Τα λεφτά της SIEMENS ...φεύγουν!
Οι εργαζόμενοι ...μένουν (άνεργοι)!
Μήπως, έρχεται σε λίγο και η ώρα της DEUTCHE TELEKOM -και συνεπώς και του ΟΤΕ- να κάνουν το ίδιο?
Και τι θα γίνει τότε με τους εργαζόμενους του ΟΤΕ?
Κρίμα, γιατί δεν έχουν προλάβει να κάνουν το ίδιο και με τη ΔΕΗ και με τον ΟΣΕ και με τα ΕΛΤΑ...
Και τι θα γίνει τώρα, με κάποιους που βγήκαν ξανά στην κυβέρνηση, με μοναδικό στόχο να προλάβουν να μεταβιβάσουν όλο τον εθνικό πλούτο στα αφεντικά τους, μέσα σε αυτή την τετραετία?
Θα δυσαρεστηθούν βέβαια!
Με αγωνία για το μέλλον
Σταύρος Κυριαζής
Οικονομολόγος
Υ.Γ. Συγγνώμη που δεν πρόλαβα να τα μεταφράσω, αλλά είναι σημερινά νέα από τις πλέον έγκριτες οικονομικές στήλες και δεν έπρεπε να καθυστερήσουν καθόλου.
ΥΓ Μπορειτε να δειτε το κειμενο στο οποιο αναφερεται ο φιλος στα σχολια.....
Οι εργαζόμενοι ...μένουν (άνεργοι)!
Μήπως, έρχεται σε λίγο και η ώρα της DEUTCHE TELEKOM -και συνεπώς και του ΟΤΕ- να κάνουν το ίδιο?
Και τι θα γίνει τότε με τους εργαζόμενους του ΟΤΕ?
Κρίμα, γιατί δεν έχουν προλάβει να κάνουν το ίδιο και με τη ΔΕΗ και με τον ΟΣΕ και με τα ΕΛΤΑ...
Και τι θα γίνει τώρα, με κάποιους που βγήκαν ξανά στην κυβέρνηση, με μοναδικό στόχο να προλάβουν να μεταβιβάσουν όλο τον εθνικό πλούτο στα αφεντικά τους, μέσα σε αυτή την τετραετία?
Θα δυσαρεστηθούν βέβαια!
Με αγωνία για το μέλλον
Σταύρος Κυριαζής
Οικονομολόγος
Υ.Γ. Συγγνώμη που δεν πρόλαβα να τα μεταφράσω, αλλά είναι σημερινά νέα από τις πλέον έγκριτες οικονομικές στήλες και δεν έπρεπε να καθυστερήσουν καθόλου.
ΥΓ Μπορειτε να δειτε το κειμενο στο οποιο αναφερεται ο φιλος στα σχολια.....
Σχόλια
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/business/worldbusiness/09siemens.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&referer=sphere_related_content&referer=sphere_related_content&oref=slogin
By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 9, 2008
FRANKFURT — In a sign that the global economy is catching up with Germany, one of the country’s largest exporters, Siemens, said on Tuesday that it would eliminate 16,750 jobs across its far-flung operations as it struggles to bolster profits in a weakening business climate.
The job reductions — parceled out among Germany, the United States and other countries — represent about 4 percent of the Siemens work force and constitute a significant retrenchment for the company, which is also laboring to put an extensive corruption scandal behind it.
The cuts are also a rare dose of bad economic news for Germany, which has proved to be remarkably resilient over the last year to the woes in the United States and to the strength of the euro.
Until this week, Germany witnessed a steady decline in unemployment, which is now at its lowest level since 1992. But Siemens, a conglomerate that makes products ranging from light bulbs to locomotives, has often struck a discordant note, lurching from problem to problem.
Despite a bribery scandal, which implicated senior executives and tarnished its name, Siemens had set an ambitious goal of growing twice as fast as the global economy as a whole. Now it is acknowledging that it may not avoid fallout from the deteriorating economic conditions.
“These measures take on special urgency, when you take into account the slowdown in the global economy,” Siemens’s chief executive, Peter H. Löscher, said at a news conference in Munich, where the company is based.
Mr. Löscher, who has made this plan the centerpiece of his turnaround effort, said the cutbacks would save Siemens 1.2 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by 2010, mostly in sales and administrative costs.
As is typical in Germany, where labor leaders are consulted on layoffs in advance, these cutbacks had been rumored for days in the news media. With the actual number coming in slightly below expectations, some analysts expressed disappointment that Siemens had not gone far enough.
“If you have 400,000 people on your payroll, cutting 17,000 is not that big a deal,” said Jochen Klusmann, head of research at BHF Bank in Frankfurt. “Everyone agrees that a ton of efficiencies can be taken out of this company. From that perspective, this isn’t so ambitious.”
Shares of Siemens slumped 1 percent on Tuesday in Frankfurt. Part of the letdown also had to do with the lack of financial details about the plan. The company declined to comment on the size of potential revamping charges, or when it might take them.
Mr. Klusmann estimates Siemens will have to take a charge of 1 billion euros ($1.56 billion) to pay severance and other costs for the departing employees, 5,250 of whom will be in Germany.
Except for Germany, Siemens declined to quantify reductions in other countries. It did say that of the 1,550 administrative jobs eliminated in its health care group, the majority would be in the United States.
Siemens said it could not give exact numbers because it still had to negotiate with its various unions. This, it said, is also why it did not respond to the stream of rumors about layoffs in recent days.
“Those are the rules, and we play by the rules,” said Siegfried Russwurm, the head of human resources.
Mr. Russwurm’s deference to the rights of workers did not save Siemens from an angry blast by the company’s main union, IG Metall, which condemned the reductions as “totally excessive.”
“Siemens is in good shape; the order books are full,” said the chief of IG Metall in Bavaria, Werner Neugebauer. “Against that background, the planned job cuts are neither comprehensible nor acceptable.”
Mr. Neugebauer hinted that the workers might strike, though Mr. Löscher and Mr. Russwurm expressed confidence that this could be avoided if the union talks were handled properly.
Among other things, they said, Siemens hoped to achieve most of the reductions through voluntary means — for example, moving people to other jobs. Even as it is slimming down, Mr. Löscher noted that Siemens had 3,200 vacancies in Germany, mostly for engineers and scientists.
Mr. Löscher said the reductions were the logical extension of a previous overhaul at Siemens, in which he streamlined its operations into three broad categories — energy, industry and health care — and trimmed the legal entities under the Siemens umbrella to fewer than 1,000, from 1,800.
Mr. Löscher, a little-known Austrian who replaced Klaus Kleinfeld last summer in the heat of a bribery scandal, has been struggling to remake Siemens while at the same time trying to restore its name.
He declined to comment on the scandal, which has led to charges against former executives. Mr. Kleinfeld has not been implicated. Analysts are now watching the Securities and Exchange Commission, which they expect to levy a heavy fine on Siemens.
For investors, though, the bigger question is whether this latest makeover will finally breathe life into a conglomerate that has always seemed lumbering, particularly compared with rivals like General Electric, though it too has hit a rough patch lately.
“Siemens has always been the big restructuring story in Germany,” Mr. Klusmann of BHF Bank said. “It’s always the story of a Sleeping Beauty who needs Jack Welch to kiss her and wake her up.”
Siemens cutting 17K jobs worldwide to cut costs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_bi_ge/germany_siemens?referer=sphere_related_content&referer=sphere_related_content
By GEORGE FREY, AP Business Writer Tue Jul 8, 11:33 AM ET
FRANKFURT, Germany - Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said Tuesday it will cut 16,750 jobs, or 4.2 percent of its global work force, to streamline operations and slice nearly $2 billion in costs in the face of a slowing economy.
The Munich-based maker of products ranging from light bulbs and medical equipment to high-speed trains and power turbines said the cuts would include 12,600 administrative jobs as well as another 4,150 positions involving restructuring projects at its various units. The company has a worldwide work force of approximately 400,000 people.
Siemens said it will consolidate its businesses from the current 1,800 separate legal entities to fewer than 1,000 and take its 70 regional companies and transform them into 20 regional clusters.
Siemens said the cuts were being made in an effort to reduce total costs by 1.2 billion euros ($1.8 billion) by 2010.
"The speed at which business is changing worldwide has increased considerably, and we're orienting Siemens accordingly," said chief executive Peter Loescher in a statement announcing the cuts, which had first been raised last month.
"Against the backdrop of a slowing economy, we have to become more efficient," he said.
Shares of Siemens closed up less than 1 percent at 69.38 euros ($108.63) in Frankfurt.
Siemens said it was considering offering employees transfers to other companies and early retirement packages in a bid to avoid forced layoffs and dismissals.
Loescher said Siemens was conferring with unions and labor representatives on the matter and that it wanted to make the changes rapidly.
"We want to begin negotiations with the employee representatives quickly in order to make the cuts in a way that will be as socially responsible as possible," chief financial officer Siegfried Russwurm said. "Only as a last resort will we terminate employment contracts for operation reasons."
Werner Neugebauer, the regional director for the IG Metall union in Bavaria, where Siemens is based, criticized the plan, saying Siemens order book was full and it was financially sound.
"The planned job cuts are incomprehensible nor acceptable for these reasons, and in this extent, completely exaggerated," Neugebauer said in a statement.
The company said it would also reduce costs further by cutting back expenditures for information technology infrastructure and consultants, and the recent streamlining of its management structure and divisions.
For example, the management board has been reduced from 11 members to eight and the company's previous eight divisions have been reduced to just three divisions: energy, industry, and health care.
Alexander Koch, an economist with UniCredit in Munich, said European consumer demand in general was slowing and that, in turn, may lead to more job losses by industrial companies.
"On an economy wide level, the new orders trend is down and on a broad basis, demand is decelerating," Koch said. "The labor market is a lagging indicator," but "momentum could fade at the end of the year," he said.
The announcement comes as Siemens has faced a corruption and bribery scandal that emerged in 2006. The company has acknowledged dubious payments, totaling up to 1.3 billion euros ($2.04 billion), which were allegedly used by the company to secure business.
Siemens said 5,250 jobs will be cut in Germany — with operations in Erlangen, Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin bearing the brunt of the cuts. Siemens employs approximately 136,000 workers in Germany.
Siemens is not alone in announcing major job cuts. In the U.S., AMR Corp.'s American Airlines said last week it would cut 900 jobs starting Aug. 1, and 8 percent of its total work force, which could total about 7,000 jobs.
On the Net:
http://www.siemens.com
Siemens Plans to Cut 16,750 Jobs to Boost Margins (Update3)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=auEstDB5bjv0&refer=europe
By Eva von Schaper and Sheenagh Matthews
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, plans to cut 16,750 jobs as it seeks to boost profit margins to the level of its competitors.
Siemens aims to eliminate 5,250 jobs in Germany, Chief Executive Officer Peter Loescher said in a speech handed to reporters today in Munich, where the company is based. The reductions represent about 3.9 percent of the workforce. Another 4,150 further positions will be ``affected'' by the company's reorganization, the CEO said.
Loescher set a target in April to cut 1.2 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in selling, general and administrative costs by 2010 as part of an effort to raise profitability to the level of rivals such as General Electric Co. and ABB Ltd. The economy is ``slowing'', the CEO said today.
``We want to begin negotiations with the employee representative quickly in order to make the cuts in a way that will be as socially responsible as possible,'' Loescher said today on a conference call.
The company will cut 6,350 jobs at its industry unit, 3,950 at energy, and 2,800 at healthcare, the CEO said. Most jobs will be administrative positions. The company's headquarters will lose 800 positions. Siemens said it couldn't estimate the cost of its job cutting plan. Further job cuts weren't ruled out, though the company said it doesn't plan any more at this time.
Siemens, whose products include light bulbs, medical scanners and trains, fell as much as 3.2 percent in German trading today and changed hands at 69.63 euros as of 1:42 p.m. local time. The stock has lost 36 percent this year in Frankfurt trading, cutting the company's market value to 63.3 billion euros. Germany's benchmark DAX index has lost 21 percent in that time.
Worker Relief
``The cuts are a few hundred below what people were talking about, so there might be a slight amount of relief on the worker side,'' said Eerik Budarz, a Frankfurt-based Bankhaus Metzler analyst who advises clients to buy the stock. ``There's a nice savings potential for the coming years if they can achieve the same productivity with fewer workers.''
Siemens generates less sales and profit per employee than peers including GE, which competes with Siemens in industries such as health care and power generation. The company earned about $12,710 per employee last year, compared with $67,914 for each worker at GE, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The company reported a 68 percent drop in earnings for the three months through March because of charges for project delays and rising raw-material costs at the power, transportation and technology units.
Economic Clouds
``We see clouds in the economic sky, so we're taking cost measures,'' the CEO said. ``This is a further step to position the company globally.''
Loescher, who has held the top job for a year, cut management layers and pooled nine operating units into three. The 51-year-old Austrian, who joined Siemens from U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co., was chosen to head the company after a bribery scandal led to the departures of predecessor Klaus Kleinfeld and supervisory board chairman Heinrich von Pierer last year.
To contact the reporters on this story: Eva von Schaper in Munich at evonschaper@bloomberg.net; Sheenagh Matthews in Frankfurt at smatthews6@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 8, 2008 08:28 EDT
Siemens to Trim Work Force And Streamline Its Business
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121551689863835509.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd
A WSJ NEWS ROUNDUP
Word Count: 343
German electronics and engineering company Siemens AG confirmed it will cut 16,750 jobs, or about 4.2% of its global work force, to streamline its operations in the face of a slowing global economy.
The Munich maker of products ranging from light bulbs and medical equipment to high-speed trains and power turbines said that the cuts, mostly administrative positions, include restructuring projects at its various units.
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Related Web News
• Siemens Details Job Cuts - NYTimes.com Jul. 08, 2008 nytimes.com
• Siemens cutting 17K jobs worldwide to cut costs Jul. 08, 2008 news.yahoo.com
• Siemens reportedly to cut 17,200 jobs Jun. 29, 2008 nbc.com
• Siemens Could Slash Another 15,000 Jobs Jun. 26, 2008 businessweek.com