Honeywell's Census Adjustment

Date: Friday, June 03, 2005 4:37 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

by Rob Sanchez
June 03, 2005 No. 1270

Honeywell employees are about to face some nasty mass terminations. I
was told by a Honeywell employee that a meeting was held recently for
Honeywell workers. In that meeting high level executives told the
employees that the company was going to implement a "Census Adjustment"
in order to serve their customers better.

Honeywell claims that they need to adjust their census downward in
order to help customers. By some magic process cutting thousands
employees from the payroll will help customers. They even have the gall
to claim that Honeywell workers think the job cuts are a wonderful
idea.

"It's a pretty significant change, but it's one everyone,
from customers and to those who work here, are behind
and know is necessary to improve what we do and how we
do it," Gillette said.

At the same time that Honeywell is busy firing American employees their
executives are going out into the media to make their case for
increasing the H-1B cap. They are even whining that it's too difficult
to use H-1Bs for government contracts. Cleo Cabuz, director of
Honeywell International's sensors research lab, claims that Honeywell
is being forced to hire foreign workers because there just aren't
enough qualified Americans that they can hire.

Companies like Honeywell are talking out of both sides of their mouth.
They are firing massive numbers of American citizens while at the same
time they are actively lobbying for more H-1Bs. If so many Honeywell
employees aren't qualified to do the job, then shouldn't whomever hired
them be fired?

GE Global Research spokesman Jim Healy put things another way. He said
that they will put hiring on hold until more H-1Bs are available.

Corporate nazis call what they are doing "census adjustment" but a more
accurate term would be "ethnic cleansing".

http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?section_id=53&document_id=9138
Visa restrictions add to labor shortage

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0602honeywell02.html
Honeywell to cut jobs in shakeup

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?section_id=53&document_id=9138

Visa restrictions add to labor shortage
By Juliana Gruenwald
Small Times Correspondent

June 3, 2005 - Visa restrictions have put some high-tech industries in
a labor pinch, including companies that deal in micro and
nanotechnology. And the challenge of finding highly skilled workers is
likely to grow in coming years, industry leaders say.
MEMS companies already face problems obtaining visas for foreign
nationals and foreign students graduating from U.S. schools, according
to Cleo Cabuz, executive director of the MEMS Industry Group and
director of Honeywell International's sensors research lab. "A large
majority of MEMS specialists are foreign students," Cabuz said.

The global economy and a shortage of U.S. students graduating with
advanced degrees in math, science, engineering and other critical
fields have forced companies from many industries to look abroad for
the talent they need. But to import such talent, companies must use an
immigration visa reserved for skilled foreign workers. H-1B visas are
capped annually at 65,000 a year and generally go soon after they
become available. All 65,000 visas were gone on the first day they were
offered for fiscal year 2005.

Worsening the problem for government contractors like Honeywell are the
added rules on the type of work foreign nationals can do for U.S.
companies. Getting a visa is only the first hurdle, Cabuz said. "Then
you have significant restrictions in engaging those very capable
(people) in major and significant projects that may have sensitive
security applications."

Nanotechnology companies and labs have looked to universities for many
of their workers, said Sean Murdock, the NanoBusiness Alliance's
executive director. But as businesses grow, so will their workforce
needs. "We recognize it will be an increasingly important issue in the
medium term," he said.

The labor market is unlikely to adjust quickly enough if a shortage of
U.S. talent does materialize, Murdock said. "We will need H-1B visas to
address that," he said.

Compete America, a coalition of companies, universities and others that
support raising the H-1B cap, released a study last year that found 50
percent of the engineering and computer science students in U.S.
schools are foreign nationals.

Based on such data, the coalition and others persuaded Congress last
year to provide an additional 20,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2005
and beyond for foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges and
universities with advanced degrees.

It "makes no sense" that the U.S. government isn't doing more to keep
skilled foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. schools here, said
Compete America Chairwoman Sandy Boyd, vice president of human
resources policy for the National Association of Manufacturers. "They
are job creators."

After the cap was hit in October, GE Global Research put a disclaimer
on its job ads, such as a recent one attached to a Web listing for a
nanoceramist. The disclaimer warned that GE wouldn't consider foreign
nationals who need H-1B visas because such visas were unavailable for
the rest of fiscal 2005.

When the cap is reached, "it puts things on hold for a while," said GE
Global Research spokesman Jim Healy, but "generally, it's not a big
problem." The company is no longer carrying the disclaimer because
additional visas will be available soon, he said.

The NanoBusiness Alliance is expected to conduct a survey to identify
the near-term needs of nanotech companies, Murdock said. The survey
will include questions about company size, employee skills and
anticipated workforce needs.

Cabuz said her group will be conducting a government-supported study
with universities on education issues related to MEMS. It will look not
only at curriculum but also at potential shortfalls in the workforce.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0602honeywell02.html

Honeywell to cut jobs in shakeup

Phoenix aerospace giant to streamline

Jonathan J. Higuera
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 2, 2005 12:00 AM

Honeywell International, the state's fourth-largest private employer,
announced a major restructuring Wednesday that will mean an unknown
number of job cuts in Arizona.

Honeywell, with nearly 13,500 workers here, said it plans to streamline
the Phoenix-based aerospace division to provide better customer
service.

Details on the job cuts will not be available until the planning
process is complete, probably by year's end, company officials said.

"From a business standpoint, the overall number of people we have will
be fewer," said Rob Gillette, president and chief executive officer of
Honeywell Aerospace. "Specifically how many and where, we have to work
through to make sure we have the capabilities in place."

The restructuring involves creating three segments, one devoted to air
transport and regional aircraft, such as Boeing Co. and Airbus, another
devoted to business jets and general aviation, and a third segment
focused on defense and space contracts. The changes will start to go
into effect July 5. Currently, the division is structured around
specific products, such as avionics or engine systems.

"Our customers admire our technology and capability to do things, but
they want us to be more simple to work with," said Gillette, who became
president of the aerospace division in January and has been researching
the plan the past few months. Besides Boeing and Airbus, some of
Honeywell's biggest customers include Gulfstream, Dassault, all the
major airline carriers and the U.S. Department of Defense.

"It's a pretty significant change, but it's one everyone, from
customers and to those who work here, are behind and know is necessary
to improve what we do and how we do it," Gillette said.

The plan also calls for combining certain functions, such as
operations, into single units that will report directly to top-level
management.

Engineering also will become a combined function. So electrical
engineers, for instance, will be able to use their skills on
applications across product lines or "wherever the need arises,"
Gillette said.

Honeywell Aerospace is the largest division of Honeywell International,
which is based in Morris Township, N.J. Last year, the aerospace
division accounted for 38 percent of the company's revenues and 47
percent of earnings before taxes and interest.

Gillette said that Phoenix has been a good location for its
headquarters.

"From an overall business standpoint, we're very happy being based in
Phoenix," he said, adding that he recently bought a home here.

The aerospace division has seen an upswing in commercial and military
orders in the past couple of years as the aerospace market improved and
defense spending surged.

Several aerospace analysts said Wall Street would welcome the
streamlining.

"It's always good to pare operating costs in good times and bad," said
Robert Friedman, an analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York. "I
don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with that."

Although the company said the restructuring has nothing to do with
another initiative to move more production to low-cost countries, some
workers and analysts said the initiatives may be linked simply because
the company can keep up with new orders through foreign workers without
increasing its domestic workforce.

In recent years, the company has pushed suppliers to open facilities in
Mexico and other countries where operating costs are lower.

"It's an internal reorganization to streamline the company to meet the
needs of our markets and customers," said Bill Reavis, a Honeywell
Aerospace spokesman. "It has nothing to do with globalization."

In December, an Associated Press story detailed Honeywell's plans to
increase its foreign operations, citing the lower costs. The story was
based on documents retrieved by a worker from a trash bin after a
management meeting in Arizona.

The documents were sent to Seattle-based WashTech, a technology workers
union that is an arm of the Communication Workers of America.

The documents, titled "Strategies In-Place To Enable 5-Year Plan,"
described how Honeywell would increase aerospace workers in foreign
countries to 8,803, up from 3,239 by 2009. Meanwhile, the number of
workers in high-cost countries, such as the United States, would
decline by about 686.

The document also described plans to establish avionics manufacturing
capabilities in the Czech Republic, increase equipment manufacturing in
Mexico and increase repair and overhaul work in the Asian Pacific
region and Mexico.

Company officials referred questions about those documents to a
statement released last year when the documents surfaced. That
statement said it expects employment levels in the United States to
remain flat while "expanding in high-growth regions."

"It's all part of a downsizing strategy," said Marcus Courtney,
president of WashTech. "We're supposed to be in a recovery, but it
doesn't feel that way for workers."

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