Kinston, NC, August 27--The new owner of the former DuPont plant has told hundreds of textile workers that they must take a 20 percent pay cut if they want to keep their jobs.
Greensboro-based Unifi will acquire the textile plant from Koch Industries, which bought the operation from DuPont's Invista subsidiary in May. Unifi plans to acquire the massive industrial complex, which DuPont owned for decades, by the end of September.
Workers say they're not happy about the choice Unifi offered. "Well, I don't like it. But I'm going to stick around," said Mert Colie of La Grange. He retired from DuPont after 30 years, and then took a job with Koch Industries.
Colie said many of his colleagues expected some sort of cut when they learned of the pending sale.
Koch issued a statement in July that closing the plant is the only alternative to selling the Kinston plant.
Unifi is still hammering out its plans for the employees here, said Willie Wooldridge, Unifi's vice president of human resources. That includes whether to keep, shrink or add to the 775 jobs that will be part of the sale.
"Obviously, it's a difficult blow to employees." Wooldridge said of the pay cuts. "It's way too early to tell how morale is, other than it's a tough message for them to receive, and for us to give."
Koch will buy out its employees' vacation time. Employees who agree to stay will be allowed to take their service time at DuPont and Koch with them to Unifi. Their benefits will be adjusted to match that experience, Wooldridge said.
Unifi, too, is putting together a severance package for employees who join the new company, but lose their job within a year, he said. Unifi has yarn plants in Brazil and Virginia. Kinston will become its fourth operation in North Carolina.
"We would like for those folks to become Unifi employees," Wooldridge said. "But it's certainly their decision to make."
