Last week we presented a story on just how tough things are out there, as the fallout from a battered economy continue to fall all around us.
This morning we have still another example. Times really are tough all over.
Even the oil business is not immune. It was not that long ago that the petroleum/refining business was riding high, racking up record profits as people emptied their piggy banks at the gas pump.
Now it’s some of the companies with their hat in their hand. And of course it’s workers who are paying the price.
Sunoco Inc. yesterday cited a worldwide slump in demand for its fuel products and decided it needed to tighten its belt.
They did so by tightening the noose around the necks of about 400 employees.
The petroleum giant announced it would shutter its Eagle Point oil refinery across the river in Gloucester County, N.J. It is also slashing its dividend in half. Four hundred jobs are being eliminated.
Oddly enough, this latest cloud on the economic front has a bit of a silver lining for Delaware County. Much of the work that was done at Eagle Point will be moved to Sunoco facilities in South Philadelphia and Marcus Hook. That will come as good news to workers at the sprawling plant down in the Hook, where the union continues to fight a move to ax about 50 workers whose jobs went up in smoke after an explosion and fire rocked the plant’s ethylene unit last winter. The company decided not to rebuilt the unit, citing weak demand.
This morning we have still another example. Times really are tough all over.
Even the oil business is not immune. It was not that long ago that the petroleum/refining business was riding high, racking up record profits as people emptied their piggy banks at the gas pump.
Now it’s some of the companies with their hat in their hand. And of course it’s workers who are paying the price.
Sunoco Inc. yesterday cited a worldwide slump in demand for its fuel products and decided it needed to tighten its belt.
They did so by tightening the noose around the necks of about 400 employees.
The petroleum giant announced it would shutter its Eagle Point oil refinery across the river in Gloucester County, N.J. It is also slashing its dividend in half. Four hundred jobs are being eliminated.
Oddly enough, this latest cloud on the economic front has a bit of a silver lining for Delaware County. Much of the work that was done at Eagle Point will be moved to Sunoco facilities in South Philadelphia and Marcus Hook. That will come as good news to workers at the sprawling plant down in the Hook, where the union continues to fight a move to ax about 50 workers whose jobs went up in smoke after an explosion and fire rocked the plant’s ethylene unit last winter. The company decided not to rebuilt the unit, citing weak demand.
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