BA axes 35% of management jobs

British Airways, Europe's third-largest airline, said it planned to cut almost 600 management jobs as part of wider plans to reduce labor costs. BA said it would cut 35 percent of its 1,715 senior and middle management staff by March 2008. Senior managers would be hit the hardest with 50 percent of their jobs to go. The cuts would save the airline 50 million pounds, contributing to a previously-announced target to reduce costs by 300 million pounds by March 2007.

BA's new Chief Executive Willie Walsh who took over the top job at BA from Rod Eddington last month, has been under pressure to further cut costs at the airline which faces high fuel prices and tough competition. Eddington cut 14,000 jobs during his five-year tenure at BA. A source told Reuters last month that Walsh was eyeing a 15 percent cut in its total workforce of 46,000 over several years.

Google Base :
mass layoffs

(2005-11-30 21:09:45 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Pumping oil in Los Angeles

peakoil.com -> timesonline.co.uk :

The rusting oil derricks that once pumped crude from beneath the streets of Los Angeles are being brought back to life almost 50 years after being abandoned. The derricks - black, hammer-like contraptions that squat over oil wells - were long ago rendered uneconomic by falling petroleum prices and the soaring value of property in Southern California.

But now, with the price of crude oil near a record high and the property market rapidly cooling, Tinseltown has rediscovered its less glamorous economic roots. As one oil industry lawyer once said: "They ruined a perfectly good oilfield by building a city on top of it."

Analysts say that many Los Angeles wells were plugged after giving up only 25 per cent of their oil - even though modern technology allows up to 50 per cent of a reserve to be drained. Now those wells are being hastily reactivated. Indeed, analysts predict that the number of abandoned oil wells throughout California, which stands at about 3,000, will soon drop to zero. There are thought to be about 4,000 active urban oil wells in the greater Los Angeles area.

(2005-11-30 17:38:21 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

China coal-mine explosion toll hits 150

channelnewsasia.com :

China's central government has angrily blamed managers of a northeastern mine for a huge explosion that killed at least 150 people, saying obvious signs of danger emerged days before the blast. As rescue efforts wound down, the government's work safety watchdog turned its focus to the cause of the blast and quickly backed up assertions from victims's relatives that the mine's management disregarded warning signs.

Just over 6,000 people died in China's coal mines last year, according to government figures. State press said the figure represented 80 percent of global fatalities in the industry. Independent critics, including the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, say the number of coal mining deaths in China each year could be as high as 20,000. Fatalities often go unreported as mines seek to avoid costly shutdowns, the critics say.

The crisis has worsened in recent years as demand for coal has escalated to help fuel the nation's breakneck economic growth. China relies on coal for two-thirds of its energy needs and the government said early this month it intended to increase domestic coal production from 2.1 billion tons to 2.4 billion tons over the next five years.

(2005-11-30 17:30:45 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Released

mozillazine.org :

The final release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5 is now available for download from GetFirefox.com or from the ftp site. Users of the release candidates should receive the update soon.

Firefox 1.5 introduces several new features, including an improved software update system, faster Back / Forward page navigation, a new option to clear private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and more robust popup blocking. Standards support is also improved, with support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and additional CSS properties. Accessibility is much improved (including new DHTML accessibility features), security has been enhanced and Mac OS X support has also been improved.

More details can be found in the 1.5 Release Notes, and the support forums staff is available for questions.

(2005-11-30 08:24:00 SGT) [Tech] Permalink

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Singapore school fees rise 700+%

There's an article in today's Straits Times on an upcoming steep rise in Junior College school fees. Fees at Raffles JC are going up from $28 to $250 per month from next year (an increase of 793%), while over at Hwa Chong JC, fees are going up from $26 to $225 per month (an increase of 765%).

Now how's that for price inflation? Financial planners tell us to expect 6% inflation per year for education costs, so what do you call this - a super-spike?

In other inflationary news, a financial planner came over to the company to give a talk on healthcare costs, and she said that healthcare costs are also expected to inflate by 6% per year.

So, are you getting at least a 6% raise every year? Your savings accounts are probably not getting you 6% per year either. Looks like we're losing out to inflation, folks.

(2005-11-29 16:02:39 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Monday November 28, 2005

BP Forms BP Alternative Energy

bp.com, peakoil.com -> companyannouncements.net :

BP today announced that it plans to double its investment in alternative and renewable energies to create a new low-carbon power business with the growth potential to deliver revenues of around $6 billion a year within the next decade.

Building on the success of BP Solar - which expects to hit revenues of $1 billion in 2008 - BP Alternative Energy will manage an investment programme in solar, wind, hydrogen and combined-cycle-gas-turbine (CCGT) power generation, which could amount to $8 billion over the next ten years.

BP CEO John Browne : 'We are focusing our investment in alternatives and renewables on power generation because it accounts for over 40 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the biggest single source. It is also the area where technology can be applied most cost-effectively to reduce emissions. As the pricing of carbon develops through trading schemes and other initiatives, the market will grow rapidly as low-emission technologies displace less clean forms of power generation.'