Huntsman axes 85 jobs in UK

07 July 2003 00:00  [Source: ICB]

Huntsman is to close three of the eight manufacturing units at its Whitehaven, Cumbria site in the UK, with the loss of 85 jobs.

The units to be closed make tertiary amine, ethoxylation and alcohol intermediates. These are converted on-site to surfactant ingredients for soap powders, detergents and shampoos.

In future, said Huntsman, the intermediates will be bought in from elsewhere.

Site manager Michael Carter said the intermediates units 'had become uncompetitive and could not justify significant capital investment when alternative sourcing routes were available'.

Most of the workers to go are members of the GMB union, which is currently negotiating with Huntsman over the severance pay to be offered. There is also disagreement about the criteria for selecting redundancies, said GMB regional organiser Ged Caig.

'Huntsman wants to declare the whole site at risk so that it can cherry-pick people for redundancy from any plant on the site,' said Caig. 'We are insisting that the redundancies should stay at the plants that will close.'

Caig accused Huntsman of underinvesting in Whitehaven's plant and machinery. 'It will cost it a fortune to modernise the site, so it is looking to save costs by cutting these jobs,' he said.

Huntsman has told the union that the jobs will disappear by the end of September.

The company said the closures would help ensure the retention of the remaining workforce of 160. However, it added that Whitehaven's detergent powders unit will be operated only sporadically in future.

Meanwhile, the formerly Swiss-owned speciality chemicals business Vantico has been merged into Huntsman's polyurethanes and specialities division.

Now renamed Huntsman Advanced Materials, Vantico was rescued from dire financial straits last January by Huntsman's financial partner MatlinPatterson.

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