As a result, the Americans tried to trim the price by about 15 percent, the people close to the deal said.

The company trimmed its work force by 207 employees in 1986 and 1987.

He has trimmed the work force by 5 percent, or 15,600 employees.

He presented a plan in 1995 to trim the department's budget by $13 billion over five years.

The company has trimmed its work force by 32 percent since August 2000.

After trimming the budget by $1.4 million, he says the church is now ready for a new start.

Now comes the hard part: trimming its work force by 10 percent.

The company will trim its work force by 70,000 and close 21 assembly plants.

In April, he trimmed his 2001 forecast by more than half, to an increase of 2.4 percent.

At present, however, the company is holding to its target of trimming the work force by 15,000.