The United Food and Commercial Workers just became the third union to quit the AFL-CIO. The 1.3 million member union said it was committing itself to the new Change to Win Coalition, following in the footsteps of the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union.
In addition to the UFCW, Teamsters and SEIU, the new labor coalition includes three AFL-CIO member unions (the United Farm Workers, Laborers' International and Unite Here) and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Who would fall for this?!
I have been getting these stupid flyers that claim "Buy stock XXXX, which is poised to skyrocket." It's a well-known variation on the scam; the only thing that has impressed me is the increasing quality of the production. One even posed as a 32-page investment magazine with a variety of articles, but if you actually looked through it, it was only pushing one particular stock.
Got another one today and actually took a minute to read through it. A footnote reads, "[The producer of the flyer] may hold positions in the company mentioned." Even more ridiculous, it discloses that, "The profile of XXXX is a paid advertisement by a third party shareholder to XXXX in the amount of 250,000 shares of stock that need to be sold to pay for the cost of this advertising." And most farcical of all we are treated to "The target price was determined arbitrarily."
Who would fall for this?!
Obviously, this scam works or they would have stopped sending me the flyers. But I am amazed to learn that there are enough people dumb enough to fall for this pitch to keep it alive.
What is even more unbelievable is that they obtained my name due to my Financial Planning Association membership. I have cancelled my membership not just for the obvious reason that I believe they violated their duty to take reasonable care with my information, but even more so because the FPA apparently has enough members who might fall for this scam to make them worth targetting.
Got another one today and actually took a minute to read through it. A footnote reads, "[The producer of the flyer] may hold positions in the company mentioned." Even more ridiculous, it discloses that, "The profile of XXXX is a paid advertisement by a third party shareholder to XXXX in the amount of 250,000 shares of stock that need to be sold to pay for the cost of this advertising." And most farcical of all we are treated to "The target price was determined arbitrarily."
Who would fall for this?!
Obviously, this scam works or they would have stopped sending me the flyers. But I am amazed to learn that there are enough people dumb enough to fall for this pitch to keep it alive.
What is even more unbelievable is that they obtained my name due to my Financial Planning Association membership. I have cancelled my membership not just for the obvious reason that I believe they violated their duty to take reasonable care with my information, but even more so because the FPA apparently has enough members who might fall for this scam to make them worth targetting.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Ford and GM Hurting
After a disappointing performance in the first half of the year, Ford Motor Company is considering cutting more salaried workers, a company spokesman said Friday. Ford spokesman Oscar Suris wouldn't confirm a report in The Wall Street Journal that said Ford may lay off up to 30% of its white-collar work force - about 10,500 of its 35,000 salaried workers - in North America over the next few years. But he noted that earlier this week, Ford CFO Don Leclair said "nothing is off the table" when asked about possible cuts during a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings.
Ford already has announced plans to reduce its salaried work force in North America by 2,700 people by the end of this year. It also has said it will reduce the use of agency workers and other purchased services by 10%. But Suris said the company is considering even more aggressive measures. "We have operating challenges that include our cost structure and excessive production capacity, and we have plans to address that," Suris said.
Ford said it earned $946 million in the April-June period versus a profit of $1.17 billion in the year-earlier period. It lost $907 million in North America, down $1.4 billion from a year ago. Ford's U.S. sales were down nearly 4% in the first six months of this year.
So Ford made $1.853 billion on sales outside the US? Man, if they could somehow wipe their US operations off the face of the Earth, they would be on easy street!
Ford CFO Don Leclair said the automaker would no longer issue quarterly earnings forecasts. GM withdrew its earnings outlook for 2005 after reporting a stunning $1.1 billion first-quarter loss in April. Both GM and Ford have been hurt by a dramatic slowdown in sales of profitable mid- and large-size sport utility vehicles amid high gasoline prices. They are also struggling with higher borrowing costs following cuts in their debt ratings to "junk" status by the Standard & Poor's rating agency in May.
Ford already has announced plans to reduce its salaried work force in North America by 2,700 people by the end of this year. It also has said it will reduce the use of agency workers and other purchased services by 10%. But Suris said the company is considering even more aggressive measures. "We have operating challenges that include our cost structure and excessive production capacity, and we have plans to address that," Suris said.
Ford said it earned $946 million in the April-June period versus a profit of $1.17 billion in the year-earlier period. It lost $907 million in North America, down $1.4 billion from a year ago. Ford's U.S. sales were down nearly 4% in the first six months of this year.
So Ford made $1.853 billion on sales outside the US? Man, if they could somehow wipe their US operations off the face of the Earth, they would be on easy street!
Ford CFO Don Leclair said the automaker would no longer issue quarterly earnings forecasts. GM withdrew its earnings outlook for 2005 after reporting a stunning $1.1 billion first-quarter loss in April. Both GM and Ford have been hurt by a dramatic slowdown in sales of profitable mid- and large-size sport utility vehicles amid high gasoline prices. They are also struggling with higher borrowing costs following cuts in their debt ratings to "junk" status by the Standard & Poor's rating agency in May.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
To Rein In CEO Pay, Why Not Consider Outsourcing The Post?
Outsourcing is the rage. It is possible to find qualified and cheaper workers to write software and perform other tasks in India, China, Taiwan, Turkey, etc. It makes competitive sense to outsource. Which leads to the following statement. Maybe it's time for American CEO's to include themselves in the outsourcing strategy. Certainly from a compensation standpoint it could be a great deal. US executives are by far the highest paid in the world, and their pay seldom has anything to do with performance. Directors give executives a boatload of money before they have done a lick of work. And when they fail, they are given another boatload of money so it doesn't hurt too much when the door hits them on their way out. If outsourcing the CEO's job isn't appealing, then what is the solution? Directors have to put a price tag on every single form of compensation so shareholders truly know what is going on. And directors have to stop rewarding incompetence. If a CEO is fired for screwing up, no more exorbitant severance packages.
(The Wall Street Journal, 19-Jul-2005, Midwest ed., p. B1)
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