THE Feeling is Mutual!

Last week I reported that more than 400 paint geeks had lost their jobs in layoffs at Pittsburgh, Rust-Oleum (owned by RPM), Ace Hardware and Chemours, the country’s leading TiO2 producer.  Those 400 are among an estimated 1,000 laid off in paint in the last three-quarters, though a detailed accounting might make that number closer to 1,200.

I further shared my belief that more layoffs were still to come, a forecast which became fact the next day when Carboline let another 30 go. 

Like Rust-Oleum, Carboline is owned by RPM, the nation’s fifth largest paint manufacturer, headquartered in Medina, Ohio with sales of $7.4 billion.  With layoffs at another RPM brand, DAP, the company has shed more than 300 employees in the past few weeks, out of a total of 17,800 employees worldwide.  Common among RPM’s actions were cuts to sales positions, including a third of the reps in Rust-Oleum’s hardware dealer division.

Anyone with information about these cuts, including details of how companies are treating their employees at separation, you know what to do. 

It Ain’t Just Paint

But it’s in the layoffs at Chemours that I see the most concerning evidence that our industry is contracting, only bolstering my belief that more layoffs are still to come.  Pronounced kem-orz, Chemours mines are the first link in paint’s supply chain, two years before the consumer rolls and cuts the walls.  But the cuts tell may imply bigger problems with the economy than a few bad quarters in paint. Earth’s refractive GoAT, TiO2 is the first scoop into most batches of toothpaste, cosmetics, sunscreens, plastics and anything opaque or white manufactured in the United States. 

Portending concerns for the American economy, which is already suffering from reduced manufacturing output. A contraction which seems likely to keep layoffs coming. 

THE Feeling is Mutual

On Monday CEO Heidi Petz will take the stage at Sherwin-Williams’ national sales meeting, if she has the chutzpah.

If she wimps out on a live address, Petz accepts the shame implied in that capitulation: that she’s so reviled she can’t depend on a roomful of employees to be minimally polite, so we know she’s not stupid.

Because Petz knows what she's done to the people in that room, recently cutting their retirement benefits while Sherwin reported record profits and Ms. Petz enriched herself greatly.  

Her gluttony not satisfied Petz also orchestrates a wage theft scheme, making victims out of nearly every store manager, compelling them to work hours without pay as a condition of her employment. Other positions in the stores and in the field suffer that same lament. 

And then days before Christmas she fired their coworkers, which as it turns out was really just for funsies.

Because last week I learned that Petz is pressuring those same employees to stay on past their termination date, making any pretense of a need to act before Christmas folly. An overt aggression towards them which comes off as disdain.      

And it’s knowing THE feelings are mutual which keeps Petz from taking the stage. 

I get lots of questions, which I appreciate as they often become the topic of this blog, so that you end up doing the hardest part.  But that still leaves a lot unanswered and unlike Heidi I’ve got nothing to hide. So next week I’m recording the pilot episode of a new podcast mini-series Mark Lipton Live, where after a brief content segment I’ll host a no rules Q & A for anyone who wants to talk paint. 

Or whatever else is on Paint’s mind.

On January 29^th at 7 PM eastern you can join me on this Zoom where after a brief introduction I’ll address live two topics from our current events, the first being layoffs including a discussion of who is still hiring.  And what’s going on at Pittsburgh which you don’t already know?  Plenty as it turns out, according to an executive in the stores division I spoke with for more than an hour just last week, vastly expanding my understanding of that situation.

Feel free to bring your questions, about these or any topics.

If I’m not alone when I record then a week later I’ll be live again, sharing details from my investigation into wage theft at Sherwin-Williams before opening the floor to another no rules Q & A. 

And I think Heidi’s got one.