BP Fires A Quarter Of Its Solar Workers (620 Green Collar jobs out the window)

[girl gone mad]

BP Fires A Quarter Of Its Solar Workers
http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-fires-a-quarter-of-its-solar-workers-2009-4

Forget all that " Beyond Petroleum" nonsense, BP (BP) is gutting part of its alternative energy program:

Guardian: BP is to axe 620 jobs from its solar power business – more than a quarter of that workforce – in a move it said was part of the long-term strategy to "reduce the cost of solar power to that of conventional electricity."

Two cell manufacture and module assembly plants near Madrid, will be shut with the loss of 480 posts while module assembly will also be phased out at its Frederick facility in Maryland, US, with a further 140 redundancies.

The company blamed the weak economic environment, in particular the credit crunch. BP needs to slash costs where it can because the low price of oil is hurting the company's performance for the year. BP's CEO Tony Hayward has repeatedly said oil needs to be at $60 for the company to be profitable. Oil is now sitting at under $50, as it has all year long.

This is also the second round of solar layoffs by a major corporation in the past week. Last week GE laid off staff at a solar plant in Delaware.

[MADem]

1. Ha ha ha ha ha (that was IRONIC and SARDONIC, not gleeful)

I wonder if they played that pukey music in the background while they told those poor bastids they were "made redundant?" (Such a lovely way of saying "Hit the bricks, pal.")

"Say, Phillips, we think it's important that we reduce our carbon footprint...." (pukey music) "Really, sir?" (more pukey music) "Yes, that's why we're giving YOU the SACK!!!" (strum-chord finish!)

BP--beyond petroleum? I don't think so....more like Bullshitting Posturers!

[doc03]

2. This doesn't come as any surprise, energy

prices are down. Toyota can't sell a Prius people don't want them when gas prices are low. The oil companies and OPEC will keep those prices just low enough to keep it financially unfeasible to go to any alternative. It would be politically unpopular but maybe Ross Perot had it right back in 1992 when he said there should be a 50 cent tax on a gallon of gas. Ross Perot was right about NAFTA, remember that giant sucking sound. Imagine if Al Gore would have been President the last 8 years, we wouldn't be at the mercy of OPEC and BP and wouldn't have pissed a trillion dollars down the drain in Iraq. We somehow got the worst of the three.

[ixion]

6. BP managed to make a tidy profit with oil was at $28... so

Mr. Hayward is full of crap, IMO.

[global1]

3. I Wonder If BP Will Take Those Alternative Energy Commercials Off TV......

now. Instead of firing the workers here - why don't they just stop spending money telling us how great they are in looking for alternative energy solutions. Surely those commercials cost more then it does to keep these people employed and working on solutions?

[hootinholler]

4. This will hurt Frederick.

It makes little sense to me since there's a build out of new floorspace on that site. The building is just under roof. To be fair the building did start about a year ago.

-Hoot

[femrap]

5. K and R

Fucking asshole Corporations. They're going to kill us all.