Thread: Stimulapalooza: 3.6 Million Jobs Lost is “Quite Positive;”

What a coincidence on all the report delays.....

Boeing’s defense division ‘unexpectedly’ announces layoffs, facility closings - on day after election

Posted at 10:28 pm on November 7, 2012 by Twitchy Staff

Boeing Announces Big Layoffs in Defense Division fb.me/11MwlSkNe
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Charlie Martin (@chasrmartin) November 08, 2012

As Twitchy reported in September, the Obama administration made moves to encourage defense contractors to delay layoff announcements until after the election, http://twitchy.com/2012/09/29/obama-...r-legal-costs/ offering to reimburse contractors for any legal costs incurred in not informing their affected employees. Lockheed Martin seemingly took the offer, http://twitchy.com/2012/10/01/lockhe...after-election and today, Boeing announced it would be cutting 30 percent of management positions.

CNBC reports: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49729998/

Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California and consolidate several business units to cut costs.

Boeing, the Pentagon’s second-largest supplier, said the changes were the latest step in an affordability drive that has already reduced the company’s costs by $2.2 billion since 2010, according to the memo.The company told employees about the changes on Wednesday, in a memo obtained by Reuters and confirmed by Boeing.

…

Boeing said the changes were not a response to the threat of additional, across-the-board U.S. budget cuts due to take effect on Jan. 2, or the outcome of U.S. elections, but represented another step in its continuing drive to “be more competitive while investing in technologies and people.”

I bet a lot of Boeing employees voted Obama. Bye bye union man.
Boeing Announces Big Layoffs in Defense Division fb.me/2naPAWM19—
Barack Problema (@BarackProblema) November 07, 2012

Funny how they didn't know this Monday. MT @Conservative_VW: Boeing Announces Big Layoffs in Defense Division fb.me/2naPAWM19—
Debbie M. (@mosesmosesmoses) November 07, 2012

@markknoller 200 k people laid at Boeing. But what do you care. Your idol was reelected. Don't care about the debt, unemployment vile—
Stephanie Janiczek (@SMjaniczek) November 08, 2012

How incredibly unethical. Boeing announced layoffs today. Made back room deal with Obama not to annouce layoffs until after election.—
America Speaking Out (@America_Speaks) November 08, 2012

http://twitchy.com/2012/11/07/boeing...fter-election/

and today dow jones went down -300+ points.

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They don't care about those dying unions... they care about the millions of new union workers when they unionize healthcare workers. Oh what? No one said that was in 0bamacare?? Funny how that wasn't mentioned...

,,,

The fact that Boeing has no shame in doing this the day after the election shows the evil marriage of Dems and Big Corporations

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Its sweet to say I told you so, we tried to change this sad outcome but ignorant racist self righteous liberals kept Obama based entirely on race, nothing else.

And guess what libs, its going to get worse, much much worse. So enjoy the bed you've made for yourselves.

California just raised the sales and federal income tax, Dow crashed and now significant unemployment. But don't worry, Cher, Michael Moore, Bloomberg, Sean Penn, Eva Longoria, Roseanne, Huffington, Behar, Mahr, Buffet and every last liberal leader you put back in office will be absolutely fine.

I wonder if Cher will share her $600 million with the saintly liberal base? Yea hold your breath and let's find out.

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I heard about this prior to the election, they held off reporting it...didn't want those notices sent out prior to election.

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People voted for Obama because he promised free stuff. I voted for the man who promised to get the economy working again. Now we will find out exactly how expensive all of Obamas 'free' stuff really is. [/i]

You were warned: Obama’s layoff bomb goes BOOM!
By Michelle Malkin • November 8, 2012 09:27 AM

This is just the beginning.

In case you missed it, Boeing announced massive layoffs and facilities closures yesterday. More: Small business owners are dropping the axe as they brace for the costs and burdens of Obamacare.

In case you missed it, I reported on Obama’s layoff bomb last week.

Refresher:

Obama’s Layoff Bomb
October 31, 2012
by Michelle Malkin

In June, a diffident and self-deluded President Obama claimed that “the private sector is doing fine.” Last week, the private sector responded: Speak for yourself, buster. Who needs an “October Surprise” when the business headlines are broadcasting the imminent layoff bomb in neon lights?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Tuesday that employers issued 1,316 “mass layoff actions” (affecting 50 workers or more) in September; more than 122,000 workers were affected overall. USA Today financial reporter Matt Krantz wrote that “(m)uch of the recent layoff activity is connected to what’s been the slowest period of earnings growth since the third quarter of 2009.” Some necessary restructuring is underway in response to the stagnant European economy. But more and more U.S. businesses are putting the blame — bravely and squarely — right where it belongs: on the obstructionist policies and regulatory schemes of the blame-shifter-in-chief.

Last week, Ohio-based auto parts manufacturer Dana Holding Corp. warned employees of potential layoffs amid “looming concern” about the economy. President and CEO Roger Wood specifically mentioned the walloping burden of “increasing taxes on small businesses” and the need to “offset increased costs that are placed on us through new laws and regulations.”

Case in point: Obamacare. The mandate will cost Dana Holding Corp., which employs some 24,500 workers, “approximately $24 million over the next six years in additional U.S. health care expenses.” As Ohio Watchdog blogger Maggie Thurber reported, the firm’s Toledo area corporate offices laid off seven white-collar employees last Friday; company insiders told her more were on the way. They are not alone.

On Tuesday, Consol Energy issued a federally mandated layoff disclosure announcing its “intent to idle its Miller Creek surface operations near Naugatuck, W.Va.” The move will affect the company’s Wiley Surface Mine, Wiley Creek Surface Mine, Minway Surface Mine, Minway Preparation Plant and Miller Creek Administration Group, all in Mingo County, W.Va. Despite state approval, cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and myriad other agencies, and a stellar safety record, Obama’s EPA dragged its feet on the permit approval process. The impasse has forced layoffs of 145 Consol Energy employees that will hit at the end of the year. They are not alone.

In August, Robert E. Murray, founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation in Ohio, blasted the White House anti-coal agenda for the layoffs and closure of his company’s mine. He told Obama water-carrying CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien that “the many regulations that (Obama) and his radical appointees and the U.S. EPA have put on the use of coal, there are dozens of them and collectively by his own energy administration, have closed 175 power plants.” As O’Brien barked at her guest about purported environmental objections, Murray explained that “we cannot get permits for these mines. They are delaying the issuance of permits. If you can’t get the permit, you can’t have the mine. … I created those jobs, and I put the investment in that mine. And when it came time to lay the people off, I went up personally and talked to every one of them myself to lay them off. It’s a human issue.”

And it’s an innovation issue, too. As I reported in February, Obamacare’s impending 2.3 percent medical device excise tax has already wrought havoc on the industry:

Stryker, a maker of artificial hips and knees based in Kalamazoo, Mich., is slashing 5 percent of its global workforce (an estimated 1,000 workers) this coming year to reduce costs related to Obamacare’s taxes and mandates.

Covidien, a N.Y.-based surgical supplies manufacturer, recently announced layoffs of 200 American workers and plans to move some of its plant work to Mexico and Costa Rica, in part because of the coming tax hit.

Mass.-based Zoll Medical Corp., which makes defibrillators and employs some 1,800 workers in the U.S. and around the world, says the medical device tax will cost the company between $5 million and $10 million a year.

This July, Indiana’s Cook Medical Inc. shelved plans to open five new plants because of the imminent medical device tax hit. They are not alone.

The heads of Koch Industries, Westgate Resorts and ASG Software Solutions have all separately informed their employees of prosperity-undermining Obama economic politics. Left-wing groups have lambasted the executives for exercising their political free speech.

But they have remained silent while the White House corruptocrats bribed federal defense contractors into delaying federally mandated layoff disclosures before the election. In a memo now being investigated on Capitol Hill, Obama promised to cover the legal fees of Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors if they ignored legal requirements to inform workers in advance about so-called sequestration cuts to the military’s budget scheduled to kick in next year.

Truth suppression is a time-honored Obama tactic, of course. Remember: The administration and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill attempted to punish Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and ATT in 2010 for disclosing how the costs of Obamacare taxes were hitting their bottom lines — even though they were simply following SEC disclosure requirements. The White House also tried to silence insurers who dared to inform their customers about how Obamacare was driving up premiums.

Not this time. The administration’s bully boys don’t have enough whitewash and duct tape to cover up the past, present and future devastation of the president and his economic demolition team.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/08...omb-goes-boom/

Forward! To mass layoffs!
By: John Hayward 11/8/2012 07:58 AM

Obamanomics grinds grimly onward, as CNBC brings word that on the day after the election, “Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California, and consolidate several business units to cut costs.” It was sweet of them to keep that under wraps until after the election, wasn’t it?

And that’s not even the dreaded “sequestration” layoffs, which Obama broke the law to convince defense contractors to keep under wraps until after the election. Those are yet to come. The upside to living in a banana Republic with Party-dominated media is that life is full of “unexpected” surprises, to use the word that has come to dominate economic news in the Obama era.

Another round of layoffs announced on Wednesday came from Hawker Beechcraft, which announced it would close facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas, resulting in 400 jobs lost, while another 170 jobs would be cut from corporate offices in Kansas and Arkansas.

Also on the day after the election, the CEO of the Papa John’s pizza restaurant chain, John Schnatter, told a small community college audience in Florida that ObamaCare would likely result in cuts to employee hours by franchise owners seeking to escape the law’s mandates by eliminating full-time positions, a move he described as “common sense” and “lose-lose.”

Schnatter also predicted ObamaCare would add between $5 million and $8 million to his business costs (which is fine, because he’s an evil rich guy who supported Mitt Romney for president, and we all know that truly patriotic job creators happily pay for increased business costs out of their own pockets) and that it would add 10 to 14 cents to the cost of his pizzas, which is a bummer, but under Obamanomics theory is totally unrelated to the process of extracting that “fair share” from idle plutocrats. Then he headed off to help out with a telethon for Hurricane Sandy victims and write the Red Cross a million-dollar check, but we all know that private charity is irrelevant, as only Big Government can save us from big storms.

The Huffington Post relays the thoughts of Fox Business Network corresponded Charlie Gasparino http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2089268.html , who says Wall Street executives are “in mourning” after Obama’s re-election, because “they know that Wall Street is going to lay off a lot more people.” About 10,000 of them by the end of the year, in fact, if the New York state comptroller’s estimate is accurate. It’s not a big deal though, because those people are evil. Everyone knows that investment capital and consumer loans should be redistributed by selfless government agencies, not greedy bankers.

According to Gasparino, things could look up if “Republicans and Democrats happen to reach a long-term budget deal similar to Simpson-Bowles,” which could mean “the market is going to go through the roof” to “Dow 20,000, easy.” But he knows perfectly well that’s not going to happen. We’ll more likely get the usual: big tax increases right now, combined with vague promises of largely symbolic spending cuts at some indeterminate point in the future.

Once the sequestration cuts and financial industry devastation are done, the real action to watch in the job market next year will be the transition of full-time workers to part-time. That’s a very attractive option for escaping from ObamaCare and reducing payroll costs, without producing headline-grabbing mass layoffs (executives don’t like giving the impression their companies are terminally ill) or depriving operations of needed labor altogether. As a New York Times article noted in October http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/bu...anted=all&_r=0 it’s increasingly easy for service companies (which accounted for the bulk of job creation in the last pre-election employment report) to do, using “sophisticated software that tracks the flow of customers, allowing managers to assign just enough employees to handle the anticipated demand.” It’s a trend that’s been developing for a long time, but there are now powerful incentives accelerating it.

The result “has been a bane to many workers, pushing many into poverty and forcing some onto food stamps and Medicaid. And with work schedules that change week to week, workers can find it hard to arrange child care, attend college or hold a second job.” Fortunately, there are lots of food stamps to give away here in the New Normal, and it’s likely that pleas for more extensive government-provided child care to assist America’s part-time workforce would not fall upon deaf ears.

Update: An anonymous business owner in Las Vegas told talk-radio host Kevin Wall he fired 22 of his 114 employees on the day after President Obama’s re-election because “elections have consequences” and “at the end of the day, I need to survive.” He said this was necessary to “make sure I have enough money to cover the payroll taxes and the additional health care I’m gonna have to do.” http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/11...-22-employees/

“Well unfortunately, and most of my employees are Hispanic — I’m not gonna go into what kind of company I have, but I have mostly Hispanic employees — well unfortunately we know what happened and I can’t wait around anymore, I have to be proactive,” the businessman continued. ”I had to lay off 22 people today to make sure that my business is gonna thrive and I’m gonna be around for years to come. I have to build up that nest egg now for the taxes and regulations that are coming my way. Elections do have consequences, but so do choices. A choice you make every day has consequences and you know what, I’ve always put my employees first, but unfortunately today I have to put me and my family first, and you watch what’s gonna happen. I’m just one guy with 114 employees — well was 114 employees — watch what happens in the next six months. The Dow alone lost 314 points today. There’s a tsunami coming and if you didn’t think this election had consequences, just wait.”

The entire conversation can be heard by clicking this link. http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2012/11...-22-employees/

Update: FreedomWorks has an extensive list of even more post-election layoffs resulting directly from Obama policies. Among the bigger names: Welch-Allyn, Dana Holding Corporation, Stryker, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic. The confirmed post-election jobs death toll from this list stands at 5,263 jobs, but much more are on the way, including a 5 percent cut in the huge Stryker workforce, a probably comparable reduction of Dana’s even larger staff, and talk of jobs being sent to China. The transition to part-time labor I mentioned above is also discussed. http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/gru...offs-you-voted

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/11/0...-mass-layoffs/

Update: Twitchy.com relays the Twitter messages of more small business owners who are preparing to batten down the hatches and issue pink slips. http://twitchy.com/2012/11/08/forwar...er-doing-same/

Originally Posted by boopster

By the way, does anyone know how his net worth went up over 700% in 4 years?

magic ....

The Hope-a-Nomics Disaster: One Company’s Horror Story
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012

President Obama promises to move the country forward with his recycled pledge of five million green jobs. But in the real world, small businesses are struggling to stay afloat as they deal with the fiscal wreckage of this administration’s disastrous venture socialism. Here’s the tale of just one Colorado company victimized by the Obama Department of Energy (DOE).

Colorado Distribution Group is a privately held storage and shipping company based in Denver. Thanks to hope-a-nomics, its warehouse is saddled with nearly 7,000 pallets of federally subsidized solar panels (one-third of which are completely spoiled and unsalable), along with related detritus such as broken glass and stray module parts.

While $22,000/month in storage costs go unpaid, the panels consume up to a third of the company’s warehouse space. Legal costs have forced CDG to slash payroll and lay off at least three employees. A source with knowledge of CDG’s woes told me this week the company is facing pressure by the Department of Energy to drop its petition to recoup those costs. The feds want CDG to swallow a $1.4 million tab to dispose of the bum solar panels.

In July, according to Dow Jones, CDG asked a Delaware bankruptcy court “for permission either to sell or collect rent on the property Abound Solar Inc. has at its facility, saying the situation is threatening its ability to stay in business.” Like many private enterprises in the Age of Obama’s Brass-Knuckled Politics of Revenge, fear of retribution holds back many from coming forward publicly about such attempted shakedowns.

CDG serves industries ranging from automotive to food and beverage, electronic, medical, furniture, clothing, sporting goods and telecommunications. Founded in 2005, CDG handles distribution, fulfillment, transportation, logistics and inventory management using a high-tech data system. For the past three years, the company warehoused solar panels manufactured by Fort Collins-based Abound Solar.

Yes, Abound Solar. Also known as: Colorado’s own Solyndra.

In June, less than a year after fellow Obama green boondoggle Solyndra went belly up, Abound filed for bankruptcy. As I reported in March, the financial outlook of the $400 million DOE loan guarantee recipient was based on false hope and imaginary change. Obama’s envirocrats ignored bright red flags from Fitch Ratings about Abound’s substandard technology and failures to meet basic efficiency targets.

Abound borrowed $70 million against its $400 million Obama DOE loan guarantee; taxpayers will lose up to $60 million on the loan after the bankruptcy proceedings are complete. Nearly 125 Abound Solar employees lost their jobs. Screwed-over companies like CDG that did business with Abound are not alone. At least one other warehouse in Colorado is storing the costly panels. And an untold number of related contractors and businesses have been stiffed. “I did a lot of machining for Abound,” one business owner told me this summer, “and they went under owing me a fair amount.”

Recently released internal documents show that customers demanded replacements for the panels after experiencing “low performance,” “under performance” and “catastrophic failures.” Credit and technical advisers at DOE complained about having “major issues” with the Abound Solar deal and expressed concern over the “transaction pressure under which we are all now operating.” The documents fly in the face of Obama’s denial — just days before Election Day — that his White House played any role in this fiscal disaster.

The investigative work of Colorado’s Todd Shepherd at CompleteColorado.com, Amy Oliver at the Independence Institute and Michael Sandoval now of the Heritage Foundation exposed Abound’s crony ties to the Obama administration. Like Solyndra, Abound had a deep-pocketed bundler with ties to the White House. Progressive activist and billionaire heiress Pat Stryker, a repeat visitor to the Obama White House, owns an investment firm that invested considerably in Abound and donated nearly $500 million to the Democrats between 2008 and 2012.

Criminal and civil probes into Abound Solar’s alleged malfeasance — there are reports that the firm knowingly sold faulty goods — have been launched in both Colorado and on Capitol Hill. The stench of pay-for-play abounds. While Obama giddily promises his cronies and sycophants that “the best is yet to come,” small-business owners are fighting for their lives. Where’s their “fair share”?

***

More from Dow Jones’ Daily Bankruptcy Review – Small Cap, July 2012:

Colorado Distribution, which said it is a secured creditor in the case but isn’t on the list of the 20 largest creditors, said in court documents that Abound Solar ‘s inventory is taking up 25% of the space in its Colorado warehouse.

“Continued storage of the assets without prompt payment has a significant negative effect on CDG’s monthly cash flow,” it said in court documents.

Prior to filing for bankruptcy, Abound Solar owed it $73,200 for the storage and has since been accruing rent at a rate of $27,000 a month, the company said. Abound Solar has been in bankruptcy almost one month.

Because Colorado Distribution Group’s monthly revenue when Abound Solar pays for the space is $164,000 and its expenses are $162,000 a month, the company said it will be out of business in 60 days without the court’s permission to sell the equipment, which it values at between $3 million and $10 million, or to collect payment.

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/11/09...-horror-story/

Forward! Ehr…From A Full-Time Job to Part-Time Work Thanks To ObamaCare
November 20, 2012 By John Hawkins

This story about a business owner adding an Obamacare surcharge to his menu is intriguing, but it buries the real lead. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2122412.html

While some business owners threaten to cut workers’ hours to avoid paying for their health care, a West Palm Beach, Fla., restaurant owner is going even further. John Metz said he will add a 5 percent surcharge to customers’ bills to offset what he said are the increased costs of Obamacare, along with reducing his employees’ hours.

“If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare,” Metz told The Huffington Post. “Although it may sound terrible that I’m doing this, it’s the only alternative. I’ve got to pass the cost on to the consumer.”

Metz is the franchisor of Hurricane Grill & Wings, which has 48 locations, five of which are corporate owned, and president and owner of RREMC Restaurants, which runs approximately 40 Denny’s and several Dairy Queen locations. He planned to use the 5 percent surcharge tactic in all his restaurants starting in January 2014, when Obamacare is fully implemented.

Interesting, but how many business owners are going to ultimately do something like that? Very few. On the other hand, the arbitrary limit on the number of full time employees needed to trigger the implementation of Obamacare in a business is going to have a terrible impact on people’s lives.

Metz said he will hold meetings at all his restaurants starting in December to discuss the surcharge and to tell employees “that because of Obamacare, we are going to be cutting front-of-the-house employees to under 30 hours, effective immediately.”

…Metz said he understands the problems that will create not just for his scheduling but for his employees. “I think it’s a terrible thing. It’s ridiculous that the maximum hours we can give people is 28 hours a week instead of 40,” Metz said. “It’s going to force my employees to go out and get a second job.”

Despite the one-two hit his employees might take with possibly fewer hours and lower tips, Metz said he is not anti-insurance. His current coverage for full-time employees costs him $5,000 to $6,000 annually, he said. “Obviously, I’d love to cover all our employees under that insurance,” he said, “But to pay $5,000 per employee would cost us $175,000 per restaurant, and unfortunately, most of our restaurants don’t make $175,000 a year. I can’t afford it.”

Currently, the law states that employers with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees will be charged a penalty for any employees over 30 full-time employees that they don’t cover. Several employers have cited that provision — including Darden Restaurants, Papa John’s, Apple-Metro and Jimmy John’s — in announcing plans to skirt the law by cutting employees’ hours to make them part time.

In other words, Obamacare is now giving a lot of companies a powerful incentive NOT to hire full-time workers. Furthermore, imagine yourself in the place of the front office staff Metz has just been forced to make part-time employees. The article doesn’t say whether or not they already have insurance, but if so, they’re about to lose it. They’re also going to lose hours which will mean that they have to get by on greatly reduced paychecks or alternately, get a second part-time job and then juggle schedules at two different places of employment, which may mean more time lost in transit, odd working hours and increased daycare costs. Additionally, full time employees are more likely to get ahead at work. If you promote from within, you’re more likely to look at everyone working full-time before considering the part-timers.

The number of people impacted by this change in the law is not likely to be small either. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2122412.html

Many retail, food service and hospitality firms, including Darden, already offer all of their full-time employees bare-bones health insurance plans. But these plans, which have coverage limits, will become illegal under Obamacare in 2014. Darden and other firms face a stark choice: Buy more expensive health insurance for their full-time employees (which normally costs more than $5,000 for each employee), pay the $2,000 fine or hire fewer full-time workers.

More and more employers are going this last route.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Pillar Hotels and Resorts (parent company of Sheraton and other hotel chains), CKE Restaurants Inc. (parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) and Anna’s Linens Inc. have all started to replace full-time departures with part-time hires. According to a July survey of retail and hospitality companies by Mercer consulting, 32 percent of firms said they were likely to reduce the number of employees working 30 hours or more per week.

A lot of workers who aren’t making that much money to begin with are going to be hurt badly as a result of Obamacare, but unfortunately the candidate who pledged to stop Obamacare from happening lost and elections have consequences.

http://tpnn.com/forward-ehr-from-a-f...-to-obamacare/