In this week of political outrage, Gov. Rendell vented over Sunoco Inc.’s plan to eliminate 750 jobs from its salaried workforce.
His two-page letter yesterday to the directors of the Philadelphia oil refiner and marketer implores them to do the right thing, second-guess their CEO and halt the job cuts.
Sunoco is so profitable it doesn’t need layoffs, Rendell says.
So money-losing companies are allowed to reduce their workforces, but those that make money should not?
Well, Sunoco’s $776 million in 2008 net income is quite a gusher of money. But Sunoco’s not the only big local employer to make some serious coin and still cut its workforce.
GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., which no longer calls Philadelphia a U.S. headquarters but employs about 4,700 here, reported net income of about $8.7 billion in 2008.
But it has cut 10,000 people worldwide since December 2007, which just happens to coincide with the start of the U.S. recession - and now plans to cut another 7 percent of its global workforce of 100,000 over the next two years.
Using the Rendellian logic, these cuts smack of making a “profitable company more profitable.” Where does CEO Andrew Witty get off trying to do that?
Meanwhile Comcast Corp. eliminated 3,000 jobs nationwide last year, while downloading net income of $2.5 billion. But certainly Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen - Rendell’s former mayor chief of staff - won’t be getting a letter or public scolding.
No, it’s far more appealing to shame those in charge of a dirty enabler of global warming rather than the enlightened programmers that bring us “World Extreme Cagefighting” on TV. Oil companies are easy to pick on because nobody likes them.
The governor is questioning Sunoco’s sense of civic responsibility at a time of extreme pain for the economy. But should he? After all, the company has been the title sponsor of the city’s 10-day Fourth of July celebration for 16 years.
And the company engaged in one of the biggest infrastructure reinvestment projects Philadelphia has seen when it spent $520 million to expand and upgrade a fluid catalytic cracker in 2007.
Plus, a previous management team of the company chose to move the company’s headquarters from Radnor into Center City in the early ’90s, - though that was part of a previous major restructuring of the company that involved job cuts.
How dare Sunoco strive to become more efficient and more profitable. Clearly, this is not the time for that in America.
Rendell can say anything because he is a Democrate and the press will not call him on it— joepaper- Thank you, Mike, for explaining to the politicians (i.e. the looters) the role of private enterprise in our country.— JW
- I applaude the Gov for speaking out. These large companies are contributing to the economic crisis by doing this! Henry Ford, J Rockefeller, and A Carnegie recognized that a viable workforce not would have the money to buy their products, they saw the good of the country has to come first before windfall profits. These are not mom & pops who have to cut but huge innovative companies who need to realize that talented employed workers is better for us all. The unemployment money the gov has to provide, the healthcare for these workers families becomes a another burden for us all. They do this while their profits continue to go up, so some stockholders get a dividend now Come on get real!!!— beneben
Beneben, you get real. How do you think companies remain profitable? By maintaining expenses. Proactively maintaining expenses. And that unemployment benefit you bemoan the public paying? It's funded by the corporations, not by the average taxpayer. Get real!— rudytbone
How ironic, Gov Rendell disses a solvent company and remains mute on AIG— hilite98- He's a freakin' weasel, and probably the most corrupt pol in Harrisburg, time is right for a investigation on his "fatness". He goes and pays a buddy 100g to help disburse stumulus funds, hires Demoncrats who lost election for 95k a year, which is a raise over his 89k salary. How can anyone stick up for this fat windbag.... Come on 2010, we cannot afford to have this partisan spend and tax liberal any longer, had a nice surplus when he went in office, now we face 2.3 billion deficit, because this moron just keeps on spending...— Mike S.
- It's amazing, it must be open season for all Democratic politicians to try to tell private companies how to run their businesses. Hasn't the Governor threated job cuts to be in his new budget proposal? I thinks he has!— bc2642
- GOVERNOR RERNDELL.. YOU ARE OVER THE LINE ON THIS ONE ED! THE SOCIALISTIC RESPONSE TO THE MANAGEMENT OF ONE OF OUR LEADING COMPANIES IS WRONG. LET OUR FINE COMPANIES WHO CONTRIBUTE SO MUCH TO SOCIETY AND OUR STATE, DO THE JOB THE WAY CAPITALISM IS SUPPOSED TO PERFORM..— chet harrington
- And he can put defeated democratice legislator on the state payroll at over ninety thousand a year. Of course he can't criticize the layoffs at Comcast, the home of his friends the Roberts family and old buddie Dave Cohen, can't be jepordizing that sunday football commentator gig on Comcast can we now Ed ?— MCC
- Rendell is both right and wrong. He is wrong because he is viewing managing corporations as a full employment social reponsibility and our society chose not to embrace that philosophy many years ago. He is right because he needs a place to vent his frustration at what is unfolding locally and nationally. He just chose the wrong forum.— Burdee1
Comment removed.- Sunoco faces SEVERE competition from larger refiners operating on the USGC and from Reliance in India. These refiners have larger more efficient facilities and far cheaper labor and tax burdens than a company operating in Rendell's "new business haven" Taxsylvania.— oldcheme
- I believe that every corporation has to act in a way that is most efficient. If that means job cuts, as much as it hurts it probably should be done. If we could only take government and cust the inefficiencies, then we would see real gains. Target Jobs— philrob
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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