n e w s of t h e
week
Dow severance package proves too good
Guided by chemical engineer Robert Cordova (above, left), science teacher Art Torrance tests hardness of water. Fifth-grade teacher John Bullock, attempting to add yet another weight to the dozens atop the structure he helped construct from file cards, sees the structure begin to collapse. Its load-bearing capacity was calculated to be 3 lb.
for the week. So are other scientists who take time off to arrange laboratory tours and demonstrations for the teachers. And the company buys the commercial sci ence kits used for the experiments. "We decided to use kits rather than set up our own in-house experiments," explained organic chemist Stanley R. Sand ler, who designed the program and direct ed it last year. Using kits is "like buying the secrets of the business," said Freedlander, because they have already been fieldtested with children. Around the room, pairs of teachers and mentors were unlocking these secrets as they worked on experiments in food chemistry, magnetism and electricity, le vers and pulleys, and sound, among other topics. For example, mechanical engineer Gus Rolotti worked with teachers to simu late the sounds of vibrating vocal chords. Their apparatus: rubber bands wrapped around plastic cups. The group also con structed a mini-loudspeaker using insulat ed electrical wire and a magnet. Not all the kits got an "A" from the teachers. Some experiments underesti mate children's intelligence, according to Gayle Lansdale, a sixth-grade teacher at Ε. Τ. Richardson Middle School, Springfield, Pa. And equipment is some12 AUGUST 11, 1997 C&EN
times deficient. This year, for example, one thermometer was off by 5°. Suppli ers are informed about deficiencies in kits, said Sandler. Each kit, including instruction manual and supplies for 30 students, costs be tween $300 and $500. At the end of the week, the teachers take them home. Teachers also receive $500 to purchase additional supplies, and their schools get another $500. The kits can be reused af ter inexpensive replacement of some ex perimental materials, said Freedlander. "Teachers go home with two months of their [science] curriculum," said pro gram consultant Helen M. Burke, a profes sor of chemistry at Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia. "As a teacher, that's a gift." Mentors also make themselves available to teachers throughout the year, and the teachers network among themselves. The program is successful "because upper management supports it strongly, the [Elf Atochem] Foundation supports it strongly, and the scientists themselves support it," said L. Louis Hegedus, vice president for R&D. "It's a remarkable co incidence" of efforts, he added. The company plans eventually to expand the program to all its U.S. facilities. Mairin Brennan
Dow Chemical's Texas Operation in Freeport recently planned to cut its workforce by 550 employees, but so many accepted the company's severance offer that it will lose about 200 more employees than intended. "It's a sign of how healthy the job mar ket is," says Matt Davis, a Dow spokesman. "We were a little surprised. Many of the younger folks are leaving and getting oth er jobs the next day," he adds. The company has asked 100 of the de parting employees to stay beyond the Jury 31 severance date to complete projects or help train replacements. The Freeport plant remains Dow's largest, with more than 4,000 employees. Over the past few years, Dow has re duced the Freeport plant's workforce by about 350 employees per year through attrition and voluntary retirements. How ever, Davis says site management sought the additional workforce cuts to make the complex more cost-competitive with other Dow facilities. Dow offered departing employees health benefits, career counseling, and compensation—two weeks' pay per year of service for union employees and one month's pay per year up to a total of 18 months for nonunion employees (C&EN, June 2, page 10). Of the salaried non union staff, 350 jobs were to be cut. In stead, 485 people are leaving. Dow had said that 100 pipe fitters and 40 boilermakers would be laid off if an equivalent number of workers in those categories did not accept the voluntary package. "They had this hammer over their heads," says Gary Bull, business man ager of Boilermakers Local No. 682. Bull says all 40 boilermakers who accepted the package from Dow were offered employ ment through the union, although some positions were part time or distant. All but one pipe-fitter position has been cut. Dow had no specific layoff plans for other union categories, but expected about 10 machinists and 50 operators to take the voluntary package. Twice as many did. "We will have enough to run the plant," says Davis. But the remaining employees will be facing "beaucoup overtime," according to Samuel Hatfield, business agent for Operating Engineers Local No. 564. "We're not happy with them not hiring replacements." Elisabeth Kirschner
