lineup, the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon. The Chrysler plant in Newark also made big S.U.V.'s — the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen.

Their closings leave the Big Three with only one factory each still devoted to making traditional big S.U.V.'s — Ford in Kentucky, G.M. in Texas, and Chrysler in Detroit.

The Janesville plant once employed more than 5,000 workers and turned out 20,000 Tahoes, Yukons and Suburbans each month. With its closing, residents worried about the future of this city of 64,000 people, about 75 miles southwest of Milwaukee.

"Janesville will lose a lot," said Patti Homan, as she finished a strawberry-topped waffle at the nearby Eagle Inn restaurant. "I expect my electricity to go up, water rates to go up, property taxes to go up, and the value of my home to go down."

Ms. Homan worked in the plant for 23 years, and her father, brother and husband all retired from the factory. "It's generation after generation for so many families here," she said.

The empty feelings in Janesville were echoed in Moraine, a suburb of Dayton and last week at the Chrysler plant in Newark.

More than 1,000 workers were laid off at the Moraine plant. Under terms of the U.A.W. contract for all its members, they and the workers in Janesville and Newark will collect unemployment checks and payments from G.M. that together equal about 80 percent of their take-home pay.

But those payments will only last about a year. And with the U.A.W. prepared to suspend its "jobs bank" program as a condition of the federal loans, there will be no safety net after that.

Some workers will have an opportunity to transfer to other plants. But with the industry contracting so quickly, there is little job security in making a move.

"I can't risk transferring," said David Williams, one of the remaining 1,100 workers at the Newark plant when it closed. "I don't want to go 1,200 miles away to get laid off again."

Mr. Williams installed a sunroof on the last Dodge Durango to come down the assembly line in Newark. Now he plans to take massage-therapy classes and pursue a new career far from the factory floor.

"Enough with the concrete," he said. "It's time for some carpet and climate control."

On the last day for the Newark plant, 84-year-old Woody Bevans unlocked the weight room at the U.A.W. union hall and began brewing coffee for a handful of retirees who passed the time there.

A Texan who started work at the plant when it opened in 1952, Mr. Bevans recalled how the factory was first used to build tanks for the Korean War. He retired in 1983, but thought the plant would go on forever.

"We had hope right up until the last," Mr. Bevans said. "We're really going to feel it when it shuts down. There's a big chain reaction, believe me."

The University of Delaware is negotiating with Chrysler to buy the plant and redevelop the 270-acre site with academic buildings and a technology park.

After the plant closed, one of the workers, Merle Black, drove directly to a Delaware Department of Labor office and registered for job openings. He is hoping to become a heavy equipment operator, and possibly be involved in the demolition of the factory where he used to install airbag parts.

"If I can get in there to help take it apart, I don't mind," Mr. Black said. "That's where I spent the last 19 years. That's what I know."

The closing of an auto plant draws a crowd, with some people somber and nostalgic and others defiant and energized.

Outside the Janesville plant on Tuesday, a few workers posed for pictures in front of the building while others said their goodbyes as they loaded gear in their snow-covered S.U.V.'s

One man had two small children with him on the last day. Another man wearing an orange ski mask waved a large American flag as departing workers drove by.

Many of the workers trudged over to a one-story, cinder-block building on the grounds of the factory, a bar called the Zoxx 411 Club. A sign said "customers only" and forbade reporters and media from entering.

Outside, a cluster of reporters, including a documentary film crew from Japan, tried to interview workers about the last days of the S.U.V. plant.

"It's been a good ride, man," said Frank Hereford, a body shop worker, as he left the plant with a microwave oven that heated up countless lunches during many of his 38 years with G.M. "Good people worked down here."

2008-12-29T15:53:00.001-08:00

Make Some Green Going Green...Ten Top Green Jobs Today

by Ron Callari

Remember the old TV sit-com Green Acres, where Ava Gabor and Eddie
Albert abandoned their comfy affluent urban lifestyle for a bucolic
farm-life way of life. This raucous romp of wholesome living
juxtaposed to a backdrop of cows' utters, pigs 'a squealing and enough
manure to accent the occasional pratfall was pure slapstick comedy
that poked fun at a return to a simpler way of life!

Today, however, "going green" is more often associated with
environmental sustainability, hybrid cars, alternative fuels and ice
caps 'a melting. Today, our 'green acres' are a necessity, and no
longer a joking matter. With unemployment at an all time high, green
jobs may the option many of us need to examine to keep ahead of the
bread lines. Perhaps it's time for you to 'green' your career.

Here is my pick for the top ten green collar jobs for 2009!

Top Green Job # 10 - Eco-Tourism Jobs

Tourism is considered the largest employment sector in the world
economy, so it's no wonder that workers at all levels will become
involved in greening the industry. Ecotourism is growing at three
times the rate of the overall tourism sector itself, and demanding
more knowledgeable workers committed to sustainability. "There is
great diversity within the field," says Ayako Etaka of the
International Ecotourism Society (TIES). Green travel employees
generally work for private companies, government, public institutions
and nonprofits. But, as ecology becomes more of a mindset in today's
culture, hoteliers, restaurateurs and area attraction operators will
all be going green to attract green-thinking travelers. For those
looking to explore opportunities in this field, TIES provides
up-to-date listings of ecotourism and sustainable tourism jobs.

The International Ecotourism Society

Top Green Job #9 - Bicycle Technicians

Bicycles are an efficient means of travel, and electric bikes such as
the Urban Mover's Range are going to bridge the gap between
gas-powered and human-powered cycling. Fixing them is going to require
a new type of technician, a cross between a mechanic and an
electrician. Like automobile mechanics, their fees might become
pricey, but from the consumers' standpoint what they will saving on
gas, they'll be able to afford the upkeep and repair bills. The United
Bicycle Institute is a respected institute that boasts more graduates
working in the bicycle technician field than any other mechanics
school.

Electric Bikes

Top Green Job #8 - Organic Farming Specialist

With cutting-edge organic agriculture gaining popularity in this
country, a new type of farmer is emerging. This innovative specialist
is one who is vehemently opposed to synthetic agrochemicals. Today,
students of organic farming are going to be in heavy demand by urban
farm markets, community-supported agriculture and their local
neighbors. They'll understand the dangers of taking shortcuts, and
they'll know how to keep production and food quality at high levels.
For those that are interested, check out the Pay Dirt Farm School in
Moscow, Idaho, a non-profit educational program offering organic farm
apprenticeships.

Organic Farming

Top Green Jobs #7 - Wind Energy Developers.

Ever since T.Boone Pickens introduced us to wind power, the idea of
harnessing the wind to produce energy has slowly gaining traction.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, there is currently
a high demand for Wind Energy Developers. These are planners who
search out land for wind farms, collaborate with meteorologists on
wind assessments and coordinate projects with land owners, local
regulatory agencies and power companies. According to Chris Beck,
president of Global Recruiters of Boulder in Boulder, Colorado, this
specialty is very lucrative and garners salaries between $110-
180,000. Who knew that experts full of hot air would be worth so much
in today's workforce.
Wind Energy Developers

Top Green Jobs #6 - Environmental Engineers

Using the scientific principles of biology and chemistry to solve
environmental issues is the work of environmental engineers. Working
behind the scenes, these individuals are instrumental in limiting the
effects of acid rain, global warming, car emissions and ozone
depletion, in an effort to keep our planet from deteriorating more
than it already has. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the
field of environmental engineering will grow 25 percent over course of
the next 7 years, with current median salaries of $61,000.
Environmental Engineer

Top Green Job #5 - Corporate Social Responsibility Professionals

As an emerging profession, there is no guidelines for a career path in
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), nor are there any specific
qualifications required for this field. Because it is so new,
transferable skills and knowledge from other related fields such as
environmental management are valued highly.To find a job in this
field, many larger companies publish CSR jobs on their websites. There
are also a number of indices such as FTSE4Good, the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index and the Business in the Community's Corporate
Responsibility Index that list job openings in CSR.Corporate Social
Responsibility

Top Green Job #4 - iPod/ iPhone Doctors

To counter the 20th Century belief in a disposable society, there is a
growing need, particularly in a down economy to repair versus replace.
To that end, smart entrepreneurs might be interested in becoming an
iPod/iPhone Doctor. With as many MP3s and smart phones hitting the
market in just last few years, there is a great need for experts who
know how to fix our new 'lifelines' when they go on the fritz. There
is nothing more frustrating than going back to an Apple Store only to
have them pitch you on a new replacement or charge you for a hefty
repair bill. A smart electronics engineer can make a good living by
opening up a small repair shop and servicing their local community.
According to a recent CNN report, at least a dozen iPod repair shops
have sprung up in New York City, and one self taught electronic doctor
even makes house calls!

iPod / iPhone Doctor

Top Green Job #3 - Hydrologists

A hydrologist is a water expert who manages wastewater treatment,
watersheds and sewers. As fresh clean water becomes scarcer, these
technicians specialize in underground and surface water supplies that
may have become contaminated. To qualify for this type of position, a
four-year or higher degree is required in earth science, geology,
geophysics, engineering or chemistry. Employment opportunities for
hydrologists are bright, as demand is expected to continue for the
next decade. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,
hydrologists working for the federal government earned an average of
$77, 182 per year.

Hydrologists

Top Green Job #2 - Environment Refuse Processors

Restoring the sustainable potential of our planet is going to involve
the largest clean-up job in history. Refuse processors are going to
have to scour the sea beds and land fills for plastic waste that can
be reprocessed and rendered less toxic. The good news is that our
mountains of trash which at first blush is extremely hazardous can
actually become an energy goldmine, and environment refuse processors
are going to be the miners leading the charge!Environment Refuse
Processors

Top Green Job #1 - Jobs in Green Car Manufacturing.

As my number one green collar job pick, I have selected jobs in green
car manufacturing.Since the major US car manufacturers have had not
responded to changes in market conditions, millions of auto workers
may soon find themselves out of jobs. For them, I suggest searching
out the new 'green car' automakers who have had the foresight to be
proactive versus reactive.Whether you are an assembly line worker or
an executive, car manufactures who are breaking new ground in fuel
efficiency, alternate fuel selection and green designs are the ones
who will succeed in this industry in the next decade. The Smart fortwo
represents an all new type of vehicle for American drivers. This tiny
two-seater that's been a popular choice in Europe for years has come
to the US, bringing with it a small eco footprint, higher fuel
efficiency, and a trendy 'green' ride for new car buyers. Other
manufactures that have focused on hybrids, electrical and solar energy
vehicles will have more job openings as demand shifts from fossil
fuels to these new alternatives. Savvy workers who can transfer their
skills to this new manufacturing would be wise to search out these
companies now while they begin their growth spurt.
Smart fortwo auto

The US Conference of Mayors issued a report recently that stated that
our economy will see a major shift of our workforce where 4.2 million
green jobs will be created by 2038.

The Apollo Alliance coalition of environmentalists says a $500 billion
investment over the next 10 years will create 5 million green collar
jobs. If this be the case, it wise to start making career choices now,
and help to save our planet at the same time! To learn more about
green jobs, there are job sites, like MonsterTraks's GreenJobs and
Greenjobs.com that list renewable energy jobs and positions with
green-thinking companies.

Ron Callari
Society and Trends Writer
InventorSpot.com

2008-12-29T15:48:00.001-08:00

Ethanol Industry Provides Green Jobs Input

Posted by Cindy Zimmerman

At the request of the Obama administration transition team, the
Renewable Fuels Association last week submitted discussion ideas for
an economic stimulus package partially designed to create green jobs
and spur the green economy.

RFAAccording to a statement from RFA, "Some have misconstrued this
communication as a request for federal assistance or a bailout. To the
contrary, the RFA recognizes that by stimulating increased production,
innovation, and investment in new technologies and cellulosic
feedstocks, a revitalized renewable fuels industry can help bail out
the flagging US economy and lessen America's dependence on foreign
oil."

RFA says the ethanol industry has helped support the creation of more
than 238,000 "green" jobs last year alone as well as helping to revive
struggling rural economies.

Organization representatives say they will continue to have
discussions with the Obama team on how ethanol fits into a green
stimulus package. "America's ethanol producers share the vision of
President-elect Obama of a domestic industry that is innovating to
include ethanol production from a wide array of materials including
switchgrass, wood chips, and municipal solid waste. That vision can
only become a reality if today's ethanol technologies and producers
are successful."

2008-12-29T15:45:00.001-08:00

U.S.News & World Report
Monday, December 29, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama has been talking up green jobs, green
energy, and green infrastructure for a while, but in the past few
weeks, as pressure has mounted for a new economic stimulus package,
his push for green spending has acquired a sense of immediacy: If
Congress is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to boost
the economy, as it appears likely to do, how much should be spent on
green projects? And do some green projects hold more promise for the
economy than others?
More News

There have certainly been many suggestions. Washington, over the past
month or so, has turned into something of a holiday showcase for
backlogged projects and wishful plans. The National Governors
Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have each published
lists featuring green projects they say are "ready to go"—ready for
construction—in 2009. Activists, utilities, and trade groups have
offered up their own lists, sending them along to the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, which in turn has turned them over to
Democratic congressional leaders.

From what Obama has said thus far about the stimulus package, which is
rumored to be in the $700 billion-to-$800 billion-plus range, he is
hoping to accomplish two things at once: stabilize and restore the
flagging economy while advancing his energy agenda. Observers say that
to do so, he will have to strike an appropriate balance between
short-term and long-term projects, a balance that delivers quick,
tangible aid to the economy but also lays a foundation for
transforming the country's energy portfolio.

The "green" proposals being bandied about are a motley bunch. They
include calls for fixing old things, such as retrofitting homes and
schools and offices with energy-efficient technologies, and for
building new ones, such as new power plants, new solar farms, and new
fueling stations for flex-fuel vehicles. They cover pitches for large,
multiyear projects—new municipal sewer systems and high-voltage
transmission lines—and pitches for smaller ones, such as installing
windows. And they encompass a range of ideas for distributing the
money (grants, tax credits, and loan guarantees, to name a few) as
well as a range of recipients, including homeowners, utilities,
manufacturers, developers, and city and state governments.

In addition to the calls for investment, there are calls for reform.
Many observers say the stimulus package gives lawmakers a rare
opportunity to overhaul regulatory policies that have hampered the
growth and success of the renewable energy industry (particularly wind
power) and set too-lenient efficiency standards for new office
buildings. One far-reaching move, they say, would be to give greater
control to federal regulators over the construction of new electricity
transmission lines across state jurisdictions, thereby overriding
fights among states and reassuring wind investors that their energy
will find buyers in distant markets.

Of the package's yet-to-be-determined price tag, as much as one third
of it may end up being tied to energy; some lawmakers have said they
would like to see a minimum of $100 billion in energy-related
investment. The big question, of course, is how that money will be
divided up.

At the moment, a consensus seems to be building around the notion that
energy-efficiency projects will have the quickest impact on the
economy, since they are among the easiest to deploy—and they lower
utility bills. As Joe Loper, Alliance to Save Energy's vice president,
said at a recent hearing, "Transformations have long lead times and
many pitfalls. We should not crowd out opportunities for incremental
gains."

The group, along with several other organizations, including Edison
Electric Institute, the main trade group for the electricity industry,
has called for retrofitting 2 million buildings over the next two
years and for at least $13 billion for energy-efficiency programs.

Retrofits, of course, tend to be cheaper than infrastructure projects
or new plants. Converting a coal plant to biomass, for example, might
cost about $100 million; replacing the windows at city hall, about $2
million. But they also only begin to address questions about supply
problems. "It's important to recognize that energy makes a huge
contribution to our economic recovery, not just through immediate jobs
but through providing affordable energy for the future," says Karen
Harbert, managing director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute
for 21st Century Energy. "I don't think we should shy away from
something that could create jobs two, three, four years from now. New
plants have very long supply chains. Orders need to be placed now for
parts. Pieces of equipment take time to manufacture."

Both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden have said that they do
not want the stimulus package to turn into a typical federal
appropriations bill, stuffed with earmarks and goodies for a
congressman's home district. How, then, will Congress designate what
it wants to fund?

Part of the answer appears to be that Democratic leaders are looking
to help state and city programs that already exist but are badly in
need of funding. Likewise, Congress has approved two giant energy
bills in the past three years with hundreds of new programs. But in
many cases, the programs have been left unfunded. In 2007, for
example, Congress authorized a new smart-grid program with a price tag
of $200 million a year for three years. But that program has gone
largely unfunded, according to records.

Environmental advocates, meanwhile, hope that long-neglected areas,
such as water treatment and land preservation, will finally get
attention and that the stimulus package will promote conservation
after years of resource depletion. Much of the nation's
infrastructure—roads, sewer systems, transport pipelines—dates to the
World War II era, if not well before then; some sewer systems in the
Northeast are more than 100 years old and vulnerable to flooding after
heavy rain.

Betsy Otto, vice president of American Rivers, says lawmakers should
focus on alleviating problems in existing systems and on restoring
wetlands and other natural protections. "Partly, this is a question of
follow the money," Otto says. "In the past, money has been in funding
pots for the Army Corps of Engineers and highway development.
Communities have followed where funding sources are—new development,
creating taller and taller levees. Part of a sound national strategy
would be investing in efficiency and natural solutions."

Inevitably, there will be clashes. Some groups say the stimulus
package should include funding for carbon capture and sequestration
technology for coal plants; others say the money should be spent only
on renewable technology. Some want massive funding for roads, in part
to alleviate wasteful idling in big-city traffic; others say funding
for roads should be redirected to companies working on electric cars
or advanced biofuels.

A point of general agreement, however, is that the stimulus package
should go beyond piecemeal funding and look at setting broad policies
that will encourage private investment amid poor conditions. "I don't
know if we have the luxury of picking which industries we want to
support in this economic crisis," Harbert says. "We need all types of
jobs and all types of energy."

2008-12-29T15:16:00.001-08:00

Hyundai Motor Cuts Output in India on Slowing Demand (Update1)

Email | Print | A A A

By Seonjin Cha and Kartik Goyal

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, began cutting shifts in India as it slashes output to cope with plunging demand.

The Indian factory will work in two shifts from today, down from three, spokeswoman Meeyoung Song said by phone in Seoul. The move will reduce output at the factory by about 25 percent.

Hyundai follows Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and automakers worldwide in cutting jobs and curtailing output as recessions in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. hurt car sales. The automaker's output in India this year will be about 485,000 vehicles compared with its target of 530,000, Heung Soo Lheem, managing director of the local unit, told reporters in New Delhi.

``My difficulties are increasing as demand is slowing in Europe,'' Lheem told reporters. ``We want strong support from the government to keep our plants in good shape.''

The Seoul-based automaker earlier this month said it's eliminating some temporary staff in India, where it has production capacity of 600,000 vehicles a year.

Output at the carmaker's U.S., domestic, Chinese and Turkish factories has also been reduced. India and China are Hyundai's biggest overseas production bases, outside of South Korea.

The company today unveiled the i20 small car in New Delhi, mainly targeting exports. Hyundai aims to sell 134,000 i20 cars this year, of which 12,000 will be in India and the rest overseas, the company said in a statement.

The cheapest variant of the car will be priced at 479,000 rupees ($9,850) in the Indian market, Lheem said. Prices of India-made cars may be raised from January, he said.

Hyundai Motor gained 4 percent to 39,500 won in Seoul today. The shares have declined 45 percent this year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Seonjin Cha in Seoul at scha2@bloomberg.net; Kartik Goyal in New Delhi at kgoyal@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: December 29, 2008 03:06 EST

2008-12-19T14:53:00.001-08:00

Hyundai Motor India Will Cut Some Contract Workers (Update1)
Email | Print | A A A

By Vipin V. Nair and Seonjin Cha

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest
automaker, will cut some temporary staff in India as the global
recession reduces demand for exports from the country and local
consumers put off car purchases.

The company may also cut production in India and exports could decline
25 percent in the first half of 2009, Rajiv Mitra, a spokesman of the
Indian unit, said in a phone interview today. Mitra declined to say
how many people will be laid off.

Seoul-based Hyundai joins Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and
other global automakers in slashing temporary workers and curtailing
output as recession in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. hurts car sales.
Hyundai will cut 2,000 temporary workers in India, about 25 percent of
its total workforce in the country, the Business Standard daily
reported earlier today.

``Some people will be laid off,'' Mitra said. ``It won't be as high''
as reported. ``Not even half,'' he said.

Hyundai Motor, the second-biggest carmaker in India, employs 5,100
regular employees, and about 3,300 temporary workers in India, Mitra
said. The company produces the Santro and i10 minicars and the Sonata
sedan at its factory in the southern port city of Chennai.

Automakers are scaling back output in India also because the domestic
passenger-car sales dropped by the most in more than five years in
November. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the nation's biggest carmaker, has
said that its production this year will be below initial estimates.

Local Demand

Demand in Asia's fourth-largest automotive market has fallen in four
of the past five months as banks cut back on automotive loans and the
wider economic slowdown kept consumers away from showrooms.

Hyundai's India car sales fell 26 percent last month to 14,601 units,
according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. That's
the first drop in more than two years, Mitra said.

Exports between April and November more than doubled to 175,800,
according to the Society's data. The company exported more cars from
India than it sold locally in the eight months.

``Overseas demand is falling,'' Mitra said. ``There is a lag of three
months in order taking and delivery. Orders have been down steadily
from the start of this month.''

To contact the reporters on the story: Vipin V. Nair in Mumbai at
Vnair12@bloomberg.net; Seonjin Cha in Seoul at scha2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 18, 2008 22:56 EST

2008-12-16T18:46:00.001-08:00

Honda Widens North American Output Cuts by 119,000 (Update4)

By Alan Ohnsman

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. is cutting 119,000 vehicles
from its North American production plan, tripling its reduction for
this fiscal year as plunging sales push U.S.-based competitors to the
brink of collapse.

The automaker expects to build 1.29 million cars and light trucks in
the U.S., Canada and Mexico, in its year ending March 31, down from an
initial goal of 1.47 million, spokesman Ed Miller said today in an
e-mail. The latest reductions bring the total to 175,000 vehicles from
the Tokyo-based company's earlier cuts of 56,000. No layoffs are
planned, Miller said.

"Everyone is hurting," said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive
Consulting Group Inc. in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "Sales are down across
the industry 30 percent to 35 percent since September. That pain is
being shared equally by all companies."

Honda and Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have
slashed production plans this year as the U.S. recession dragged the
annual auto sales rate last month to a 26-year low. Through November,
those companies built about 300,000 fewer autos in North America than
a year earlier, led by Toyota's three-month shutdown of a San Antonio
pickup-truck plant.

"Showroom traffic is down for everyone," Miller said.

Honda will trim production through slower line speed and eliminating
some scheduled assembly days, Miller said. Plants will extend a
scheduled holiday shutdown this month by two days, and in January
between four and seven days of output will be cut at factories in
Ohio, Alabama, Indiana and Ontario, he said.

Declining Sales

U.S. sales for Honda, which last had an annual drop in its biggest
market 15 years ago, fell 5.4 percent through November from a year
earlier. Honda, Japan's second-largest carmaker, last month posted a
32 percent decline, its steepest since 1981.

Across the industry sales this year are down 16 percent, led by
declines of 28 percent for Chrysler LLC, 22 percent for General Motors
Corp. and 19 percent for Ford Motor Co.

GM and Chrysler have said they need U.S. aid this month to avoid
running short of cash for operations. President George W. Bush's
administration said it may tap the $700 billion bank- bailout fund to
prevent an industry collapse, after the Senate yesterday failed to
approve $14 billion in emergency loans.

Ford has said it doesn't need emergency federal aid, though Chief
Executive Officer Alan Mulally said last week that his company could
be dragged into bankruptcy by a GM failure.

While Honda and Toyota are in better shape financially than the U.S.
companies, they would suffer should GM fail, Virag said.

"If GM collapsed, it would take out parts suppliers that Honda also
uses," he said. "It could knock sales for the industry down another 20
percent to 25 percent."

Honda's U.S. operations are based in Torrance, California. The
company's American depositary receipts fell $1.07, or 4.7 percent, to
$21.93 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at
aohnsman@bloomberg.net

2008-12-16T18:00:00.001-08:00

Microsoft to empower 50,000 Nigerians with IT, outsourcing skills

Monday, 15 December 2008 00:21 EMEKA EZEKIEL

Global information and communication giant, Microsoft, has set an
ambitious target of training 50,000 Nigerian youths on IT and
outsourcing skills. Ken Spann, Developer Platform Evangelist Lead for
Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, told Business Day in an interview in
Lagos that the initiative is aimed at facilitating the development of
a vibrant outsourcing sector that would ultimately make Nigeria the IT
Enabled Outsourcing hub in West Africa .
Spann explained that Microsoft would partner with the government,
individual and corporate organisations in order to develop the
country's potentials in outsourcing business.
Said he "Our objective within the next five years is to train 50,000
Nigerian youths, especially students, in various areas of information
and communication technology using Microsoft curriculum. We want to
train developers and people that know how to establish communication
solutions based on Microsoft applications. We are ready to provide the
help, training and other resources that are required towards
empowering Nigerian youths with the necessary information and
communications technology skills.
" Nigeria has the potentials to become the premier outsourcing country
in the world. The World Bank has just commissioned a study that says
Nigeria can be the premier outsourcing country in the world. Microsoft
will be exploring and looking at this opportunity. We shall be
partnering with individuals and corporate organisations towards
exploring this opportunity .We have plans to raise the intellectual
capital and capacity of Nigerians because the future is very bright
for the Nigerian economy."
According to Spann, "If you look at Indian, for instance, everybody
there is talking about outsourcing. In India , English is not their
language yet they learn English on top of everything else. On the
other hand, English is the official language in Nigeria . Therefore,
that impediment is already out of the way which makes Nigeria a more
favourable outsourcing destination because English is the language for
business in the world. With this, it is easy for Microsoft to build IT
capacity in Nigeria . The reality is that outsourcing training is part
of the Microsoft curriculum which is coming up in the future. We
intend to work with the government, corporate organisation
universities in strengthening outsourcing initiatives in Nigeria .
Globally, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and Large Scale
Enterprises (LSEs) are constantly searching for economies where cheap
and readily available outsourcing skills could be deployed to improve
their overall profitability.
Outsourcing of non-core operations or jobs from internal production to
an external entity, such as a sub-contractor, is gradually changing
the landscape of businesses globally. Even in developed economies,
companies are taking advantage of cheap and readily available
outsourcing expertise in other markets to strengthen their competitive
advantage. India and China are among the emerging economies that have
made outsourcing a key driver of economic growth and development.
According to the National Outsourcing Policy and Institutional
Framework, Nigeria's outsourcing sector is estimated to provide 10,000
jobs in both Information Technology(IT) and non-IT related fields in
the first three years of implementation and over 45,000 new jobs in
the next four years.
The policy was formulated in January, 2007. In addition, the federal
government's revenue from licensing and taxation of profits from
outsourcing companies is projected to grow from N55 million in the
fifth year to over N1.3 billion by the tenth year.

Author of this article: EMEKA EZEKIEL

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2008-12-08T16:31:00.001-08:00

December 6, 2008

GM to lay off 2,000 more early in 2009

3 plants to be affected; shifts will be removed

BY KATIE MERX
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

General Motors Corp. will lay off an additional 2,000 factory workers at three plants early next year, the automaker announced Friday.

The move came as GM CEO Rick Wagoner appeared before a U.S. House committee asking Congress for an emergency loan to help the company survive a plummeting auto sales environment.

The automaker is temporarily halting production at its car assembly plants in Orion Township; Lordstown, Ohio, and Oshawa, Ontario, for January and will remove a shift from each plant when they resume production in February, GM spokesman Chris Lee said.

The automaker also added a week of down time in January at its Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan., which produces the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura.

GM is seeking $18 billion in federal loans to help restructure and survive the current downturn. The downturn and global credit crisis are blamed for U.S. auto sales that fell to their lowest rate in more than a quarter century last month.

"The tight credit market hit, and now people can't get leases or financing for anything," Lee said. "We are just continuing to adjust as sales are down."

Each of the plants affected by Friday's announcement had already been scheduled for slowed production rates and some downtime in January. They will now be down for the entire month.

Orion and Lordstown each will resume production with just two shifts Feb. 2. Oshawa Consolidated will resume production with two shifts Feb. 9.

When production restarts, Oshawa is to slow from three shifts producing 66 vehicles per hour to two shifts producing 45 vehicles per hour. Lordstown is to slow from three shifts producing 62 vehicles per hour to two shifts producing 46 vehicles per hour. Orion was scheduled to slow its line speed, but with the elimination of one shift, it will now continue to produce 53 cars per hour, but only on two shifts.

The shift removals will result in layoffs of an additional 390 people in Orion Township, another 900 in Lordstown and 700 more workers in Oshawa. GM had already announced other layoffs at those plants related to plans to slow the lines. All told, when the plants resume production, they will be with about 4,400 fewer people.

In addition, GM added three weeks of downtime starting Jan. 5 at its plant in Kansas City. The plant will resume production with its same two shifts on Jan. 26, but at a slower build rate.

GM has announced significant production cuts and plans to close five plants on accelerated schedules in the past few months. With the commitments made in a proposal seeking federal funding from Congress, many say the automaker will announce even deeper cuts and plans to idle more plants over the next several months.

Contact KATIE MERX at 313-222-8762 or kmerx@freepress.com.

2008-12-08T16:28:00.001-08:00

December 5, 2008

$22,500 to aid college programs

The Grainger Foundation gave Macomb Community College $22,500 Thursday to support programs designed to help educate students in high-demand technical careers.

The money is to be used for tuition assistance and related fees for students pursuing careers in machinery, computer numerical control and hybrid maintenance and repair, according to the college.

The national foundation presented the check as part of its $100,000 donation to the state, supporting the Michigan Technical Education Centers for the No Worker Left Behind Act.

2008-12-08T16:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/12/07/18553951.php

U.S. | Labor & Workers

Victory for the United Electrical Workers Plant Takeover in Chicago!

by Workers Action
Sunday Dec 7th, 2008 10:57 PM

On December 5, in Chicago, the owners of Republic Windows and Doors were set to close their doors after declaring financial ruin and abruptly laid off its 260 mostly Latino workers. Rather than passively accepting this kick in the teeth, the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) members decided to fight back, using a tactic not seen in this country since the 1930's. They occupied the factory and have continued to do so in shifts since Friday.

On December 5, in Chicago, the owners of Republic Windows and Doors were set to close their doors after declaring financial ruin and abruptly laid off its 260 mostly Latino workers. Rather than passively accepting this kick in the teeth, the United Electrical Workers Union (UE) members decided to fight back, using a tactic not seen in this country since the 1930's. They occupied the factory and have continued to do so in shifts since Friday.

This struggle is of exceptional importance because of its boldness in responding to the economic crisis and how it is affecting working people. This boldness could set an example for future confrontations and therefore deserves the attention and support of all workers.

The chain of events leading to this crisis started when Republic Window's creditor, Bank of America, refused to extend credit to the company. According to Crain's Chicago Business, Republic Window's sales had fallen from $4 million to $2.9 million in the last month. However, Bank of America is flush with $25 billion from the bi-partisan bail out. At a solidarity demonstration outside the plant on Saturday, protesters expressed the situation concisely with stickers and signs reading, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."

Workers are demanding $1.5 million in severance and vacation pay owed them by management. Federal law mandates that workers get paid for unused vacation time and are either given 60 days notice of a mass layoff or pay for that time. The UE workers were only given three days notice of the closing. Republic Window and Door's officials are claiming that Bank of America is not allowing them to make these required payments and benefit adjustments. Bank of America has responded by stating that they have no "...right to control whether a company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitment to its employees." While this bickering between thieves continues, the workers' intolerable situation and justified anger remains. "We aren't animals," Apolinar Cabrera, a 17-year Republic Windows employee, told Chicago Town Daily News. "We're human beings and deserve to be treated like human beings."

Workers have also expressed their suspicion that Republic Windows and Doors intends to move out of state and restructure their finances, leaving debt and misery in the wake. Some have reported that as early as two weeks ago the company started moving equipment out of the plant.

In this economic crisis, given what the capitalists are trying to get away with by making working people pay for the recession, the stakes are high. A 14-year machine operator at the company, Ron Bender, observed, "We're doing this for the other working people in the country. What's happened to us can happen to anyone -- they could just close up and put you out and give you no severance pay."

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win, as well as all other organizations concerned with the rights of working people should line up in solidarity with these UE members by educating and mobilizing their ranks in support. A victory could embolden workers across the country to resist the results of Wall Street's greed and the bailout, which will be all the more needed as times grow harder. It could serve as a stepping stone for greater victories in the future where workers will not simply demand vacation and severance pay from a bankrupt company, but demand that such a company be nationalized under workers' control. Furthermore, such a working class movement could go beyond addressing the problems at a given company and win victories for all workers in the areas of health care, ending the current wars, ensuring adequate funding for education, creating jobs for all, and so on.

The news has been brutal and frightening for workers over the last few months. A worldwide recession of unknown depth and duration is unfolding. In this country, the number of home foreclosures is expected to hit seven million by the end of the year. Last month alone 533,000 workers lost their jobs, contributing to the highest unemployment rate in 15 years. And while this decline accelerates, workers have been stung with a Democratic Party-led bi-partisan bailout of the financial institutions whose reckless greed is responsible for this mess. The New York Times estimates that this rescue package for the wealthy will cost seven trillion American taxpayer dollars (see "The Bail Out Intensifies" on this site). While this arrangement helps to ease the capitalists' anxiety, they place a dark cloud over working people's future. Rather than promoting economic growth, the bailout measures are more likely to result in hoarding on the part of the bailout's beneficiaries as well as produce inflation. Meanwhile, unemployment will continue to climb, and there will be further slicing of our already cut-to-the-bone social safety net by the capitalists' politicians.

The inevitable consequence of such developments is that people are left with no choice but to fight against the conditions they are forced to endure. They begin to see that there are opposed interests at play between those who control the economy and political system, and those who are expected to do all the sacrificing. Workers will be compelled to act and, as a result, begin to become aware of themselves as a class where, if they are to defend themselves and their rights, must unite against those who are accustomed to ruling them without question. Under such circumstances, the workers' demands are always modest and partial to begin with, but, to the degree that their actions rely on their independent strength as a class, they plot a course towards growing confrontation with the capitalist status quo and thereby raise the question of who shall control society, working people or the rich minority. Nationwide, such a course initially starts with an accumulation of small skirmishes, unavoidably leading to a social explosion that can place the working class' interests on the historical stage in a way that would have been seen as impossible just a short time ago. The worker's occupation of Republic Windows and Doors could prove to be a skirmish that sets the example for a working class upsurge that will bring more change and hope into our lives than any capitalist politician ever could.

There is no telling how long this occupation and the struggle behind it will continue. Workers, Republic Windows and Doors, and Bank of America are supposed to meet at 4:00pm on Monday. Nevertheless, these workers' actions have already made a mark in labor history. Food has been coming for them from all over in solidarity. You can donate by going to http://www.ueunion.org and clicking on "anger in Chicago," or by writing a check payable to the "UE Local 110 Solidarity Fund" and sending it to UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607. Messages of support can be sent to organizer Leah Fried . At the Jobs with Justice Web site, you can send a message of protest to Bank of America. http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/101949.html. You can also call UE at 312-829-8300.

Even President-elect, Barak Obama, because of massive public support for the UE workers, has felt compelled to offer support to the workers at Republic Windows and Doors in the form of lip service, without promising any specific action.

Organized labor should call on the government to take over Republic Windows and Doors and let the workers run the plant themselves. This demand could be part of a government emergency public works project that would make all public buildings, beginning with public housing, more energy efficient by installing new windows and doors. Such a program could then be the first step in establishing a broad-based coalition that would advocate a public works program that would put people back to work while maintaining their standard of living. This program could instill confidence among working people and their allies and inspire them to proceed onwards to fundamentally change the economic system so that it would serve the needs of people, not the pursuit of profits for the rich.

In these hard times, now more than ever, an injury to one is an injury to all. A victory for UE Local 1110 at Republic Windows is a victory for all workers!

http://workerscompass.org

2008-12-05T21:22:00.001-08:00

Little White eBook of Homeshoring Jobs

By Lisa, Editor in Find Jobs, Resources, Reviews on December 5th, 2008

While I was doing some research to find a few companies that hire call center agents to list in my post about having a phone and a plethora of patience just the other day, I ran across an ebook offering that looked, at first glance, to be pretty darned informative. So I contacted the publisher and asked for more information and a copy of the ebook to see for myself if it really was informative. I thought I might as well review it here on Telecommuting Journal, right! I wasn't able to get the entire ebook free for a review (only the first 3 chapters and a few example company listings) so I purchased it for myself.

To be honest, I was not expecting this review to be very flattering. But I was pleasantly surprised and extremely impressed with what I found inside. Enough so that I feel compelled to actually recommend this ebook to anyone looking to become a home-based call center agent. Most of the work-at-home ebooks available out there are extremely disappointing, sneaky, and don't deliver what they promise.

However, the Little White eBook of Homeshoring Jobs actually provides exactly what they promise, and then some.

Here's what they promised:

. . .243 pages and 198 listings of real virtual call center employers. It's truly your complete guide to virtual call center employment from home. These companies regularly hire people across North America to answer their phones and perform administrative tasks. The positions these companies hire for range from customer service to telemarketing - and everything in between.

Here's what they provided:

243 pages of well-researched, solid information including sensible introductory chapters that offer additional information about the industry and about working as a call center agent.
Company profile pages that provide a lot of relevant information (like Better Business Bureau ratings links if they're available, typical openings, typical salaries, job schedules, a link to the company's employment page and main page, LinkedIn profile page, etc). I counted 196 home-shoring company profiles, 8 Canada-Only home-shoring company profiles, and 4 additional home-shoring companies that prefer to hire military spouses, vets, and disabled. That's 204 company profile listings (which is 6 more than I was promised).
It appears that it's regularly updated. Several of the company profiles seem to be new listings and the title page of my copy says Updated 2/10/08. The purchase thank you page notes that I'm eligible for free updates if I elect to receive them.
They've listed their resources - nearly 10 pages of online resources with clickable links to each.
It's reasonably priced at $30

And here's how they presented it:

A 1-page Title Page
A 1-page Introduction: Using this Resource
An 8-page Table of Contents
A 16-page Section One - An Intro to Virtual Call Center jobs that includes the following information:
- The Importance of Doing Your Research
- The Importance of Doing Your Research
- So, What is Homeshoring?
- Who Hires Virtual Call Center Agents (and Why?)
- The Sung (and Unsung) Benefits of Working at Home
- The Pitfalls of Working for Virtual Call Centers
- Preparing for the Virtual Application Process
- Preparing Your Virtual Resume
- Things to Keep in Mind When Applying for Virtual Call Center Jobs
- The Virtual Call Center Checklist
- Acing the Virtual Job Interview
A 208-page Section Two - Company Profiles - Pages 25 to 233)
A 9-page Resources Section

Would I recommend this ebook to everyone looking for a legitimate work at home job???
Nope! Being a call center agent isn't for everyone. It's not a "quick fix" or an answer to your money nightmares and it's not going to land your job FOR you. What I am saying is that IF you're fairly certain that you'd make one heck of a call center agent, you're serious about pursuing that, and you're in the process of looking at the various companies who actually hire call center agents, then this eBook is a great resource to help you reach that goal. If you're looking to learn everything you can about the homeshoring call-center industry, as well as jump-start your research on the companies that employ home-based agents, then this is a great resource for you.

Ten years ago, when I was searching for work I could do from home, there weren't many resources out there. I learned the word "telecommuting" and stumbled across an eBook written by Rosalind Mays called The Real Deal on Telecommuting.

It, too, was reasonably priced and it not only listed several valuable resources, it also talked about the telecommuting industry, the difference between being employed by someone as an independent contractor vs an employee, and offered up some ideas for going about your search for actual, legitimate telecommuting work online. That eBook was the only purchase in my search telecommuting information and work.

While it didn't directly give me a job, it changed my mindset and got me looking in the right direction. Prior to the reading the ebook, I wasn't familiar with a lot of the terminology and several of the resources that were available to me at the time (such as web forums and discussion lists). My goal then was to learn how to better research and explore my options online. That ebook helped me reach my goal and I found a great telecommuting opportunity that I wouldn't have otherwise found had I not educated myself with the help of Rosalind's eBook.

The same is true with this eBook I'm reviewing here. It's not going to GIVE you a job, but it will help you find your way around in the call center industry and save you hours of research looking at all of the companies and offerings that are out there to go after.

If you're interested in purchasing the eBook, or learning more, be sure to visit their site and then click on the eBook picture on the right.

They actually offer another eBook there as well, one for Virtual Assistant jobs. I have not looked at a copy of that eBook, but I'd suspect that it's also well-done if you're looking for more information about working as a virtual assistant. Perhaps I'll hop over and purchase a copy of that eBook for a review of that on Telecommuting Journal as well.

Full Disclosure:
I was so impressed with this eBook that I joined their affiliate program before writing this review. Which means, if you click on a link here from my site and actually purchase the eBook for yourself, I make a commission on that sale. I've purchased the information and am confident that should someone who's looking for call center work also purchase this book, it would be a valuable resource in that particular job hunt. I'd never make a recommendation a product or service that I didn't first use myself and actually believe in. Any commission I might make is compensation for the time and money I spent reviewing the product and writing the review.

2008-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 1-India's Infosys to freeze new hiring as growth slows

December 04, 2008

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFY.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will freeze recruitment after meeting this fiscal year's target of hiring 25,000 staff, a telling sign the global downturn is hitting India's $52 billion outsourcing sector.

India's second largest software services firm however has no plans to cut jobs and is sticking with its third quarter outlook, CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan told reporters.

He said the outsourcing sector's growth rate would halve next year as some customers delay orders.

"Last year the IT industry grew more than 30 percent, this year it is looking at somewhere in the region of 15 percent," Gopalakrishnan said.

India's export-driven IT sector, used to a scorching pace of growth, has been hit by the financial crisis and recession in the United States, which contributes more than half their revenue.

In the last few years, the outsourcing industry has created tens of thousands of jobs, mainly attracting young workers, as global companies look to trim labour costs.

Infosys hired 16,000-17,000 employees in the first half of the fiscal year that began in April and would honour commitments to 6,000 under training, Gopalakrishnan said.

Infosys, which counts Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Philips Electronics (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) among its clients, cut its full-year dollar revenue outlook in October due to the worsening global downturn. [ID:nBOM352371]

Gopalakrishnan said on Thursday the company would freeze fresh recruitment, apart from meeting specific skill needs.

"We will have to look at controlling our cost, controlling our expenses making sure that we run an optimised business. We will have to look at what are things we need to do in order to prepare ourselves for the recovery." ( You could always outsource to China, or the Philippines).

"Growth is coming more and more from emerging markets so these are the things we need to prepare ourselves. We should not lose momentum in this slowdown," he said.

But Infosys still expects its strong client base and a weakening rupee to help it meet a forecast for December quarter earnings of $0.57 a share. The Indian rupee has fallen nearly six percent so far this quarter against the dollar.

"Infosys is seeing further degradation of the demand environment, with headwinds from leadership changes at customers, a shrinking large deal pipeline .... Pricing pressure has emerged," CLSA Asia-Pacific said in a report this week.

By 0845 GMT, Infosys shares were up 2 percent in a Mumbai market .BSESN, but outperforming a 4 percent gain in the broader Mumbai market .BSESN. Infosys shares have fallen 33 percent so far this year. (Writing by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by John Mair and Anshuman Daga)

2008-12-04T14:48:00.000-08:00

UPDATE 3-Vale layoffs expose Brazil vulnerability to crisis

Wed Dec 3, 2008 5:04pm EST

(Updates with new quotes from Vale's sales director)

By Reese Ewing and Denise Luna

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's largest iron ore miner, said on Wednesday it is laying off 1,300 workers and putting 5,500 more on paid leave, the latest sign of Brazil's exposure to the international crisis.

Brazil's second-biggest firm said that the credit crisis and weak demand had led it to make the layoffs and enforced leaves, which in total account for 11 percent of its global work force of 62,000 workers.

"We have a credit crunch, contraction in the economy, huge destockings taking place of raw materials and the demand is really dull," said Fidel Blanco, managing director of iron ore sales at Vale at a Metal Bulletin steel conference in Paris.

The dismissals will occur globally, but some 20 percent of them will occur in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where some of Vale's main iron ore mines are located.

On Oct. 31, Vale announced that it would cut its 315 million tonne a year iron ore output by 10 percent as it braced for the global economic slowdown caused by the credit crisis.

Its main clients abroad, steel companies, have slashed output and cut labor as demand for steel from the construction sector all but disappeared.

ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Vale's biggest client, announced in the past weeks that it would dismiss 9,000 of its workers, after announcing deep production cuts weeks earlier.

Vale's clients in Brazil have been taking similar belt-tightening measures to align themselves with the current market realities.

Blanco said, "We do not think we are going to have another year of raw materials (prices) soaring."

Vale, whose shares closed little changed on Wednesday at 22.46 reais, is about to enter into negotiations with its main clients in the coming weeks to set iron ore prices for 2009.

The layoffs by Vale, one of Brazil's two leading companies along with state oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are the latest evidence that emerging markets are suffering from the crisis and have not "decoupled" as some economists hoped.

GROWING IMPACT

Despite initial comments by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that Brazil was immune to the crisis, the fallout is starting to be felt in the economy and analysts are sharply scaling down their growth forecasts for next year.

Brazil's once-thriving automobile industry has temporarily laid off tens of thousands of workers over the past months to reduce inventories. Large local companies like steel producer Gerdau (GGBR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Petrobras are postponing capacity expansion projects. And Brazil's booming construction industry is starting to show signs of slowing.

"Vulnerability exists," economist Alexandre Gallotte at the Tendencias consultancy told Reuters. "Brazil is vulnerable on two fronts: to external demand and to domestic demand."

One of the pillars of Brazil's economic growth over the past year has been domestic demand, fueled by increased buying power among Brazil's large population of poor.

But consumer confidence has begun to falter in reaction to the crisis.

"Domestic demand is subject to consumer sentiment which has started to weaken," said Gallotte. (Reporting by Denise Luna and Reese Ewing; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Jim Marshall)

2008-12-04T14:36:00.001-08:00

Michigan's survival plan: Find new industries – fast.

Long dependent on auto manufacturing, the state and its cities are bracing for even deeper budget cuts.

By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the December 4, 2008 edition

Warren, Mich. - In plenty of towns around Michigan, signs of the flagging economy are already visible.

The state, which has been in recession for the past five years, has seen a steady loss of jobs every year since 2000.

But now, Michigan is peering over the edge of its bleakest prospects in decades – and keeping a close eye on negotiations in Washington, where representatives of the Big Three US car companies are making their case to Congress this week for why they deserve federal bailouts.

More than any other state, it would feel the effects of a failure – or even a severe contraction – of one or more of those companies.

"The Detroit Three are 12 times as concentrated in the state of Michigan as in the rest of the country, so whatever happens to them is going to have roughly 12 times the impact on Michigan as on the rest of the country," says Don Grimes, an economist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The state, he acknowledges, has been trying to diversify its economy and has made some progress, "but it's overwhelmed by the auto industry."

Since Michigan's fortunes are still so closely linked to those of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, the state's citizens and officials are worried not just about job losses but about massive cuts to state and local budgets, dwindling police forces, shrinking social services, falling area home prices, and rising foreclosure rates.

In Warren, where GM's Tech Center employs about 20,000 workers and both GM and Chrysler have manufacturing plants, Mayor James Fouts is worried about what major plant closings and layoffs will mean for his town.

Elected one year ago on promises of reform and fiscal prudence, Mayor Fouts has already cut everything he saw as expendable: He drives his own car (a Chrysler) to get to work, eliminated his police protection, and trimmed fat from countless departments.

But his city's revenue depends heavily on taxes from GM and Chrysler and on property taxes from auto workers whose homes have been declining in value. Many of those workers are already facing foreclosure.

"Seventy percent of the budget is people, mostly police and fire," he says. "If we have to make major cutbacks it would be public safety [that would be affected].... If something were to happen to GM, it would be like a dagger through the heart of this city."

In nearby Pontiac, Mich., which has been hit hard by declines in the auto industry and is home to several auto plants, public safety has already been affected by dwindling budgets. The police now have some 50 officers, down from 150 two years ago, says Fred Timpner, director of the Michigan Association of Police. Homicides, break-ins, and thefts have been rising. Reflecting residents' already strained finances, voters recently turned down a tax increase proposal that would have allowed the city to hire more police.

"Mayors are terrified," says Jennifer Granholm, the state's Democratic governor, who has spent most of her six years in office dealing with the state's economic crisis. Governor Granholm faces similar issues with the state budget, where, she says, "We're long beyond just cutting waste."

Granholm joined other governors on Tuesday in Philadelphia where they pleaded their case to President-elect Obama for federal aid to help with jobs and strapped budgets.

The governor recognizes the problems with having her state so dependent on a single industry and has long worked to diversify Michigan's economy, with some success. She's focused on businesses that dovetail with the state's history and strengths, utilizing its machining, tool-and-die, and research and development industries. Granholm sees a future – and has already helped to attract new jobs – in industries like defense manufacturing, alternative energy, and nanotechnology.

At the same time, she's restructured the education system so that every student is on a college-preparatory track, with the goal of doubling the number of college graduates and shifting the state's old paradigm of young people going straight from high school to a factory. Still, the process is a slow one.

"Sometimes leadership is like that old Chinese proverb, planting trees under whose shade you'll never sit," says Granholm.

For now, she is preparing a "rapid response plan" to deal with inevitable layoffs and more economic woes. The state's "No Worker Left Behind" program, for instance, will pay for the tuition of unemployed workers who undergo training in industries like healthcare, where the state has vacancies.

The Big Three employed roughly 250,000 people nationally at the end of last year – many of those jobs in Michigan. But analysts say that layoffs have a particularly drastic effect because each of those jobs are directly connected to so many others in related industries. "Auto has the highest multiplier in manufacturing. A job in an assembly plant might have a multiplier of eight, nine, or 10," says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, referring to the number of jobs that might be lost for each layoff. "The economic impact of jobs lost is going to escalate pretty dramatically."

Most officials are feeling optimistic that the federal government will come through with aid to the car companies, but the plans the companies are proposing this week involve severe job cuts and factory closings. GM, which has said it needs a $4 billion infusion of cash by the end of this month to remain solvent, told Congress on Tuesday that it would cut 20 percent of its workforce, close nine factories, and try to renegotiate contracts with the United Auto Workers Union.

2008-12-04T13:51:00.001-08:00

Oakland County to build green airport terminal

metromode, 11/13/2008

A green terminal is coming to the Oakland County International Airport.

The new terminal will incorporate a number of top-shelf sustainable options, such as wind power generating technology, geothermal and landscaping that uses rain water irrigation. It will also be built with a number of recycled materials.

The "green" terminal replaces a building that has been around for nearly 50 years. Materials from the demolished building will be recycled where possible.

The new terminal will be smaller than the current building (13,500 square feet versus 17,000 square feet) but the space will be used more efficiently. It will include airport offices, a U.S. Customs Service office and have a private meeting room for up to 80 people.

The $5.5 million project is set to begin next spring. Construction should be wrapped up by the summer of 2010. It's being paid for by Oakland County's Airport Fund, which consists of money from fees from airport users.

Southfield-based Neumann Smith Architecture is designing the building. The firm is aiming for LEED certification with its designs.

Oakland International is the 16th busiest airport in the U.S. and the second busiest in Michigan behind Detroit Metropolitan Airport. More than 500,000 people pass through Oakland International annually and more than 800 private and corporate aircraft are based there.

Source: Oakland County
Writer: Jon Zemke

2008-12-01T12:51:00.001-08:00

The Poor as Stakeholders: Can 'Inclusive Capitalism' Thrive in India?

Published: November 27, 2008 in India Knowledge@Wharton

Fabindia Overseas is India's largest private retail platform for a wide range of products made using craft-based processes that derive from traditional skills and techniques. The artisans are its suppliers. Normally poor and taken for granted, they occupy quite a different position in the Fabindia world: the position of shareholder. "Our aim was to achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth between the company and the artisan," says William Bissell, Fabinda's managing director. "Only through this can we ensure the survival of the craft. Unless the artisan has an incentive, he won't continue his craft."

The venture is one of several recent examples of "inclusive capitalism," a profit-driven business model with its roots in the cooperative movement. The premise behind inclusive capitalism is that India can't succeed if it leaves its people behind. But while Fabindia and other high-profile success stories indicate that businesses founded on this model can be a great benefit to those who participate in them and to society at large, some experts wonder how wide an impact inclusive capitalism can have, and how willing corporate India will be to change its traditional views on wealth ownership in the absence of any regulatory reform.

Fabindia is actually the creation of the late John Bissell, William's father, who worked as a buyer for Macy's in New York. He came to India in 1958 on a two-year Ford Foundation grant to teach villagers how to make goods for export. He stayed on to set up an export business. The idea to have suppliers as shareholders was William's. After receiving a bachelor of arts from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1988, the junior Bissell returned to India to set up the Bhadrajun Artisans Trust, a cooperative of leatherworkers and weavers in Rajasthan that has evolved to embrace the artisans as shareholders.

The original idea has evolved considerably. Community-owned companies, also known as supplier region companies (SRCs), are Fabindia's core. These are the companies in which the artisans hold shares. Fabindia owns between 26% and 49%, depending on the SRC, through Artisan Micro Finance, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fabindia set up to facilitate the SRCs. Artisan Micro is a non-banking finance company providing support that extends from facilitating working capital and loans, to management, design and infrastructure. The artisans together hold a minimum of 26%; 10% is for employees of the SRC, while the rest is available to private investors.

There are several such SRCs, and more are in the works. The artisans are discovering what annual general meetings are all about. "They are starting to understand what it means to be a shareholder and see the benefits of their appreciating share value," Bissell says. "There are artisan directors on the boards of these companies who are beginning to appreciate the role that they can play in the running of the company and the decision-making processes."

The artisans can trade their shares at specially organized "share-trading rounds"; two SRCs have already had such trading opportunities. The price is decided by a formula specific to the SRC and is certified by company auditors. "No artisan has wanted to sell," Bissell says. "In fact, there have been requests to buy more shares."

Bissell has experimented with other forms of community ownership. This one appears to be working better than most. Fabindia today has 97 stores in the country and six abroad. "Our success underlines the possibilities of social entrepreneurialism in our country where craft is the second largest source of employment, after agriculture," the company says in its press materials.

Maintaining an Interest

On the outskirts of Pune -- very much urban India -- is the township of Magarpatta. Developed by the farmers who originally owned the land, Magarpatta's success has relied on inclusion. In other parts of India, farmers whose land has been acquired for similar projects have received a one-time payment and often spent it all. They sit in ever-growing discontent watching outsiders harvest industrial wealth from their land. Not at Magarpatta City.

"The farmers have become entrepreneurs and are earning returns from contracts in addition to the land cost and the dividends received from company profits," says Satish Magar, chairman and managing director of Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company. "They are residing within Magarpatta City. Their children are attending English-medium schools. In short, they have become a part of a cosmopolitan society."

"The basic thinking behind Magarpatta City was to accumulate ancestral lands from the 120-odd families from the Magarpatta area on the principle of land pooling. A company was formed in which each landowner held shares in proportion to his land," says Magar, who took the lead in the project. Magar is part of this farming community, most of whose members share his surname. His family has been in politics and he is a graduate in agriculture.

"For an experiment like Magarpatta to work, it needs leadership from within," says Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of the infrastructure consultancy firm Feedback Ventures. "It is important to have a well-respected person first buy in, and then support the new development."

Magarpatta City is an environmentally friendly project encompassing residences, schools, shopping and entertainment complexes, a cyber city, parks and other frills. "Our vision is to create a new way of life for the networked society of the new millennium," Magar says.

Construction for Magarpatta City started in March 2000. Farmers had started selling their land to developers when the Magarpatta City idea was born, Magar says. "They had no choice," he explains, "[but] the plan for Magarpatta gave them one." What are the original farmers doing now? "The second generation of farmers was trained to execute construction projects such as fabrication units for windows, manufacturing of fly-ash bricks and landscaping," Magar says. "They were trained to execute such projects and almost all the farmers are engaged as professional contractors." It's a very different model from what has taken place elsewhere in India -- for example in Singur, where land was acquired for the Tata Motors Nano plant, resulting in a backlash by dispossessed land owners. At Magarpatta, the original farmers are reaping the benefits of development. And they still own the land, albeit indirectly and through a corporate structure.

"Magarpatta Company is also promoting three other projects with landowner participation," Magar notes. "The farming community is now aware of the benefits derived from their land. They want to be a part of the development process."

Prime Motive: Profit

Across the country, at Salboni in West Bengal, the Jindals are setting up a 12-million-ton steel plant. This is a state that has seen violence over land acquisition and compensation norms. But the Jindals have had an easy ride. Apart from the down payment for the land, the 741 farmers involved have been offered jobs and insurance. Most important, they will get shares in a new company that will implement the project. According to Sajjan Jindal, vice chairman and managing director of JSW Steel, "Land-losers should be the owners of this plant. They must benefit out of the development."

Down south in Karnataka, the Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Shree Renuka Sugars has made farmer-shareholders a component of its success strategy for many years now. "Unlike other privately owned sugar companies, we have approximately 9,000 farmers as our shareholders," the company says on its website. "As shareholders, the farmers enjoy the benefits of sharing profits. We believe this strong relationship is a significant competitive advantage because farmers have no obligation to grow sugarcane and may switch to crops that may be more profitable."

Magar had looked at the cooperative model; he says he drew inspiration from the Amul milk cooperative in Gujarat and the Baramati wine cooperative in Maharashtra. But the reason he, Fabindia and others of their ilk are not cast in the same mold as the cooperative movement is that along side their concern for underprivileged stakeholders, their prime motive is profit.

"Fabindia is a paradigm-changing model that we are hoping will influence the way rural development initiatives are undertaken around the world," Fabindia's Bissell says. Adds Chatterjee of Feedback Ventures: "It could be the future, but [the model] needs enlightened companies."

"Fabindia and Renuka Sugars are good alternative models," says Peter deSouza, director of the Shimla-based Indian Institute of Advanced Study. "We also need to revisit our cooperative sector and see how examples like Amul and Lijjat Papad [a women's organization that makes papads and other snack foods] can be replicated in various other sectors."

Reuben Abraham, assistant professor and director of the Emerging Market Solutions Initiative at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), points out that business success must come first. "At its core, Fabindia is a sourcing business," he says. "Everything else that they do -- making weavers [into] shareholders, etc. -- is peripheral to their main activity."

A Potential 'Force for Good'

Communism fell from grace with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, capitalism is under siege with the collapse of Wall Street. Is inclusive capitalism the new way?

"Capitalism at its core is basically agnostic," says Abraham of ISB. "It does not try to be inclusive or exclusive. Capitalism is about optimal allocation of resources. The more it is allowed to thrive, the higher the number of people who will be impacted positively by [its] growth. So, in that sense, being inclusive is perhaps a natural process. But for this to happen, what is really needed is more liberalization and fundamental reforms. For instance, until 1995 the fruits of telecom were not available to 95% of the country. Because of the reforms in this sector, [they are] now available to 50% of the country.... In this sector, capitalism has become a force for good. We could have the same thing happen over and over again in different sectors."

Corporations naturally go for high-margin customers in the beginning, Abraham notes, but given that there is a very small number of high-margin customers in India, they will have no option but to look at other segments of the population. "These are natural consequences of a well-regulated market at work. The problem really is: What is the optimal amount of regulation in a sector and who decides that? In my opinion, it is an iterative process. This is a journey that needs to be figured out by trial and error."

If regulatory reforms don't take place, "corporations will be forced to do inclusive capitalism. Otherwise, there will be social unrest. The issue then will be about the level of commitment of the corporates given that they always have to walk the thin line between their responsibilities toward the shareholders and the society at large."

Reforms are the key, Abraham says. As an example, he notes that various studies show that urban slum dwellers are willing to spend as much as 30% of their household income on educating their children in private schools. "This means that demand clearly exists. The reason that supply does not exist to meet this demand is because of regulations that don't allow profit-making in education."

While Abraham wants reform, deSouza of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies doesn't see inclusive capitalism taking hold in any widespread way. "I think we are moving away from the desire for inclusive capitalism," he says. "The model of capitalism that we have worked with in the past 15 to 20 years is much more Anglo-Saxon. The role of the state is reduced. One does not worry so much about welfare. It rewards the winners and cares less about the losers. The model of the Nordic countries, on the other hand, is much more inclusive. It recognizes that there will be both winners and losers but it also cares about the losers. In every development strategy that they take up -- hospitals, housing or schools -- they make sure that there is a mechanism for the redistribution of the wealth that has been produced."

In order for inclusive capitalism to work, corporations "must start to realize that they are part of a larger society and part of a complex network and that all the wealth that they produce is not their own," deSouza says. "We need to move away from the Anglo-Saxon model and start looking at other models like the Scandinavian and German models. The first step toward this is to generate public discourse and debate. At the moment, there is only one hegemonic discourse, and that is we must be like America. But America has failed. So, obviously, that model is not working."

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, sees it from a different perspective. "For me, inclusive capitalism fundamentally means whether people have equal opportunities," he says. "It is not about equal outcomes. And the structure that determines the opportunities that people have access to is clearly education. When one looks at inequality with regard to access to quality education, India has greater disparity than almost any other country in the world. I believe that inclusive capitalism will be realized only when there is a structure of equal opportunities and not just isolated examples of companies that have drawn workers into their fold.

"I think inclusive capitalism is a bit of a red herring," he continues. "I prefer the older concept: of capitalism whose resources can be harnessed toward creating structures of equal opportunities. This has not happened by a long stretch of the imagination. We can't get around the fact that no matter what industry or civil society does, in any society the wealth that is generated has to be translated into public goods like education, roads and health that are available for all. That mediation is fundamentally done by the government. Our Achilles' heel is that our government has not done this job of mediation adequately."

Harsha Moily, founder and chief executive officer of MokshaYug Access, a rural infrastructure and services company, says patience will be necessary. "I believe that inclusive capitalism will not see immediate commercial and social returns," he says. "It will only be in 10 to 15 years that one will see returns and be able to confidently say that these examples are working. Inclusive capitalism requires long-term commitment from all stakeholders -- employees, employers, investors, etc."

It may take time, but Moily is optimistic. "When you have 70% of India living in an environment that does not foster wealth creation, when you have a majority of your voter base in rural India, and when a rural India offers the volumes which businesses crave, there has got to be a great future for inclusive capitalism," he concludes. "It's a win-win for all stakeholders. I believe that the government should lead the way through policies that trigger inclusive capitalism. The private sector has the will and the resources; it only needs to be shown the way."

2008-11-24T18:14:00.001-08:00

Latest Scams Thru Monster, Careerbuilder, Findajob & Indeed.com (Michigan)

Reply to: job-906534741@craigslist.org ^[?]
Date: 2008-11-05, 11:45AM EST

Career-Net, Inc. is also using the name Osmium Net. (Avoid Dreamjobs.com, also...many names fall under this scam artist on whois.net) They're replying to resume's on the above websites (also at Snagajob.com and Indeed.com). You click into their site to fill in information. These sites are connected to each other directly. They are scam sites and have no background info or registration as companies. They are phishing for your social security number. To understand when a site actually is legitimate, they will have ONE registration at whois.net without multiple names. Legitimate sites use "https" NOT "http" (when filling in YOUR personal information). Also, if you receive email from a EVA WHITING for engineering, secretarial, etc., these are stolen front pages quickly slapped onto a site. They are NOT legitimate. Anything stating "Human Resources Dept." involving this person is fake. AVOID at all costs!

Location: Michigan
Compensation: YOU without your PRIVATE social security number
This is a part-time job.
This is a contract job.
This is at a non-profit organization.
This is an internship job
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 906534741

2008-11-24T15:11:00.001-08:00

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U.S., Brazil to speed up cellulosic ethanol research

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:24am EST

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's top two producers of ethanol, the U.S. and Brazil, will join forces to speed up research into cellulose-derived biofuels, which use inedible plant matter rather than crops as their feedstock.

In a statement they said they would expand scientific collaboration led by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras' Center for Research and Development CENPES.

The two nations would also to help five countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean to develop their own biofuel industries, investing $4.3 million in biofuel projects in Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.

Existing partners already being helped to develop their biofuel industries including the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis would also benefit.

The U.S. agriculture secretary Ed Schafer and Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorim announced their agreement late on Thursday at an international biofuels conference Brazil has been hosting in Sao Paulo, which concludes on Friday.

The Latin American nation began pioneering use of sugar cane ethanol in the mid-1970s making cars adapted to run on the biofuel. A newer generation of "flex-fuel" cars launched around four years ago can run on any mix of ethanol and gasoline.

"Second generation" or cellulosic ethanol which is not yet produced on a commercial scale, involves breaking down the woody bits of crop waste or plants into sugars to ferment -- a method expected to emit less greenhouse gases than cane and corn-based production.

(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

© Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.

2008-11-20T14:49:00.001-08:00

JPMorgan cuts investment banking jobs: sources

By Elinor Comlay Elinor Comlay 2 hrs 46 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) is cutting 10 percent of its investment banking staff -- about 3,000 jobs -- as the economic slowdown starts to bite into its earnings, people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

JPMorgan shares slid as much as 18 percent as one analyst said the cuts could reflect greater-than-expected weakness at the bank, long seen as one of the industry's few stalwarts through the credit crisis.

"Because JPMorgan has held up relative to the group, they're more vulnerable to a fall," said Ben Wallace, securities analyst at Grimes & Co in Westborough, Massachusetts, which holds JPMorgan shares.

"Cutting investment banking jobs raises questions about profitability at the firm," he said.

The company will likely cut staff in line with competitors such as Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N), which is cutting 10 percent, the sources said.

On Thursday, JPMorgan let go at least six equity sales officials from its New York desk, according to one person familiar with the matter.

The bank declined comment. Its shares were down 12 percent at $25.01 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange after falling as low as $23.21 earlier in the session.

CONSUMER RISK

JPMorgan has not had to take the severe writedowns on risky classes of mortgage-related assets that other banks have reported because it has limited exposure to such securities.

But in recent calls with investors and analysts, Jamie Dimon, the bank's chief executive, has been warning about possible losses from exposure to consumer debt.

At a conference two weeks ago, Dimon said the wider economic downturn could be worse for banks like JPMorgan than the credit crisis.

The bank is beginning to see customers miss payments on some of its $250 billion of prime mortgages and home equity loans. It has announced a plan to renegotiate $70 billion of mortgages over the next two years to help those customers.

The company's investment bank has just under 31,000 employees, up 20 percent from a year earlier, according to a third-quarter regulatory filing.

JPMorgan took on about 6,000 staff from nearly insolvent Bear Stearns Cos in March and has also added about 40,000 staff through its acquisition of failed thrift Washington Mutual Inc (WAMUQ.PK), according to its third-quarter earnings statement.

The bank's total head count was 228,452 at the end of September.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis and John Wallace)

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

2008-11-20T14:47:00.001-08:00

WDET News

250 Jobs Could Be Cut in Macomb Co.: Nov 20, 2008

Metro Desk

     Macomb County Commission Chairman William Crouchman says about 250 employees, or 10% of the county workforce, could be laid off soon.

     The commission is trying to find about $20 million in savings before its December 31st budget deadline. Crouchman says the county is currently in mediation with its union in order to get concessions.

     "Asking for a $10 co-pay on a prescription instead of a $5 I don't think is unreasonable... and things such as that. We are also looking for some relief on retirement costs. As it is now, it's possible for an employee to retire at age 50. Of course when an employee retires at age 50, you have a life expectancy of 80-something. Plus, the health care during that whole period of time. So, these things have got to change. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask employees to have a minimum retirement age of 55 or 60."

     Over the last several months, the Board of Commissioners has trimmed about $14 million from a $34 million deficit, which includes the elimination of the Macomb County's Parks and Recreation Department.

2008-11-20T14:41:00.001-08:00

Congress rushes to extend jobless benefits

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer 5 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.

The economic picture was only getting worse, if Wall Street was any indication. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 400 points for a second straight day, reaching the lowest level in more than five years, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell below lows established six years ago.

The Senate's vote followed Thursday's government report that laid-off workers' new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high and the number of Americans searching for work had surged past 10 million.

The White House, which had opposed broader legislation containing the benefits extension, urged passage of the new version and said President George W. Bush would quickly sign it.

As Congress prepared to leave town — perhaps for the year — there was no such resolution on helping the auto industry, a disaster in the making that could lead to hundreds of thousands if not millions of additional lost jobs. Democratic leaders said they could return to Washington in mid-December to vote on rescue loans if the carmakers first present a plan on transforming and modernizing their operations.

Discouraged by the stalemate over auto aid, investors sent the Dow Jones industrials down to another big loss, 445 points.

As for the jobless benefits, about 1.2 million people would exhaust their unemployment insurance by the end of the year without the extension, sponsors said. The measure is estimated to cost about $5.7 billion, although economists put the positive impact at $1.64 for every dollar spent on jobless benefits because the money helps sustain other jobs and restores consumer confidence.

"Putting money in the hands of unemployed families means they will be able to pay their rent and utility bills, buy groceries and clothe their children," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after the voice vote in the Senate. "It is money that will create economic growth in America."

The House had approved the bill in October.

More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year, and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent.

Thursday's Labor Department report said claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000 the highest level since July 1992 and fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.

The legislation as approved would provide seven additional weeks of payments to people who have exhausted their benefits. Those in states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits. Benefit checks average about $300 a week nationwide.

The benefits provided would be in addition to 13 weeks of federally funded extended benefits approved by Congress last June.

The vote could wrap up this session of Congress — with the possibility of the December return. The Democratic leaders' main condition for that special session was that the Big Three automakers first present a plan showing how federal aid would help them modernize.

"Until we can see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "we cannot show them the money."

"We are prepared to come back into session the week of Dec. 8 to help the auto industry," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. "But only if they present a responsible plan that gives us a realistic chance to get the needed votes."

Congressional Democrats had sought to move legislation that would direct $25 billion from the $700 billion financial rescue plan to the automakers to ensure they can stay in business until the spring. They abandoned those plans this week in the face of resistance from the White House and Senate Republicans.

The broader economic questions of what further actions Washington must take to avoid more home foreclosures and rectify staggered financial markets will probably have to wait until January, when the new Democratic-dominated Congress will convene and Barack Obama will be in the White House. An economy-stimulating package that could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars is likely to be on the agenda when the next Congress opens.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday that the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy is something that happens "once or twice" in 100 years.

The need to address the deteriorating job situation was one area that everyone could agree. "The recent financial and credit crisis has slowed the economy, and it's having an impact on job creation," White House press secretary Dana Perino said in urging Congress to pass the benefits extension.

Congress has enacted federally funded extensions seven times in the past 50 years during economic slumps — in 1958, 1961, 1972, 1975, 1982, 1991 and 2002.

The House also voted in June to extend unemployment benefits for three months, but that bill stalled in the face of opposition from Senate Republicans and a White House veto threat.

The Bush administration contends that past extensions occurred only when the unemployment rate was considerably higher.

Unemployment insurance is a joint program between states and the federal government that is almost completely funded by employer taxes, either state or federal.

Before Thursday's quick resolution, the White House had threatened to veto a broader, $61 billion stimulus bill that would have helped states maintain Medicaid benefits and extend funds for public works projects in addition to the extending the jobless benefits.

In yet another bad sign for the economy's near future, the private, New York-based Conference Board said Thursday that its monthly forecast of economic activity declined 0.8 percent in October. Over the past seven months, the index has declined at a 4.7 percent annual rate, faster than at any other time since 2001.

Most of the decline was due to the drop in stock prices, a decline building permits and sagging consumer expectations.

___

AP Writers Jeannine Aversa, Christopher S. Rugaber, Deb Riechmann, Ellen Simon and Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

___

The bill is H.R. 6867.

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

2008-11-19T16:53:00.001-08:00

PBGC, GM Leaders Negotiate Over Auto Maker's Pension Data

November 18, 2008: 02:38 PM EST

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- General Motors Corp. (GM) and the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. are now negotiating over an exchange of financial information regarding the health of the auto maker's two pension programs.

"We have been in communication with General Motors to request up-to-date information on the financial condition of GM's pension plans, and GM is fully cooperating with our request," PBGC spokesman Marc Hopkins said. GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson said PBGC officials met late Monday with GM's head of pension funding to outline what financial information the auto maker would need to disclose.

"GM is in the process of putting that together," she said.

Both GM and the PBGC declined to comment on specifics. PBGC officials previously had said GM was not cooperating with its request.

But Hopkins said PBGC is looking for a "more accurate" picture of the auto maker's pension programs stability, which is necessary for the agency to effectively monitor the financial health of auto makers and gauge the impact a potential GM pension transfer could have on the agency.

"The PBGC actively monitors the financial status of the plans we insure," he said. Hopkins on Monday said the PBGC is "currently aware of the status of the other auto makers."

GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem said last week that the company's pension program for hourly workers is underfunded by $500 million, while the company's plan for salaried workers is overfunded. She also said GM doesn't expect its two pension programs to become government liabilities in the short term.

Rashid-Merem said GM doesn't expect "any minimum funding requirements for both hourly and salary plans in the next three to four years" because of its overall pension status.

PBGC insures pension retirement savings for roughly 44 million workers.

Should GM collapse and the company become unable to fund its pensions, liabilities from the programs could lead to a significant increase in PBGC's $11 billion deficit at the end of fiscal 2008.

-By Darrell A. Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6684; darrell.hughes@ dowjones.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http:// www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=ca%2BNpgo7zosg6xjniF472A%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  11-18-08 1438ET
  Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

2008-11-18T08:41:00.001-08:00

Transition Watch: Obama will cut outsourcing

By Brian Robinson
Published on November 17, 2008

President Obama will reduce the number of contracts that outsource government work to private firms, according to a Washington Post report.

That goal was included in statements Obama made in campaign letters sent to employees at seven federal agencies in an effort to garner their votes in the election. The letters were sent in response to a request from John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Other promises made in the letter included paid family leave, flexible work schedules, more opportunities for teleworking and improved bargaining rights. Defense was the only agency he made promises about that didn't include extra spending, the Post said.

2008-11-18T08:38:00.001-08:00

Experts: Don't Be Fooled! Renewable Energy, Increased Energy-Efficiency and Other Climate-Change Solutions are Key to the Future Economy of Michigan

Last update: 1:38 p.m. EST Nov. 17, 2008

DETROIT, Nov 17, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- "Prebuttal" Held by Michigan, National Experts to Debunk Climate-Change Denial, "Economic Alarmism" Expected at Tuesday Chamber Event in Detroit; Fear Mongers Ignore Huge "Green Job" Potential of 60,000 or More for Michigan.

Michigan's economy could be substantially buoyed by 60,000 or more "green jobs" in response to renewable energy production, increased energy-efficiency measures and other climate-change solutions, according to Michigan and national experts from such organizations as the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.

The experts cautioned business leaders, policy makers and the news media to take with a grain of salt the expected denial of global warming science and "economic alarmism" likely to be central themes at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event to be held Tuesday in Detroit. For more information on what is wrong with such fear mongering, go to http://www.CO2MediaGuide.org.

In the wake of an election that makes action on climate change more likely, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is holding a series of events across the United States to minimize concerns about global warming and also to promote alarmist claims about the economic implications of taking action to curb climate change. In doing so, the Chamber ignores the solid scientific consensus that global warming is both real and that it demands immediate action by policymakers. The Chamber also makes job and tax-related claims that have been thoroughly debunked and which totally ignore the considerable employment and economy-boosting potential of green job creation, increased energy efficiency and climate-related scientific and other innovation.

Dr. Martin Kushler, director of the Utilities Program at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, said: "The claim that taking steps to address climate change would be bad for the economy is simply not true. We know from proven experience that we can save electricity through energy efficiency programs at one-third the cost of a new power plant. With a strong energy efficiency policy we can save money and reduce carbon emissions at the same time."

Dr. Andrew Hoffman, associate professor of management & organizations, associate professor of natural resources and associate director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan, said: "Think of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as a market shift, one driven by regulations at the city, state, national and international levels. But one also driven by consumer, investor, insurance and energy markets. Any company executive who ignores these shifts does so at their peril."

National Resources Defense Council Climate Campaign Director Pete Altman said: "Detroit is just the latest stop in the Chamber of Commerce's Chicken Little road show to gin up worries about efforts to solve our energy and climate problems. On display at these events are scientific misinterpretation and economic misunderstanding."

The experts pointed to the growing body of data pointing to huge benefits for Michigan's economy associated with dealing with the consequences and solutions to climate change:

    --  Michigan could be a leading U.S. source of alternative energy.  Michigan
        has the potential to become a big player in offshore wind energy, so
        says a new report released in October 2008 by the Land Policy Institute
         (LPI) at Michigan State University (MSU). The preliminary analysis finds
        that Michigan's portion of the Great Lakes has the capacity to
        produce 321,936 Megawatts of electricity from wind energy, a portion of
         which could be developed once depth, technology, view and environmental
        concerns are considered. Michigan's onshore wind potential was
        previously estimated at approximately 16,500 megawatts. The information
         provided by the new LPI report shows much more substantial opportunities
        for offshore wind energy.  (See
         http://www.landpolicy.msu.edu/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&
         sp_id=71.)
    --  More than 60,000 jobs in Michigan could be created under a "green
        recovery program."  This is based on a September 2008 University of
        Massachusetts-Amherst report which outlines a green economic recovery
         program to strengthen the U.S. economy over the next two years and leave
        it in a better position for sustainable prosperity. In the pages that
        follow, we detail how to expand job opportunities by stimulating
         economic growth, stabilizing the price of oil, and making significant
        strides toward fighting global warming and building a green, low-carbon
        economy.  According to the report, this green job surge would have
         reduced unemployment in the state by more than 1 full percentage point.
        (See
         http://www.environmentamerica.org/uploads/oI/Md/oIMd-4C-PFkED6ITtOlzbQ/p
         eri_report.pdf.)
    --  Up to 10,000 jobs will be created in the state through increased energy
        efficiency.  On October 7, 2008, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm
        signed legislation that sets mandatory energy savings goals for the
         state's electric and gas utilities. "This legislation
        represents a significant achievement for Michigan, which has had no
        utility energy efficiency resource programs since 1995"' said
         ACEEE Utilities Program Director Dr. Martin Kushler. A 2007 ACEEE study
        ( http://www.aceee.org/pubs/e07x.htm) coauthored by Dr. Kushler found
         that energy efficiency can actually reduce overall electricity costs,
        boost net employment, and reduce air pollutants within the state. The
        report found that greater energy productivity would result in a net
         annual employment increase in Michigan of between 3,900 and 10,000 jobs
        (depending on the level of energy efficiency policy pursued).  (See
         http://www.aceee.org/press/0810michigan.htm for more details.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: A streaming audio recording of this Michigan news event will be available on the Web as of 6 p.m. ET on November 17, 2008 at http://www.nrdc.org.

SOURCE Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC

2008-11-17T14:49:00.001-08:00

Sun Microsystems cutting up to 6,000 jobs

By Brandon Bailey

Mercury News

Article Launched: 11/14/2008 05:28:12 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge

An exterior of Sun Microsystems headquarters is shown in a Santa Clara, Calif.... ( PAUL SAKUMA )

By announcing one of the biggest tech layoffs so far this year, Sun Microsystems on Friday bought more time for its effort to expand sales and show that a strategy built around open-source software can carry the struggling Santa Clara computer maker out of the current recession and into profitability.

But analysts said the long-term prognosis is still uncertain for the venerable tech giant, which has been the subject of takeover speculation as its stock price plunged over the past year — even before the economy began battering other Silicon Valley companies.

Sun said Friday that it will lay off 5,000 to 6,000 workers, more than 15 percent of its global workforce, over the next year. Sun also will reorganize

its software business and merge some divisions into other operations. Rich Green, who has been Sun's executive vice president for software since 2006, will leave the company.

The moves are a response both to the recent economic crunch, which has hit Sun harder than other tech companies, and to a longer-term trend in which customers are buying more lower-cost commodity systems and fewer of the high-end proprietary servers and systems that were Sun's flagship products for many years.

"We're taking sharp, decisive action to align ourselves to a new economic reality, and also to amplify our investment in the way the world is heading," Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz told the Mercury News, while expressing confidence in the company's

future.

He said the reorganization will boost Sun's efforts to develop lower-cost servers and storage appliances that combine Sun's hardware and software — some of which have already drawn a favorable response, while not yet making a big impact on profits.

Schwartz said the new structure also will help Sun pursue its strategy of selling those systems to businesses and government agencies that already use Sun's open-source software, including the MySQL database program. Sun makes much of its software available at no cost, although it charges for maintenance and support.

Sun, which has more than 33,000 employees worldwide, declined to say how many are based in the Bay Area or where the layoffs will occur. But Wall Street analysts praised the cuts as a necessary move to reduce expenses, after Sun posted a loss in two of its past three quarters.

"This is management making some of the tough choices that they need to make," said Shannon Cross of Cross Research.

Sun said the layoffs will save the company $700 million to $800 million a year, starting in its next full quarter. The company expects one-time costs of $500 million to $600 million over the next 12 months associated with the layoffs.

Several

(Click on image to enlarge.)

other Silicon Valley companies have announced smaller layoffs as the global slowdown has begun hitting home. Applied Materials said Tuesday that it will trim 1,800 jobs, or about 12 percent of its workforce. Hewlett-Packard said in September that it will lay off 24,600 people over the next three years, but HP has characterized those cuts as mostly eliminating duplication from a recent major acquisition, and not as a reaction to the downturn.

Sun's layoffs should bring the company out of the red and give it some breathing room, said analyst Brent Bracelin of Pacific Crest Securities. But he warned the company may find itself "back in the same position" if it doesn't use the next year to "decide what businesses they should focus on."

In addition to having its own database software, programming tools and operating system, Sun makes microprocessors, servers and data storage systems. While Bracelin said he doesn't think another company would buy Sun in its current condition, he added: "There are pieces of Sun that might be more valuable" to other tech companies.

Eventually, Sun might consider options ranging from an outright sale, spinning off pieces or even taking the company private, Bracelin said. "There are all kinds of things you can look at a year from now. This cost saving buys them time."

Sun was hit hard by the recent turmoil on Wall Street and in the banking industry, which has been a major customer for its high-end servers. While it had $13.9 billion in revenue last year, the company said sales to East Coast banking and investment firms fell 20 percent in its last quarter.

But Sun's problems began earlier: It had five unprofitable years after the Internet bubble burst earlier this decade, then appeared to be making a comeback in the past two years before swinging back into the red over the summer.

Sun's stock has plunged from an adjusted high of more than $250 at the start of the decade. A year ago, when the stock was trading at about $5, the company executed a one-to-four reverse split that made shares worth slightly more than $20. But the stock was again below $5 in recent weeks.

That meant Sun's market capitalization was about $3 billion, or roughly the same as the amount of cash and short-term investments the company has on hand. Shares closed at $4.12 on Friday, up almost 1 percent on the news of the layoffs.

Most analysts had expected Sun to make cuts, especially after a Tennessee investment firm disclosed last month that it had bought 21 percent of Sun's stock and was planning to have discussions with management about improving the stock value. Schwartz, however, said the changes were not directed by the new investors.

Contact Brandon Bailey at bbailey@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5022.

2008-11-17T14:12:00.001-08:00

November 15, 2008

Economy Is Only Issue for Michigan Governor

By MONICA DAVEY and SUSAN SAULNY

LANSING, Mich. — This is what a day looks like for Jennifer M. Granholm, the governor of Michigan, the state that sits, miserably, at the leading edge of the nation's economic crisis.

Morning: Rev up government workers and ministers at a huge conference in Detroit to cope with expanding signs of poverty. Afternoon: Tell a room crushed with reporters here, in the state capital, why a federal bailout is essential for the Big Three automakers, who are also, of course, residents of her state. Evening: Pack for Israel and Jordan, where Ms. Granholm hopes to persuade companies that work with wireless electricity, solar energy and electric cars to bring their jobs to Michigan.

Whatever else Ms. Granholm, a Democrat in her second term, might once have dreamed of tackling as a governor (she barely seems to recall other realms of aspiration now), the economy is nearly all she has found herself thinking about, talking about, fighting about over the last six years. And Michigan, which has been hemorrhaging jobs since before 2001 and was once mainly derided in the rest of the nation as a "single-state recession," now looks like an ominous sketch of just how bad things may get.

"This has been six straight years of jobs, jobs, jobs," Ms. Granholm said, punctuating the word with three somber claps at her office table. Despite scathing critiques from some here who say she has failed to turn around Michigan's woes, Ms. Granholm said in an interview that she still believed that her efforts to remake the state's economy — in part by luring jobs that make something other than cars — would eventually overcome the steady stream of vanishing jobs.

"We were hoping it was going to be in 2009 where we'd see the balance tip, but with this financial meltdown and the challenges now in the auto industry obviously, I'm not sure whether that's going to happen," she said. "Probably not. But we're going to still hammer away at it."

She finds herself in the national spotlight more than ever. She is loudly pushing for the auto industry rescue while Michigan's Congressional delegation works votes on Capitol Hill. President-elect Barack Obama has put her on his transition economic advisory board (an appointment her strongest critics here deride as ludicrous, akin to putting a tobacco executive on a health board).

Ms. Granholm, who played Sarah Palin in Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s warm-ups for the vice-presidential debate and who is barred by term limits from seeking re-election in 2010, has been mentioned as someone Mr. Obama may appoint to his cabinet. It is a notion Ms. Granholm — long a Bush administration critic for what she describes as inconsistent enforcement of trade pacts and a lack of manufacturing policy — gently dismisses: "I really want to be governor when I have a partner in the White House."

Her critics seem dismayed by the speculation. They blame her and the state's business regulations and taxes, at least partly, for Michigan's long list of dismal rankings among the states (No. 2 in unemployment; No. 5 in foreclosure starts; No. 51, including the District of Columbia, in attracting new residents). The governor's approval ratings dropped to slightly less than 50 percent favorable last month from a high of near 70 percent in 2003.

"I fear if she has the president's ear," said Michael D. LaFaive, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research group in Midland, Mich., that advocates a free market. "There's a reason people are fleeing the state, and it has much to do with the bad public policies this state has embraced over the last 6 to 12 years."

But Ms. Granholm's supporters say she has done all she could, given gloomy times brought on long before she arrived by monumental changes in the nation's manufacturing, and, most of all, in the auto industry. As Ms. Granholm sees it, the state has responded by revamping just about everything — taxes, education, even the sorts of businesses it is seeking.

In her constant courting of companies in the United States and overseas, Ms. Granholm said she had focused on bringing home businesses that work with alternative energy (like wind turbines), domestic security (a field auto suppliers might easily move into), advanced manufacturing (like robotics) and life sciences.

The state has recently enacted a tougher, college-preparatory-style curriculum in its high schools. Its "No Worker Left Behind" retraining program depends on what jobs local employers say they actually need to fill. And this year, it began offering incentives to moviemakers in the hopes of building a "creative economy," a concept, Ms. Granholm says, "we haven't necessarily had since Motown days."

In all of this, her efforts have brought more than 120,800 new jobs to the state since she took office in 2003, her office says. (Her staff noted those "direct" jobs were estimated to have brought two to three times as many new "indirect" jobs that cropped up around the others, and said state efforts had helped "retain" 233,000 jobs from companies that had hinted of leaving Michigan.)

Still, net losses since mid-2000 (and just for manufacturing jobs, since 1999) swamp the picture. Since June 2000, the state's net job loss was more than 500,000; since Ms. Granholm took office, the net loss was 281,500.

"Sometimes leadership is planting trees under whose shade you'll never sit," she said. "It may not happen fully till after I'm gone. But I know that the steps we're taking are the right steps."

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (she took the last name of her husband, Daniel, as her middle name and he did the same with her last name), 49, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. She briefly considered an acting career and was once a contestant on "The Dating Game," and graduated from University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School. Eventually, she moved to Michigan. A former prosecutor, she was elected Michigan's attorney general in 1998, then became the state's first woman to be elected governor four years later. She has three children.

Even her critics praise Ms. Granholm's political skills, her engaging speaking style, her ability to make even her most vocal opponents in the Legislature admit that they like her. But they say she started off as a nearly untested policy maker trying to solve an economic problem that would have challenged someone with far more experience.

"I think she's a good politician, but at the same time, she's not necessarily a great decision maker," said Saul Anuzis, the state Republican Party chairman.

But Mark Schauer, the State Senate's Democratic leader who was elected this month to Congress, pointed to a "hostile" Legislature — both chambers were controlled by Republicans until 2006 (and the Senate still is) — for a "lack of urgency" despite Ms. Granholm's "focus and tenacity" on the economy.

In 2007, a contentious standoff over how to solve a more than $1.5 billion deficit in the state budget dragged on for months, finally ending in the face of a government shutdown and with tax increases — deeply difficult, Ms. Granholm said, but unavoidable.

This year, there were more distractions: For months, a scandal enveloped Kwame M. Kilpatrick, then the mayor of Detroit. Eventually, as Ms. Granholm began proceedings to determine if he should be removed, Mr. Kilpatrick resigned and pleaded guilty to felony charges — but not, she said, before more economic damage had been done, with conventions canceled and businesses not wanting to move to Detroit. "One crisis at a time," she said in the interview.

For now, all eyes here are on whether Congress will provide $25 billion in emergency aid to the automakers, and whether lawmakers will do it soon enough, before some industry experts fear one of the Big Three may collapse. The mere possibility makes Ms. Granholm wince. The likely result, she said, would be catastrophic on residents, so many of whom work in the industry and all its offshoots.

"It would be such a huge, huge strain on our safety net," she said. "It would be of double Katrina-like proportions. We would absolutely need assistance."

But she said she felt confident that the aid would be granted. Still, she said, Michigan is a cautionary tale against putting a state's entire hopes in a single industry.

"Now, we love our auto industry," she said. "But if we had worked harder on diversifying this economy long ago, then if one of the legs of the stool starts to get wobbly, at least you've got three other legs to stand on."

Monica Davey reported from Lansing, and Susan Saulny from Detroit.

2008-11-17T14:02:00.001-08:00

EU fires off warning about car subsidies

By Rikard Jozwiak

14.11.2008 / 19:04 CET

As talk grows of a rescue package for the US car industry, European Commission says it would be prepared to take issue of subsidies to the World Trade Organization.

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, today indicated that the EU may be prepared to refer the United States to the World Trade Organization (WTO) if the US government were to offer subsidies to car industry in a way that goes against international trade rules.

"Of course, if it is illegal state aid, we will act at the WTO level", Barroso said in an interview for a French radio station.

A Commission spokesperson, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, later underlined that the president's remarks was "conditional". "We are analysing the plan and collecting information on the subject to see if it is in compliance with the rules of international trade," she said. "We have to assess what impact such aid would have on Europe."

Several American politicians, including President-Elect Barack Obama have signalled that aid might be available for car-making giants such as Ford and General Motors. Vehicle sales in the US have plunged to a 25-year low, and Democrats in the Congress are trying to draw up a $25 billion rescue package for the ailing car industry. The treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, has said that any federal aid provided would have to ensure the car-makers' long-term viability. He may be tempted to divert some money for the industry from his $700 billion financial rescue package.

The EU is itself considering ways of helping Europe's car industry without discriminating against non-European car-makers. Data from ACEA, the European car-makers association, show that new-car registrations in Europe have fallen for six straight months. They are now 14.5% lower than they were a year ago.

The news comes at the same time as figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, show that the eurozone is in recession. The economy of the euro area shrank by 0.2% in both the second and the third quarters of the year; two successive quarters of contraction is the common definition of recession. Individual EU countries such as Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Italy and Latvia are also officially in recession and there is now a widespread belief that interest rates will be cut further in an attempt to limit the economic damage.