Posted on Fri, Aug. 12, 2011
Philly-area Merck employees weigh early-retirement offer
By David Sell
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Veteran Merck employees, including those in West Point and Upper Gwynedd, have a decision to make by Friday that will effect employment for themselves and colleagues with the global pharmaceutical manufacturer.
According to a union official, Friday is the day for filing papers to accept early retirement packages offered by the company, which recently said it was going to cut 13,000 jobs across the company by 2015.
"If they get their number, then maybe not, but if they don't get their number, there might be layoffs," said Dan Bangert, plant chairman of United Steelworkers Union local 10-00086.
Bangert said the the union represents 2025 of the approximately 10,000 workers at the West Point manufacturing plant, but he said he could only guess on how many would accept the offer.
"We've got a few that were ready to go and think they will take it," said Bangert, who is not old enough to have to received the early-retirement offer.
Bangert said the package included two weeks of pay for each year of service up to maximum of 78 weeks, with a minimum of six months of health insurance.
While offering early retirement packages, Merck officials said there would be hiring for some key positions. Its online job board still lists positions at West Point and other facilities and Bangert said 16 union jobs were added in the last week or so.
Merck, like other large pharmaceutical companies, is struggling to maintain growth and profit levels of the past as blockbuster drugs lose patent protection, enabling lower-priced generic drugs to capture some of the market.
The company which is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., did not say on July 29 how many jobs would be lost at which facilities. Merck employs about 12,000 people at the Montgomery County sites, and several non-headquarters facilities in New Jersey.
Merck said its second-quarter sales rose 7 percent to $12.15 billion from $11.35 billion in the same quarter last year, while net income nearly tripled to $2.02 billion, or 65 cents per share, from $752 million, or 24 cents for the second quarter of 2010.
In 2009, Merck acquired Schering-Plough Corp. for $41 billion to gain control over cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin. When the deal was announced, the companies said they would cut 16,000 jobs globally by the end of 2012, or about 15 percent of their combined workforces.
The latest announcement signals intent to reduce its global workforce, which stood at 91,000 at the end of June, by an additional 12 percent to 13 percent. Within those cuts, 35 percent to 40 percent probably would be at U.S. facilities, a spokesman said. The cuts will fall largely on "non-revenue-generating" positions, including administrative and headquarters personnel, but some people in research and development also might be laid off. Besides job cuts, offices will be consolidated, and various manufacturing plants could be sold or closed. The company has already told employees at a small facility in San Francisco that it would be closed.
"For our people, this won't be easy," Merck president and chief executive Kenneth C. Frazier said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts on July 29. "But the realities of our environment dictate the need to operate more flexibly and nimbly from a cost basis."
Contact staff writer David Sell at 215-854-4506 or dsell@ phillynews.com.
Find this article at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busine...k_employees_weigh_early-retirement_offer.html
© Copyright | Philly Online, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Philly Online, LLC is expressly prohibited.
Philly-area Merck employees weigh early-retirement offer
By David Sell
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Veteran Merck employees, including those in West Point and Upper Gwynedd, have a decision to make by Friday that will effect employment for themselves and colleagues with the global pharmaceutical manufacturer.
According to a union official, Friday is the day for filing papers to accept early retirement packages offered by the company, which recently said it was going to cut 13,000 jobs across the company by 2015.
"If they get their number, then maybe not, but if they don't get their number, there might be layoffs," said Dan Bangert, plant chairman of United Steelworkers Union local 10-00086.
Bangert said the the union represents 2025 of the approximately 10,000 workers at the West Point manufacturing plant, but he said he could only guess on how many would accept the offer.
"We've got a few that were ready to go and think they will take it," said Bangert, who is not old enough to have to received the early-retirement offer.
Bangert said the package included two weeks of pay for each year of service up to maximum of 78 weeks, with a minimum of six months of health insurance.
While offering early retirement packages, Merck officials said there would be hiring for some key positions. Its online job board still lists positions at West Point and other facilities and Bangert said 16 union jobs were added in the last week or so.
Merck, like other large pharmaceutical companies, is struggling to maintain growth and profit levels of the past as blockbuster drugs lose patent protection, enabling lower-priced generic drugs to capture some of the market.
The company which is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., did not say on July 29 how many jobs would be lost at which facilities. Merck employs about 12,000 people at the Montgomery County sites, and several non-headquarters facilities in New Jersey.
Merck said its second-quarter sales rose 7 percent to $12.15 billion from $11.35 billion in the same quarter last year, while net income nearly tripled to $2.02 billion, or 65 cents per share, from $752 million, or 24 cents for the second quarter of 2010.
In 2009, Merck acquired Schering-Plough Corp. for $41 billion to gain control over cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin. When the deal was announced, the companies said they would cut 16,000 jobs globally by the end of 2012, or about 15 percent of their combined workforces.
The latest announcement signals intent to reduce its global workforce, which stood at 91,000 at the end of June, by an additional 12 percent to 13 percent. Within those cuts, 35 percent to 40 percent probably would be at U.S. facilities, a spokesman said. The cuts will fall largely on "non-revenue-generating" positions, including administrative and headquarters personnel, but some people in research and development also might be laid off. Besides job cuts, offices will be consolidated, and various manufacturing plants could be sold or closed. The company has already told employees at a small facility in San Francisco that it would be closed.
"For our people, this won't be easy," Merck president and chief executive Kenneth C. Frazier said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts on July 29. "But the realities of our environment dictate the need to operate more flexibly and nimbly from a cost basis."
Contact staff writer David Sell at 215-854-4506 or dsell@ phillynews.com.
Find this article at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/busine...k_employees_weigh_early-retirement_offer.html
© Copyright | Philly Online, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Philly Online, LLC is expressly prohibited.