Fightback measures are called for

[Joanne98]

By Fred Goldstein

Published Feb 1, 2009 9:26 PM
By the time the stock market closed on Jan. 26, 11 large U.S. corporations had announced a total of 60,000 new layoffs in just that one day.

Caterpillar, the largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment in the world, announced 20,000 layoffs, or 18 percent of its global work force.

Home Depot, the largest home equipment dealer in the U.S., announced 7,000 layoffs and the closing of 34 of its high-end EXPO Design Centers.

Sprint Nextel will lay off 8,000, or 13 percent of its workforce.

The giant drug company Pfizer is projecting 8,300 layoffs after its $68-billion purchase of another huge pharmaceutical, Wyeth.

Toward the end of the day Texas Instruments announced another 3,400 layoffs, 12 percent of its workforce, and there was a belated announcement that IBM had sent out pink slips to another 2,800 workers.

Caterpillar, which had sales of $12.92 billion last quarter and is a bellwether for the economy because of its global reach and its crucial role in construction worldwide, predicted that 2009 would be its worst year since the end of World War II.

Altogether, large U.S. companies publicly announced more than 170,000 layoffs (see accompanying chart) in the first four weeks of this year, but hundreds of thousands more are expected to be added when the government releases its monthly statistics early in February.

As workers lose their incomes, the defaulting on mortgage payments, credit cards, auto loans and student loans keeps rising. As the defaults rise, the bad debts on the books of the banks go up. The deepening crisis of the workers aggravates the financial crisis of the bankers.

Gov’t rushes to save banks

The capitalist government in Washington has not been trying to solve the banks’ problem of insolvency by rushing to the aid of the millions of workers who are defaulting on their debts and losing their homes and jobs. Instead, it has put limited aid to the workers on the slow track while it rushes to find ways to bolster the banks.

http://www.workers.org/2009/us/fightback_0205/

[bkkyosemite]

1. Give these large Corporations 6 months to hire foreigners to take our people's jobs.

Their big bonuses and their lavish lifestyles are not even being affected. It's all about using the crisis as an excuse to let go of workers that they need not let go of. But they see a brighter future with bigger profits, bonuses, boats, planes and big big parties in their future .....cuz the jobs they start back hiring won't be our folks betcha...They are using this scenario to reap...Karma please Karma.........

[bkkyosemite]

2. Btw my husband is a retiree from good ole IBM which had great profits at the end of the year

off the backs of their retirees slashed benefits and the latest in their layoffs......Pigs, greedy pigs.