Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993 TAG: 9309140162
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The plant employs nearly 1,300. Cuts will include 100 management and professional employees paid between $40,000 and $50,000 a year and 560 union workers, who average $15 an hour, a spokesman said.
Rich Pattinson, employee relations manager who announced the moves, said his job is among those in jeopardy. So is that of Clinton Jennings, president of the Martinsville Nylon Employees Council, a labor union.
"I'm number 435 from the gate," said Jennings, a 22-year employee. He works in the spinning department, which is being shut down. So if he doesn't get laid off he will have to move to another job. Layoffs will be done by seniority.
"It's devastating to say the least," Jennings said of Monday's announcement.
Pattinson said employees will be notified of their status by Oct. 1. Those eligible for retirement will have 45 days to make a decision. To be eligible for the early retirement offer, a worker must have an age and service combination adding to at least 70 years. That means a person who is 45 years old and has worked for DuPont at least 25 years would be eligible.
Last year 308 workers took a company retirement offer.
The average age of workers at the Martinsville facility is 48, and Jennings said there are enough workers eligible for retirement to accomplish the downsizing goal.
"But they won't take it," he said. "We [the union and the company] have estimated 150 or no more than 200 will take it." That means as many as 550 could be laid off.
Jennings said this year's retirement offer, which is corporate wide, is not as attractive as last year's.
The plan for the cuts calls for production jobs to be phased out gradually between November and next July. The 100 management and professional jobs will be eliminated by the end of November except for workers who might be asked to help with the cutbacks.
Employees will be offered a severance package that provides one month's pay for every two years of service, with a maximum of one year's compensation. Medical and dental benefits and life insurance will continue for one year. The company said it will help workers find jobs and will pay as much as $5,000 in tuition reimbursement for retraining.
The Martinsville plant's production will be cut in half over the next year, Pattinson said. He said some equipment already is idle. He said all areas of the plant will be affected except for the spinnerette department where nylon yarn is forced through die shapes that give it its shape and characteristics.
Machinists and technicians in that department will not be subject to layoff or eligible for early retirement.
"That's one skill we will protect. Products from that machine shop are used in all the DuPont plants," Pattinson said.
DuPont will make products in plants that can make them at the lowest cost of production.
For example, Martinsville will continue to make hosiery, warp knit products for lingerie and swimwear under the Antron name and carpet fiber that is used in Stainmaster carpet. Among the products it no longer will make are inked computer-printer ribbons.
Pattinson said his plant's equipment for making the ribbons is too old to be efficient.
He said, however, that DuPont has invested more than $45 million in the Martinsville plant in the last three years.
DuPont will eliminate up to 4,500 domestic jobs through mid-1994 as part of an ongoing restructuring aimed at cutting $2 billion in yearly costs, company officials announced Monday.
The chemical giant's nylon business will take the single hardest hit, losing 1,600 jobs. In addition to the cuts in Martinsville, about 100 jobs will be lost at nylon plants in Wilmington, Del., and another 175 in Seaford, Del., which was the world's first nylon plant.
Other cuts will be spread throughout the company, with the exception of DuPont's energy subsidiary, Conoco, which will not be affected by this latest round of layoffs, officials said.
"These cuts really dissect the whole organization from top to bottom. We've had cuts across all sectors," said D. John Ogren, DuPont senior vice president.
Ogren said the layoffs were necessary to keep the company strong and competitive in a weak business environment.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
by CNB