Bad Day at Dell HQ: Protests and Job Cuts

There probably have been better days around 1 Dell Way up in Round Rock. Wednesday began with four Greenpeace members scaling the facade of Dell's main building to unfurl a banner with a message for CEO Michael Dell: “Michael, What the Dell? Design Out Toxics.” Later in the day, the company confirmed to the Statesman that it's cutting jobs in the Austin area this week.

The protest was spurred by the claim that Dell has backtracked on its commitments to eliminate toxic PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its products, despite the fact that many of its competitors have already done so.

Dell spokesman David Frink told the Statesman his company is making significant progress toward eliminating PVCs and BFRs from products and it is working with its suppliers to meet that goal by the end of 2011. The Greenpeace climbers were not arrested. “We asked them to come down and have a cup of coffee with our director of sustainable operations,” Frink said.

As for the job cuts, Dell declined to say how may workers would be losing their jobs. Dell employs about 16,000 people in the Austin area.