Akzona to lay off 600 salaried workers Yet another company has joined the ranks of those announcing big layoffs during the current recession. Akzona says that because of the poor U.S. economy, it will reduce the number of salaried employees about 600 companywide. The company also says it will minimize additional debt financing and will put its new headquarters building in Asheville, N.C., up for sale. John Coli, president and chief executive officer of Akzona, says, "Akzona, like the steel, housing, and automotive industries, has been hurt by our nation's severe economic problems. The combination of recession, inflation, and high interest rates has depressed consumer demand for many Akzona products, particularly man-made fibers. "Under these circumstances," he continues, " t h e m a n a g e m e n t of Akzona is forced to reduce the need for additional debt financing, thereby avoiding a substantial increase in the heavy interest burden the company currently carries." To achieve its objectives, Coli says Akzona has reduced its 1982 work-
ing capital requirements $22 million. Also, capital spending has been reduced about 13% below the budgeted $63.4 million. Coli says the cuts have been made by deferring projects and should not affect major profitgenerating projects vital to Akzona's future. Expense budgets throughout the company have been reduced to the minimum level possible, consistent with business requirements. According to Coli, the cost-cutting program, begun in the second quarter and stepped up in the third quarter, will result in estimated savings of $24 million in 1982. The reduction in personnel represents about 10% of salaried employees at Akzona's headquarters and in the six operating companies. "We are distressed to have to take this type of personnel action," Coli notes, "but we see no alternative in view of the economic situation." Before the announcement at a press conference at the company's headquarters, Akzona employed about 14,700 persons and had annual payroll costs of more than $335 million. The 10% decrease in salaried employees will result in an annualized overhead reduction of about $16 million companywide. D
National labs hampered by DOE management The Department of Energy's multiprogram research laboratories are doing high-quality work despite being somewhat hampered by DOE's management, says a new report on the national labs from DOE's Energy Research Advisory Board. The nine large labs—Ames, Argonne, Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Sandia—are viewed as a tremendous national asset. The panel preparing the report, headed by ERAB vice chairman Ivan L. Bennett, dean and provost of New York University Medical Center, was uniformly impressed with the scientific and technological capabilities of the labs, and found the "qualities and resourcefulness of laboratory leadership" very good. But the panel also believes the labs could be doing more. The report says some labs presently are funded at the minimum amount needed to keep them working efficiently, and that any further budget cuts could result in drastic measures, such as the combining of some labs. The panel also dislikes
DOE's restrictions on doing work for outside groups, particularly industry, saying this is frustrating technology-transfer efforts. DOE's patent policy also is a tough barrier to cooperation with industry, and though now amended, the policy needs vigorous implementation. Perhaps most important, the panel says the labs have become "grossly overburdened with detailed reporting and paperwork requirements" that seem to have no useful purpose and are diverting efforts away from the lab's research functions. To get around some of the problems, ERAB recommends, in part, that DOE support, and get the Office of Management & Budget to support, two-year, rolling appropriations for the labs to cut down on the constant fight for funding. It also recommends that DOE give its lab directors much more flexibility within their own budgets to deploy resources and initiate or a d a p t programs, that it allow the labs to do more reimbursable work for others, and that the labs' cooperation with universities in training scientific personnel be expanded. D
FROM KANSAS CITY About 7000 attend ACS meeting in Kansas City The lyric phrase "Everything's up to date in Kansas City" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play "Oklahoma" took on a special meaning last week as the most up-to-date research results in a wide array of chemical disciplines were presented to some 6600 chemists and chemical engineers who gathered in that city for the American Chemical Society's 184th National Meeting. Served up amid a healthy dollop of midwestern hospitality were some 2400 technical papers, covering such diverse subjects as a system that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and research that may lead to new drugs to treat sicklecell anemia (see following stories). Also, the well-attended chemical exposition displayed the most up-todate chemical and instrumental products and services from about 135 organizations. A number of exhibitors conducted exposition workshops covering such areas as instrumentation and data search techniques. In addition to the scientific and technical activities at the meeting, the society's governing bodies—the ACS Board of Directors, the ACS Council, and many supporting committees and subcommittees—tended to business and governance matters in an experimental schedule (aimed at separating governance and technical activities) that had most of these groups meeting earlier in the week than usual. Among the business issues, the council, with about 340 councilors voting, turned down a proposal to charge members holding emeritus status for C&EN, defeated another proposal to increase yearly allotments to local sections, and approved a scheme to review periodically the lifetime of joint board-council committees. (These three issues were embodied in petitions to amend the society's bylaws.) Councilors also elected members to three council committees—the Council Policy Committee, the Committee on Committees, and the Committee on Nominations & Elections—and set advance registration fees for ACS members for next year's two national meetings at $80, which is $5.00 more than this year. T h e one petition adopted by councilors, on the lifetime of joint Sept. 20, 1982 C&EN
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