Modesto manufacturing plants to close ending 265 jobs

 MODESTO — Dawn Food Products will close its three Modesto manufacturing plants in March, which will cost 265 workers their jobs.

Dawn officials say the closures are part of their corporate plan for “enhancing manufacturing operations and increasing efficiency.”

The Michigan-based Dawn and its predecessor, Bunge Foods, have been making frozen cakes, cake mixes and other dry-mix bakery products in Modesto since 1996. Dawn leases 125,000 square feet in three buildings in the Beard Industrial District.

Layoffs begin March 10.

“Dawn will work with our Modesto team members in the coming weeks to provide useful information, tools and resources that will help people move forward,” said Michelle Fehr, Dawn’s sen-ior vice president of operations for U.S. bakery products. “We remain extremely grateful for the hard work and commitment of all our people during this challenging transition.”

Losing those manufacturing jobs is another blow to Stanislaus County’s already weak economy.

Stanislaus’ unemployment rate tops 16 percent, and another big food processor, the Patterson Vegetable Co., announced that it planned to go out of business next month. The Patterson closure will eliminate 489 jobs.

“Both of those work forces, Patterson and Dawn, are largely Latino,” said Bill Bassitt, who heads the Stanislaus Economic Development & Workforce Alliance.

Bassitt said many of the employees do not speak fluent English, which is going to make it especially hard for them to find new jobs.

“There just are not a lot of jobs now or in the future for semiskilled or low-skilled people who don’t speak English,” Bassitt said. “Everybody knew this day might come. Well, it’s here.”

Bassitt said the alliance has started its efforts to help the displaced Dawn and Patterson workers find ways to meet the minimum qualifications for companies that are hiring.

But that means they must learn English, and Bassitt said it’s difficult to get people in their 50s to return to school.

Dawn officials say they will assist laid-off workers with vocational assessment, retraining, job searches and one-on-one counseling.

Closing the Modesto plants, Dawn contends, will improve its manufacturing efficiencies, better align its resources to meet customer demands, reduce its shipping costs and eliminate redundancies. Dawn officials expect the decision will make it “a stronger, more effective company.”

From: http://ping.fm/hA49i

A Must See Movie with Gael Garcia México

MAMMOTH (Mamut en Español) must see movie, if you are inteligent enough to follow the script. It is just amazingly good. The following is a great opinion about what this movie is all about.

“Mammoth is an ambitious, highly contemplative take on the implications of global capitalism for individuals, families and communities. Moodysson illustrates a world in which market economy as the Western way of life both encourages and obliges human action that, irrespective of one’s intentions, reproduces unequal social relations and reinforces existing power structures.

One could criticize Moodysson of presenting only conservative, private solutions for the social problems caused by globalization. The protagonists do not try to face their social circumstance head on or to find political ways for addressing their situation. In stead of seeking social change through collective action, family becomes of central importance. Only some vague escapist dreams are left for the disillusioned workers at both ends of the global working class.

Despite the film’s fatalism, Moodysson succeeds beautifully in constructing a convincing and authentic interpretation of the 21st century social reality of global interconnectedness. The tragedy of highly educated Western professionals that Mammoth portrays lies in the fact that they are conscious of the disastrous social and ecological consequences of their actions, yet find themselves completely unable to transform the social condition.”
Read more about this movie

People with jobs at 17 year low in Capital Region

 ALBANY — The Capital Region’s unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent in December from 7.1 percent a year earlier. While the regional jobless rates aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, the December rate was higher than November’s 6.7 percent, according to state Labor Department figures.

The number of Capital Region residents unemployed and looking for work increased to 30,400 from 29,100 in November. It stood at 31,000 in December 2010.

The number of residents working, meanwhile, fell to 407,300 in December from 408,200 in November and 408,100 a year earlier. The labor force, at 437,700, is at its lowest point for December since 2000, when it totaled 435,200. The number of employed for December is the lowest since 1995.

The figures cover the five-county metropolitan area, Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie. Locally, Saratoga County had the lowest unemployment rate at 6.5 percent, followed by Albany County at 6.7 percent and Schenectady County at 7.2 percent. Schoharie County had the highest rate, with 9.6 percent of the workforce jobless, followed by Rensselaer County at 7.4 percent.

Separate data, released late last week, showed the number of jobs in the Capital Region increased to 440,400 from 437,500 a year earlier.

From: http://ping.fm/dQHQ1

Sexual Transmitted Diseases Genital chlamydia genital herpes Trichomonas

 Abstract
BACKGROUND:

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of women reporting ever having genital chlamydia, genital herpes, Trichomonas vaginalis, and gonorrhea, and to identify factors associated with each of these sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
METHODS:

The study was based on a large cross-sectional survey conducted in 2004-2005 among randomly sampled women (18-45 years) from the computerized population registries in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. A total of 69,567 women were included in the study.
RESULTS:

The overall prevalence in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden was 1.5% for reporting ever having had Trichomonas vaginalis, 1.9% for gonorrhea, 4.8% for genital herpes, and 17.0% for genital chlamydia. The prevalence of each of these STIs varied with birth cohort and country. In addition, they were strongly associated with lifetime number of partners and having a previous diagnosis of another sexually transmitted infection. Moreover, a diagnosis of genital chlamydia or gonorrhea was associated with early age at first intercourse and smoking initiation. Finally, reporting genital chlamydia was associated with early age at drinking initiation, and ever use of hormonal contraceptives and condoms.
CONCLUSION:

Genital chlamydia occurs frequently among women in the Nordic countries. Risk-taking behavior, particularly sexual behavior, is strongly associated with STIs, which suggest that further information is needed about STIs and their consequences, targeting high-risk groups. There is also a need for continued monitoring of STIs in order to follow the prevalence and to gain further knowledge about risk factors.

From: Ping.fm

US Post Office Needs to Cut 260,000 Jobs

 The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its “financially insolvent” condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said.

Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year, Issa told CNBC during an informal gathering of senior House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members.

“It’s a combination of delivering what people want at a price they’re willing to pay,” the California Republican said. “We’ve restricted what the post office can charge for various classes of mail. But the biggest challenge is there are about 660,000 workers at the post office. In the private sector there would be about 400,000.”

Though Issa’s numbers are likely on the high side — the most recent official estimates from the postal service put the total employees at 574,000 — reducing the size of the workforce and consolidating operations has been a priority.
Figuring out where the waste lies and streamlining operations are assignments for those who oversee the service, which receives no taxpayer funding despite being supervised by the government.

“It’s not a debate about whether we need to get to that number. It’s about how we get there,” Issa said. “Do we get there by inducing retirements and finding ways to trim that workforce? Or do we wait for people to retire from an organization that has three fulltime employees that are 98 years old, literally.”

From: http://ping.fm/VW3p5