Wednesday, April 25, 2007

[IWS] EMCC: EUROPEAN RESTRUCTURING MONITOR QUARTERLY, Issue 1, Spring 2007 [25 April 2007]

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016
-------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC)

European Restructuring Monitor Quarterly, Issue 1, Spring 2007 [25 April 2007]
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emcc/erm/index.php?template=quarterly&utm_source=23apr2007&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=press
or
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emcc/erm/templates/displaydoc.php?docID=35
[full-text, 18 pages]

Summary
There has been little change in the global macroeconomic outlook since the previous quarter. Growth and expectations
in Europe, particularly in Germany, remain good. The slowdown in the US economy continues without, as yet, having
any apparent impact on Europe, where unemployment is still falling. The EU27 unemployment rate was 7.4% in
February 2007, compared with 7.5% in January 2007 and 8.2% in February 2006.

During the first quarter 2007, the ERM recorded 420 restructuring cases. These cases announced 132,762 jobs losses and
184,511 job gains. The largest case of job loss was in the Czech public administration with 40,000 jobs to go. The two
next biggest cases were at Michelin and Pfizer which announced major job losses in their global operations. By far the
largest case of job loss in Italy was at the State Railways group which announced the loss of 10,000 jobs. The largest
expansion was proposed by the UK retail giant John Lewis, followed by Nokia in Romania and temporary agency jobs
at Adecco in Germany. One notable feature of restructuring this quarter was that job loss due to offshoring/delocalisation
only amounted to 5.5% of all jobs lost, below the 9% mark reported in previous quarters.

The thematic sections of this ERM quarterly consider two cases of strategic importance for European industry. One of
the major restructuring cases in the first quarter 2007 was at Alcatel-Lucent and was reported to the ERM from several
European countries. The job losses follow on from the merger between French Alcatel and American Lucent
Technologies Inc., announced in April 2006. Following the news of the merger, the company announced on 2 April 2006
that around 9,000 employees across the world would lose their jobs. The two companies began operating as a combined
unit on 1 December 2006, becoming the world's second-largest supplier of telecommunications network and mobile
equipment after Cisco Systems Inc. However, by 9 February 2007 Alcatel-Lucent had revised the proposed cutbacks to
between 12,000 and 13,000 jobs which amount to more than 15% of its workforce.

The second case concerns EADS, the leading European aerospace and defence group whose problems with the AIRBUS
A380 warranted a thematic section in the previous ERM quarterly. Since then more concrete information has been made
available and several cases have been reported to the ERM.

This quarterly concludes with a brief overview of recent restructuring events in Malta and Cyprus. Due to small firm
size these countries rarely feature in the ERM database. This special reporting will be a permanent feature of the ERM
quarterly.

CONTENTS

Summary
Current macroeconomic trends and prospects
Overview of the ERM statistics 1st quarter 2007
Restructuring at Alcatel-Lucent
Restructuring at AIRBUS
Restructuring in Cyprus and Malta
Note on methodology
______________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

****************************************
Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
****************************************






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