Word: ponting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...thousands of blue-collar assembly-line workers have lost their livelihoods, white-collar engineers have had their pick of high-paying jobs. Last year 25,346 businesses went bankrupt, the most since the Great Depression, but 566,942 new companies opened their doors. Says Delaware Governor Pierre du Pont IV: "The transformation of our jobs, the movement of our people, the improvements in our skills over the first 80 years of this century have been stunning. But it is entirely likely that those changes will be matched and exceeded during the final 20 years of the century...
...shopkeepers and other small businessmen a fortnight ago to protest government price controls and other austerity restrictions. Accompanied by a goat on a leash, symbolizing the marchers' refusal to be scapegoats for the squeeze, the middle-aged multitude was tear-gassed by the police at the Pont d'Alma in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Said Jean Brunei, vice president of the 1.5 million-member Small and Medium Business Confederation: "We are demanding the freedom to manage our own businesses as we choose." Farmers, meanwhile, were planning to pursue their running protest against the government...
...supervisory or policymaking tasks. They depend on subordinates to perform the kind of data manipulation and word processing that computers do best. So while computers are commonplace at lower corporate levels, they are not routinely used in the executive suite at such companies as Exxon, General Motors and Du Pont...
...Pont has been much less secretive about the results of its staff-cutting drive. The company offered resignation bonuses, as well as early pension benefits for older employees, to the management staff at its Wilmington, Del., headquarters and workers at 38 of its 86 manufacturing plants nationwide. Some 18% of the 16,900 eligible employees took the money and left. Du Pont, burdened by interest payments on the $3.9 billion it borrowed to buy Conoco, estimates that the staff reductions will save the company $30 million over the next three or four years...
While Exxon, Du Pont and Kodak have offered resignation incentives to all age groups, other companies have focused on workers nearing retirement. Because these employees command the biggest salaries, their departure can generate the greatest savings. Ordinarily, workers are reluctant to retire early because they are not eligible for Social Security until age 62, and most early-retirement plans offer sharply reduced pension benefits. Now many companies are encouraging employees to leave by guaranteeing them monthly pension payments that come close to what they would have received, including Social Security, had they waited until standard retirement...