Mark Kocan

Mark Kocan RR 1 Box 15 Patterson Blvd Towanda, PA 18848Phone: 570-268-3418 Fax: 570-268-3941

It is not known what the impact of DuPont's announcement will be on the North Towanda plant in the long term, said Mark Kocan, the human resources manager at the plant.
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"We're doing what we need to do (at the North Towanda plant) to be competitive in the future," Kocan said.

There are approximately 450 hourly workers at the plant, said Mark Kocan, the human resources manager at the plant.All have been invited to the meetings with the union.
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"We are confident that our workers do not need to be represented" by the union, Kocan said.Currently, there are no unions at the plant, he said.To gain recognition as the collective bargaining unit for hourly workers, the National Labor Relations Board would likely hold an election in which hourly employees would vote on whether they wanted to be represented by the International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers, he said.

Currently, 18 percent of non-exempt employees at the North Towanda plant are contract workers, Kocan said.Non-exempt workers are those who receive overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and do not include positions such as managers, scientists, and engineers.

While there has been some fluctuation in the number of contract employees at the plant in the past, in general the number of contract workers at the plant today is about what it has been in the past, Kocan said.

Contract workers fill jobs at DuPont's North Towanda plant on an as-needed basis in areas such as maintenance, security, and production, said Kocan.The contract workers at the North Towanda plant are not employed directly by DuPont, but by other companies that supply the workers to the DuPont plant, Kocan said.While they do not receive benefits from DuPont, they do receive benefits from their direct employer, he said.
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The restructuring will give the company "the most competitive mix (of workers) that we can have so that we can survive and thrive," Kocan said.
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Kocan also noted that contract employees act as a "buffer" to protect the jobs of permanent, full-time workers, because the company will look to lay off contractor workers rather than full-time, permanent workers if business slows down.

"We may have to let contractors go for a while while we protect full-service employee positions," Kocan said."It allows us to kind of ride the cycles (of demand for the plant's products)."

"We have very cyclical markets at the plant," Kocan continued.
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Kocan acknowledged that that may be taking place, because DuPont doesn't want to be using permanent workers anymore in jobs that are more appropriate for contract workers.A permanent worker in a job appropriate for a contract worker would be transferred to fill in a job vacancy in a position suited for permanent workers, and his old job would be filled with a contract worker, Kocan said.

Still another problem with hiring contract workers is that proper background checks are not being done on them, resulting in one or two instances of workers with a criminal background being an annoyance to other workers, the union representatives contend.But Kocan and Rodenhizer denied that and said they had not heard of such workers being at the plant.
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Adecco of Elmira, N.Y., which is the employment agency that hires production contract workers for the plant, does background checks and drug screenings on all the employees they hire, Kocan said.Production workers are the most common type of contract worker at the North Towanda plant, he said.

"Adecco's search goes back, I believe, seven years," Kocan said."If there is any felony conviction, those people are not considered for employment."

If the job applicant had a misdemeanor conviction, a decision would be made on an individual basis on whether that person would be hired, Kocan said.

The other companies that supply contract workers to the North Towanda plant also conduct the proper background screenings, Kocan said.

Another issue raised by workers at the plant is that they should be getting equal pay for equal work.

When asked for an example of this, the IBDW representatives said that workers do not get a temporary raise when they fill in on vacations for workers with higher pay.

Kocan acknowledged that the fill-in workers do not normally receive temporary raises, although if a worker filled in for a higher-paid worker for an extended period of time, he would see his pay adjusted upward.

According to Human Resources Manager Mark Kocan, Pinkosky is resigning from his position in order to pursue other career opportunities.
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Kocan said that Rodenheiser became the plant manager at the local DuPont facility on March 1, and Pinkosky will be leaving on March 31.
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"The next few weeks will be used to get Jim up to speed as Jim takes over for Frank," Kocan said.
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Kocan said that Pinkosky has served as manager of the Towanda plant for about four years, and has been with DuPont for a total of 25 years.
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Kocan also reported that Rodenheiser will be the ideal replacement for Pinkosky, given Rodenheiser's previous work at the Towanda plant, as well as his experience as operations director of New Business Initiatives.
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Kocan said that Rodenheiser's experience will be extremely helpful at the local DuPont plant as it incorporates its new color filters project.

The plant currently employs 600, said Mark Kocan, human resources manager at the plant.

There are approximately 450 hourly workers at the plant, said Mark Kocan, the human resources manager at the plant.All have been invited to the meetings with the union.
...
"We are confident that our workers do not need to be represented" by the union, Kocan said.

Currently, there are no unions at the plant, he said.

To gain recognition as the collective bargaining unit for hourly workers, the National Labor Relations Board would likely hold an election in which hourly employees would vote on whether they wanted to be represented by the International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers, he said.