Guv to Sunoco: Don't cut jobs

Gov. Rendell yesterday blasted Sunoco Inc. for planning to lay off 750 salaried employees, mostly in the Philadelphia area, after posting profits of $1.6 billion over the past two years.

"To have layoffs in the face of those type of profits is truly unconscionable," Rendell said at a news conference in Philadelphia.

Rendell said that profitable companies that throw workers into the street deepen the country's economic crisis and put greed ahead of the national interest.

"It's time we stop this madness," Rendell said. "It's time we start acting like Americans again."

Sunoco spokesman Thomas Golembeski said that while the company has enjoyed a couple of years of robust profits, slumping energy demand and the expansion of refining capacity overseas is certain to make for a tougher climate for Sunoco and other oil companies.

"We believe 2009 and 2010 will be a challenging time for refining companies like Sunoco," Golembeski said.

Sunoco posted a profit of $204 million in the final quarter of last year. Golembeski said that he didn't know whether the company would make money in the current quarter, but said that the layoffs were part of an effort to cut costs and survive the downturn in business.

"We're trying to keep the company strong so we can continue to provide good jobs and attract investments that will allow us to continue to grow," Golembeski said.

He said that company officials were surprised that Rendell had gone public with his complaint without contacting Sunoco first.

At his news conference yesterday, Rendell released a letter he'd sent to Sunoco board members asking them to imagine how they'd explain the layoff to a worker losing his or her job, and urging them to rescind the decision.

"We aren't going to do that," Golembeski said. *