International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers

Jim Flickinger - President     

Tony Davis - Vice President

Donny Irvin - Secretary/Treasurer 

Kenneth Henley - General Counsel 

"Workers Representing DuPont, Bemis and INVISTA Workers"

IBDW GENERAL COUNSEL, KENNETH HENLEY RESPONDS TO DUPONT'S LETTER

It is with a great deal of amusement that I read the letter to the editor written by Don Johnson, senior vice president of Dupont, responding to my article in the Wilmington News Journal that discussed the exorbitant compensation provided to Dupont Board members. 

First off, I must have hit a nerve - or why would Dupont go to the trouble of responding?   

Second, the writer, asserts that my article was "riddled with inaccuracies", "misrepresented the truth", was "misleading" and "uninformed".  He asserts that he "felt compelled to set the record straight with facts".

Oh really! 

I stated in my article that Board members were paid between $250,000 - $300,000 for being on the Board during 2008.  Johnson never said that was wrong.  All he said is that the Board Members took a "compensation reduction" in 2009 due to the recession - yet he never said how much of a reduction. You and I can imagine why not. 

Johnson also said the Board members responsibilities are "clearly set forth in the Dupont proxy statement" and that, in fact, they did attend almost all the meetings - including seven Board meetings and as many as six meetings for each committee. (By the way, note his use of the phrase "as many as", meaning there were committees with far less than six meetings.)  Big deal.  I am not impressed.   

Just because they attend is no big deal.  Attending means showing up.  It doesn't mean they actually did anything of consequence or value.  Is there any doubt that there are lawyers, accountants and the like that do much of the work of these committees?

Have you ever heard of a Board member being removed because they didn't do a good enough job?  And what about the Board members who remain on the Board year after year after year?  Is it really because they are so effective?

The performance by those on the Dupont Board of Directors has a substantial impact on each Dupont wage roll employee.  These employees have the absolute right to closely examine the performance of these Board members and to expect that performance to be "world class", just as management expects the performance of its wage roll employees to be “world class”.

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