Honeywell jet work to grow overseas.html

Honeywell jet work to grow overseas
By Linda A. Johnson
The Associated Press: Dec. 2004

TRENTON, N.J. — High-tech manufacturer Honeywell International is planning to cut some U.S. jobs in its key aerospace division while adding thousands of jobs in low-wage countries, according to documents obtained yesterday by The Associated Press.
The Morris Township, N.J., company said it plans to add jobs in "high-growth regions" but disputed the leaked company documents, which imply a major offshoring move was under way.
The documents, three graphics outlining the company's five-year strategy for its avionics division, were found by an employee after a Honeywell management meeting in Arizona, said Marcus Courtney, president of the Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers
Courtney said the worker turned the documents over to the group, a union and professional association tracking and criticizing the trend of shifting high-tech U.S. jobs to other countries where workers earn far less.
"What you clearly see is that within the next quarter they're planning to move 500 to 600 jobs into emerging markets," Courtney said.
Honeywell said its aerospace-division employment in the United States and other Western markets would remain flat. Spokesman Robert Ferris would neither discuss the number of jobs being added overseas, nor identify which areas the company considers high-growth regions.
The internal documents indicate Honeywell plans to cut some jobs in high-cost countries and expand manufacturing and other operations in the Czech Republic, Mexico and China, along with other areas in Asia.
More than 5,500 new jobs would be added in those areas. Most would be Honeywell workers, but more than one-fourth would work for contractors.
"As a global technology leader, we must participate in the worldwide economy and open new markets for our products and services while continuing to recruit and retain a competitive and talented global work force," Ferris said.
Between 2004 and 2009, according to a document titled "Strategies In-Place to Enable 5-Year Plan," the number of Honeywell aerospace workers in emerging markets would increase from 3,239 to 8,803.
The number in high-cost countries, including the United States, would decline by 686 to a total 39,498, according to the document.
"I can't say I'm terribly surprised," Paul Nisbet, aerospace analyst at JSA Research, said yesterday. "I think it's probably a necessary thing if you're going to keep competitive."
Honeywell, with more than 100,000 employees in 95 countries, is the world's largest supplier of avionics, or electronic control systems for airplanes, mainly for the commercial market.
It had 891 employees in Redmond as of November 2003, according to the Redmond Chamber of Commerce.
Earlier this week, Honeywell won a contract from Boeing to supply navigation and anti-collision lighting for the 7E7 jetliner, which is due to enter service in 2008. The deal was the fourth 7E7 contract for Honeywell's Phoenix-based Air Transport Systems unit, which will also supply the jet's flight-control electronics, navigation equipment and crew-management system.
Nisbet said Honeywell competes with Rockwell Collins in this country and with avionics suppliers in Europe for contracts.
"They're trying to find cheaper services," he said of Honeywell.
One of the documents, under the subheading "globalization," lists plans to establish avionics manufacturing capability in Brno, Czech Republic; increase manufacturing of equipment in Mexico; and increase repair and overhaul work in Asia Pacific and Mexico.
The same document indicates plans to do more engineering work in India, Czech Republic and Mexico, outsource selected manufacturing and reduce the number of high-cost staff.
The document indicates the job shifts and resulting cost savings are projected to increase revenue per employee from $231,000 this year to $273,000 in 2009.
"Honeywell hopes to increase its profit at the expense of good-paying jobs with decent benefits here in the U.S.," Courtney said. "As Honeywell exports more jobs overseas, it is hurting job creation here in the U.S., as well as putting pressure on Honeywell employees' wages and benefits."

Seattle Times aerospace reporter David Bowermaster reported on Honeywell's work with Boeing and its local staffing.

AOL work force to shrink by 750
America Online (AOL), the nation's biggest Internet service, yesterday began cutting 750 jobs, more than half at the firm's Northern Virginia headquarters, company officials said.
About 5,000 people work in AOL's offices near Dulles International Airport.
AOL workers in Ohio, California and New York also were affected, officials said. Jobs at AOL Europe were not affected.
AOL's corporate parent, Time Warner, announced plans to eliminate jobs at the Internet firm a month ago. Time Warner said then it would take an estimated $50 million charge to account for the restructuring.
The company's online service is losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers every quarter to faster or cheaper competitors. In its third quarter, AOL lost 646,000 subscribers, primarily those who use dial-up Internet connections.

The Washington Post