Wake Up Kodak !

See George Eastman Spinning in his Grave!

03/2005

Kodak closing paper mill and buying thier paper from Germany ! 

The change at Kodak Park is aimed at allowing workers to concentrate on the steps 
that form the "heart and soul" of Kodak products, Veronda added.

He said the decision is part of Kodak's three-year restructuring, 
which calls for reducing real estate holdings by one-third through 2007. 
The company is also cutting between 12,000 and 15,000 jobs worldwide 
over the same period.

AND THE NEXT DAY:

Surging Kodak rewards top execs

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Carp received $3.49 million 
in salary, bonus and other cash compensation in 2004, an increase of 
almost $500,000 in a year when Kodak's financial performance and stock price surged. 

Sorry Rochester, but this nothing but a bunch of BS !
We all need to forgot Kodak was ever here.
Coporate GREED is destroying them, their employees and Rochester.
(On the bright side - after they leave - the air and the Genesee river will inprove)

Dave Kaspersin


"Single-use camera production will be moved to plants in
China and Mexico, where labor is cheaper."

Laying off Americans, and sending their jobs to
China and Mexico is just one more straw on
the backs of all American workers. All this
does is quicken Kodak's demise. And what is sad
is very few corporations see what they are doing to themselves.
If we don't keep our people working, and paid well, who will
buy Kodak's products ? Downsizing only puts money in the Corporate
heads' pockets. Corporate greed is destroying our economy.

KODAK COPORATE GREED !

Update 07/31/03

Kodak cuts 800 to 900 film jobs in Rochester

The first wave of Kodak layoffs will hit the film production lines at
Kodak Park. Some 800 people will lose their jobs as the work
moves to Mexico and China.
Kodak cuts 800 to 900 film jobs here
By Ben Rand 
Staff writer 
(July 31, 2003) — Kodak Park workers who put the finishing
 touches on Eastman Kodak Co.’s signature yellow film 
boxes are losing their jobs to the forces of technology 
change and the global economy. 

Rochester’s largest employer announced Thursday that it 
will close production lines in Kodak Park that create the 
once-ubiquitous packages of 35mm consumer film and 
transfer operations to Mexico and China. It is part of a 
broad cost-cutting initiative announced last week designed
 to cope with declines in film sales brought on by the 
increasing popularity of digital cameras and the sluggish economy. 

In addition, the company also told employees today it will
 transition its Toronto factory to focus on production of
 inkjet paper for home printers and make other shifts to
 factories across the globe. The changes in Toronto will 
result in some jobs moving to Kodak Park, but Kodak 
didn’t say how many. 

All told, roughly 800 to 900 workers will lose their jobs, 
most in Rochester. Those layoffs are part of the 4,500 to 6,000 jobs 
Kodak said last week it would cut worldwide over the next 12 months. 
Roughly half of those were to take place in Rochester. 

The company repeated today that the primary factor in the 
cost-cutting moves is the need to cope with a slow,
but permanent decline in sales of consumer film. That, Kodak
said in a letter to employees, will require a “ rebalancing” of 
manufacturing volumes worldwide. 

It’s the second time in about a year that Kodak has decided
to move a large chunk of Rochester jobs over the border.
 The company last month completed the shut-down of its single-use 
camera factory on Lee Road, with operations moving to China and Mexico. 
That decision cost the Rochester workforce about 500 positions and
 was motivated largely by lower wages and taxes outside Rochester. 

The company offered no hope that the cuts were at an end. 

“ The current realities mean that many employees will need to 
transition to a career outside Kodak,’’ 
Senior Vice President Charles S. Brown Jr. wrote to employees.

(However none of Kodak's Execs are willing to take a PAY CUT) <---Mine

Kodak’s stock is up about 14.3 percent since announcing the job cuts last week. 

THEY REALLY DON'T GET IT - - - DO THEY ??? <---Mine

And on the same day:

A Kodak moment to honor a lifetime - - - 

Actor Martin Flax, portraying George Eastman, shoots dinner guests in the gardens of Eastman’s East Avenue estate on a Cine Kodak camera, re-creating the breakthrough of color home movies made 75 years ago Wednesday. George is spinning in his grave !
Rochester, NY (07/31/03) - 
Eastman Kodak noted a special anniversary on Wednesday: 
seventy-five years ago, the company introduced color film.
In July 30, 1928 George Eastman and Thomas Edison
introduced koda-color which is the motion picture process 
that created color images on film. 

“ People forget,’’ said museum curator Kathleen Connor. 
She added that “ Rochester was like Mr. Eastman’s family.’’ 

"The truth is Kodak has forgetten about their employees."
And it is destroying Kodak! <---Mine

Dave Kaspersin

Update 11/12/02 Kodak Confirms Layoffs, Says It Will Improve Competitiveness Rochester, NY - Eastman Kodak Co. representatives have announced that the company will be laying off between 1,300 and 1,700 employees worldwide, including hundreds of Rochester-area workers. The company will be closing its Lee Road plant, where single-use cameras are made, putting 500 people out of work. While sales of single-use cameras are up, they are too expensive to make here, company representatives said. Single-use camera production will be moved to plants in China and Mexico, where labor is cheaper. George Conboy of Brighton Securities said, "Assembly of those cameras with Rochester-area wages are making sales of those cameras much less profitable...and Kodak needs to compete profitably." In addition, 150 positions in the Global Manufacturing and Logistics units at Kodak Park will be cut, and approximately 150 jobs will be eliminated from Research & Development worldwide, which could also affect local workers. Kodak is also ending a sensitizing operation for graphic arts and X-ray films in Guadalajara, Mexico, cutting 300 jobs there. Monroe County Executive Jack Doyle has said he will ask the county's job training and placement program to help displaced workers. Update 03/30/03 Kodak Top five received $8.3 million in salary and bonuses last year By Ben Rand Democrat and Chronicle; Eastman Kodak Co. proxy (March 29, 2003) — Senior executives at Eastman Kodak Co. were handsomely rewarded for leading the company to the top of the Dow Jones industrial average last year. Rochester’s largest employer paid its five top bosses $8.3 million in salary and bonuses in 2002, roughly double the prior year. Kodak also handed out special awards of restricted stock to keep four of the five executives hard at work on State Street. All in all, Kodak’s senior management earned $14 million in cash and restricted stock in 2002, up 53 percent from $9.2 million in 2001. Those figures do not include an estimated value for stock options because the identities of the top five executives have changed. Stock option awards in general were decreased in 2002 over the prior year. The pay packages were disclosed in Kodak’s annual proxy statement, which was filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Proxy statements are used to inform shareholders of various matters in advance of annual meetings, including executive pay. Kodak’s annual meeting is scheduled for May 7 in Hollywood, where shareholders will elect directors, appoint accountants and vote on three shareholder proposals. Kodak boosted compensation primarily to recognize a dramatic improvement in the bottom line. The company last year made $262 million, up 232 percent from 2001. Much of that increase in profits can be attributed to multiple rounds of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Kodak eliminated 5,100 jobs in 2002, or 6.7 percent of the company’s global work force. About a third were in Rochester. The cost reductions will continue this year. Kodak in January announced plans to slash 1,800 to 2,200 more jobs worldwide. It also will close a factory on Lee Road that made single-use cameras. Kodak said that its executives were rewarded for more than just profit improvements driven by cost-cutting. The company also generated operating cash flow of $948 million, up almost 300 percent from the prior year. Cash flow is an important measure of a company’s ability to invest in the future. In addition, the company enacted measures to make products more efficiently, reduced inventories and improved billing systems. As well, Kodak also introduced several new products and services that met with critical acclaim and launched new businesses, said Gerard Meuchner, director of corporate media relations. “Taken in totality, the compensation committee felt (the pay) was appropriate,” he said. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel A. Carp led the increases. His total compensation was $9.7 million last year, up 6 percent from $9.3 million in 2001. The 2002 figure was boosted by a cash bonus of $2.3 million, up from just $507,500 in the prior year. It also included options on 175,000 shares worth an estimated $2.1 million, according to a formula widely used by compensation experts. The option grant was down from the prior year. The value of compensation packages for both Carp and the four other top executives depend on the company’s performance. The options could ultimately prove worthless if Kodak’s stock does not appreciate in value. Kodak said that it annually studies where Carp’s compensation ranks in comparison to his peers. A Forbes magazine study last year ranked him as the 392nd best paid executive in the United States, out of 500. This year he “comes in at about the median line in a group of similarly sized companies,” said Sandra Feil, Kodak’s worldwide director of total compensation. The company also said that employees other than Carp shared in Kodak’s successes. Kodak next week will pay an annual wage dividend of about $110 million to 28,600 U.S. employees. That figure translates to 7.1 percent of wages, the highest it’s been in seven years.

Dave Kaspersin If you have a story to tell send it to me and I'll add it to this list. I do not publish names or email addresses unless requested. by you.
Dave Kaspersin

Email to:drk@dyrec.com Click here to send me a letter.