December 2, 2003

US union says DuPont is 'Grinch who stole Christmas'

BYLINE: Mike Sheridan

BODY:
HOUSTON (CNI)--A union leader charged Tuesday that chemical giant DuPont is "the Grinch who stole Christmas" for announcing job cuts on Monday but delaying until April information on which jobs and worksites will be affected specifically.

Carl Goodman, president of the International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers (IBDW), also charged that DuPont's plans to cut costs by $ 900m (Euro750m) in two years "is the same old story of cutting jobs and cutting expenses at the expense of US workers by moving jobs overseas."

Goodman is also president of Louisville, Kentucky-based Local 5-2002 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE).

DuPont announced the  "aggressive" restructuring plan yesterday and said the massive cost-cutting plan will include an unspecified number of job cuts and business unit consolidations.

DuPont officials have declined to be more specific about the job cuts, and they were not immediately available Tuesday to respond to Goodman's charges.

Goodman, who said the union had "no idea" of where job cuts would occur or which plants might be closed, likened DuPont to the Dr Seuss "Grinch" character who stole the Yuletide holiday.

Said Goodman: "For a company to announce job cuts right before the holidays and not tell where the cuts will happen until four months later puts stress and anxiety in the whole workforce. It's like the Grinch is looking at you and you don't know if he's going to tap you on shoulder and say 'your job is the one I want to take'. It's extremely poor timing."

DuPont workers continue to be "disappointed" with DuPont leadership, Goodman said. He said that for the past five years the Wilmington, Delaware-based company has been slashing jobs and moving production overseas.

Goodman said: "It's the workers who are being placed over the trap door and who will fall through it when DuPont pulls the string. Moral has never been worse in the company. DuPont only wants to move jobs overseas." References 1. javascript:ShowArticleId(540309)