DOVER, Del. (AP) -- DuPont Co. will eliminate 3,500 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force, by the end of this year as part of cost-cutting plans it announced late last year.þþThe Wilmington-based chemical giant said Monday it will cut about 3,000 positions, roughly two-thirds of them in the United States and Canada, and expects to trim 500 jobs through attrition. DuPont also will eliminate 450 contractor positions, most of them in the United States.þþThe company 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. Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday Jr. sent employees an e-mail Monday announcing the job cuts.þþ``It's just more of the same from Mr. Holliday; he's either selling businesses or cutting jobs,'' said Dave Gibson, president of Local 1186 of the International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers in Philadelphia. ``The one job cut that needs to be made is his.''þþGibson, who said last week that he expected about 2,500 jobs would be lost, was surprised by the total. ``I undershot,'' he said. ``We weren't expecting that many people.''þþHolliday said the cuts are painful but necessary as the company aligns resources with market needs and adjusts its infrastructure after the separation of its Invista textile subsidiary.þþ``These actions will help assure the near- and long-term competitiveness of our businesses worldwide as well as progress toward our mission of sustainable growth,'' Holliday said.þþDuPont shares closed up 63 cents at $44.06 on the New York Stock Exchange.þþThe job cuts announced Monday do not include the roughly 18,000 employees of Invista, which is being sold to Koch Industries in a deal scheduled to close by the end of this month. Excluding that division, DuPont employs about 59,000 people worldwide.þþDuPont spokesman Clif Webb said the job cuts will be spread across the company's business units and include all levels of the work force, including management.þþ``We have to reduce our costs, and we have to refocus and rebalance our assets,'' he said.þþTo meet its cost-cutting goal, DuPont plans to reduce fixed costs by $700 million. The job cuts are expected to create about $325 million in annualized savings, and the company expects about $375 million in fixed-cost reductions by 2005 by reducing spending in areas such as contract services, supplies, telecommunications and information technology. Those savings represent about 6 percent of the company's annual spending on supplies and services.þþIn addition to the fixed-cost reductions, DuPont expects to save about $200 million through such things as eliminating some of the 508,000 product variations spread among its 78,000 product lines to free up capacity for higher-value products and trimming raw material and energy costs.þþJim Rowe, head of Local 2-943 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union in New Jersey, said DuPont's continued cuts have gotten to the point where work force safety is becoming a concern.þþ``I think they went well past downsizing,'' said Rowe, whose PACE local represents about 600 workers at DuPont's Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, N.J. ``They're mismanaging this whole company.''þþDuPont expects to take a one-time second-quarter charge of 17 cents to 19 cents per share as a result of the restructuring, largely for severance costs. The company will decide the exact amount of charges during the second quarter.þþDuPont, founded in 1802, operates in more than 70 countries. The company offers products and services in the areas of agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety, construction and transportation.þþ
Source: NY Times
