DOVER, Del. (AP) — Labor representatives reacted strongly yesterday to DuPont’s announcement that it will eliminate 3,500 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force, by the end of this year as part of previously announced cost-cutting plans.
DuPont announced in December that it would trim $900 million in costs over the next two years by cutting jobs, streamlining product lines and making other changes.
The Wilmington-based chemical giant said yesterday that it will eliminate about 3,000 positions, roughly two-thirds of them in the United States and Canada, and expects to cut another 500 positions through attrition.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles O. Holliday Jr. sent DuPont employees an e-mail mesage yesterday morning to inform them of the job cuts.
“It’s just more of the same from Mister Holliday; he’s either selling businesses or cutting jobs,” said Dave Gibson, president of Local 1186 of the United Brotherhood of DuPont Workers in Philadelphia. “The one job cut that needs to be made is his.”
Mr. Gibson, whose local represents about 240 employees, said only about 10 Philadelphia workers would be affected by the job cuts, but he was surprised by the total number.
Last week, Mr. Gibson said he expected about 2,500 jobs to be lost companywide.
“I undershot,” he said. “We weren’t expecting that many people.”
Jim Rowe, head of Local 2-943 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union in New Jersey, said DuPont’s continued downsizing in recent years has gotten to the point where work-force safety is becoming a concern.
“I think they went well past downsizing,” said Mr. Rowe, whose PACE local represents about 600 workers at DuPont’s Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, N.J., where Mr. Rowe said 36 positions will be eliminated. “They’re mismanaging this whole company.”
In a prepared statement issued earlier yesterday, Mr. Holliday said the job cuts are painful but necessary.
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