Nashville, Tennessee - March 17, 2003 - Members of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union (PACE) Local 1-6992 at DuPont’s Yerkes Plant in Buffalo, New York were shocked to learn that the company-sponsored training program they recently completed was not state certified. Even worse, DuPont (NYSE: DD) awarded the workers forged copies of the New York state certificates in a sham ceremony.

    "Obviously, we are disappointed in DuPont’s actions, but really this is just part of a bigger trend regarding DuPont’s ill-treatment of its workers, regardless if you are a in a union or not," said Gary Cook, PACE Region I Vice-President and co-chair of the union-affiliated DuPont Council. "It has been PACE’s experience that as workers gather the courage to gain a voice at work, DuPont management grows increasingly hostile towards them." Test cited the recent rally at DuPont’s Edgemoor, Delaware Plant by PACE Local 2-0786 as further proof that workers are fed up with contract violations committed by DuPont management.

    The Yerkes workers joined the company’s training program for electricians and millwrights in 1998. The programs combined classroom training with on-the-job learning under a certified craftsman. Graduates are considered skilled craftsmen with licensed credentials on which employers can depend. "There’s been a lot of job loss in our area, but people out of work the shortest are skilled trades people", said David Kozlowski, one of the affected electrician apprentices. "In case anything happened at DuPont, I’d have something to fall back on", he said.

    DuPont lost its state certification in 1999, but kept operating the programs. The value of state certification for a marketable skill was not lost on the worker- participants. The workers sacrificed their family’s income as they took eight dollar-an-hour pay cuts and were not allowed overtime opportunities. The company held the ten millwright certificates, whose program ended in 2001, until the four-member electrician’s program was finished last year. DuPont culminated the charade in a June combined awards ceremony, where they presented both groups with the forged certificates.

    Local union officials voiced concerns at DuPont maintenance committee meetings, starting in 1999, when they realized state personnel had not checked on the program. Various DuPont managers continued to assure the union that the program was genuinely state-certified. Suspicions were escalated when the final certificates didn’t seem to look right. "I grew concerned when I didn’t see the embossed stamp on the gold New York seal," said Gary Guralny, president of the PACE local and himself a millwright trainee. "When I compared it to documents issued years ago, it sent up a red flag."

    The union’s fears were realized in December when its background check with the state Department of Labor confirmed there was no record of the workers’ certificates. It was only then that DuPont confirmed its deception, claiming no one else knew except a departed manager.

    The Labor Department is investigating the falsification and after initial discussions with the state, it appears that the participants may qualify for a genuine certificate after an additional year of training.

    "They knew we had concerns about the programs, but they went ahead with the dog and pony show anyways," said PACE international representative James Briggs. "We feel the state should issue penalties against DuPont so they take this matter more seriously. If it was my son who faked a driver’s license to buy drinks in a bar, he would be criminally prosecuted."

    PACE International Union represents over 320,000 workers in the oil, chemical, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical, atomic, kaolin, auto parts and corn milling industries.

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