Space industry layoffs begin

258 United Space Alliance workers take "self-nominated" layoffs Friday
BY PATRICK PETERSON

About 258 United Space Alliance workers took "self-nominated" layoffs Friday, as the company begins cutbacks that will be necessary to reduce its work force in advance of the shuttle's scheduled retirement in 2010.

"Many of them are people who decided to retire," USA spokeswoman Tracy Yates said.

Next week, 19 workers will be laid off non-voluntarily.

Yates said the 277 layoffs account for less than 5 percent of USA's Florida work force. She said the reduction will align the workforce with the budget and shuttle flight schedule for 2010.

After the layoff, some 5,600 USA employees will remain in Florida.

USA does not expect further layoffs until the end of the shuttle program.

"There are no plans for any significant reductions, based on current (flight) manifest and the current environment," she said. "Completing six flights through the end of 2010 will be a big challenge, and we need the folks we've got."

NASA's future after the shuttle awaits a presidential decision on how to continue the space program.

The layoffs bring to nearly 900 the number of space industry workers who have lost their jobs this year.

The layoffs also begin a reduction that could result in the loss of up to 7,000 space industry workers as the shuttle program ends.

Additionally, United Launch Alliance, which builds and launches the venerable Delta II, will lay off 123 workers at Cape Canaveral on Oct. 15, as part of 224 job losses nationwide. Delta II launches have fallen from as many as eight per year to one per year. ULA, however, is still marketing the rocket.

Because of a contract expiration and a plan by the Air Force to "in-source" security operations, about 70 guards who worked for Securiguard were scheduled to be laid off when their one-year contract expired Thursday.

Brevard Workforce has resources available for the unemployed workers.

"Having anticipated the shuttle program layoffs for over a year, Brevard Workforce has been working vigorously on developing partnerships, obtaining funds and putting necessary services into play to assist these workers as they separate from the aerospace work force," Joan Van Scyoc, Brevard Workforce communications manager, said in a statement.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article...y+layoffs+begin

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T.C. Manufacturer To Close, 122 Layoffs Expected
10/5/2009

Another Northern Michigan manufacturer has announced it will close its doors.

Metavation LLC is an auto parts manufacturer in Traverse City.

A spokesperson for the company says it will lay off more than one hundred employees in the coming months.

Employees tell us they're shocked but still not surprised.

They say they knew their jobs were at risk, but that it's still hard to take the reality of it.

A spokesperson for the company says they're in the process of issuing layoff notices to 122 employees.

Most of the layoffs will happen in early December, right before the holidays.

Metavation makes parts for car engines and chassis, and has several other plants in Michigan.

The company expects to move around 30 to 40 jobs from Traverse City to Mt. Pleasant.

http://www.9and10news.com/category/story/?id=174979

__________________
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.
It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.
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Live each day as if there is World enough and Time~
Arubi 

October 8, 2009

Fluor to cut 500 jobs
Dallas Business Journal

Engineering and construction services provider Fluor Corp. has cut 500 jobs in the Houston area due to a canceled contract by an overseas client.

Workers impacted are employed at the company's facility in Sugar Land, according to Pat Pollicoff, a spokeswoman for the city.

Pollicoff said the Irving-based engineering and construction services provider — even with the job cuts — would continue to employ about 3,500 people in Sugar Land.

Mayor James Thompson said "Fluor Corp. will continue to be an important part of Sugar Land’s strong corporate base, representing the city’s largest private employer in terms of total employees."

The company has a worldwide work force of 42,000.

A spokesman for Irving-based Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR) was not immediately available to comment when the Dallas Business Journal contacted the firm Thursday afternoon.

In August, Fluor Corp. posted a $169 million profit for the second quarter, or 93 cents per share.

The company’s earnings, on revenue of $5.2 billion, are down from last year when Fluor reported second-quarter earnings of $208 million, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $5.8 billion.

http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dalla...05/daily39.html

__________________
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.
It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Live each day as if there is World enough and Time~
Arubi 

Layoffs at Moog Aircraft compound Utah's aerospace woes
Recession » Demise of business jet contracts hurts Utah workers
By Mike Gorrell
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 10/12/2009 05:54:57 PM MDT
ATK's layoff of 550 workers is not the only blow sustained this fall by Utah's aviation and aerospace industry.
Moog Aircraft Group, whose Utah operations include a commercial division that develops flight controls for business jets, told 220 employees on Sept. 22 that their jobs will end when existing contracts are completed.
For some employees, the termination was immediate. Others will continue for varying durations through March, said Joe Green, an executive vice president at Moog Aircraft headquarters in suburban Buffalo, N.Y.
"From our standpoint, any reduction is a heartbreaker," he said Monday. "There are not any new airplane programs and nobody is buying business jets. It's a very, very hard-hit market."
Utah economic development officials are concerned about the cutbacks -- and the impacted individuals -- but hope other job-attraction efforts will provide jobs for some displaced workers.
Spencer P. Eccles, new executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development, cited a program to develop unmanned aerial vehicles at Dugway Proving Ground, which will create 200 jobs, possibly 350 long-term.
In addition, the Air Force is shifting a software and engineering group to Hill Air Force Base, possibly creating another 350 aerospace jobs.
"We know the industry will ebb and flow," said Eccles. "The one thing we can control is how we react and create a business friendly environment for those companies."
Green was not certain how many people Moog Aircraft employed at its commercial aircraft division in West Valley City (2268 S. 3270 West). The Economic Development Corporation of Utah's 2009 profile of the state's aviation industry put its numbers between 500 and 999.
Since Moog has about 11,000 employees in the United States and 19 foreign countries, the 220 layoffs represent "a fairly small-scale restructuring," Green said. "On a worldwide basis, we're not talking a high percentage of employees. It just happens to be a high percentage in Salt Lake."
GOED has promoted aviation and aerospace as one of its targeted "economic clusters," based on the concentration of companies along the Wasatch Front. That concentration was spurred by the 1939 development of Hill, which employs nearly 23,000 military and civilian personnel. ATK and SkyWest Airlines are the next-largest employers in this industry, followed by a group of firms similar in size to Moog -- Boeing in Salt Lake City, Parker-Hannifin Corp. in Ogden and the Salt Lake City Airport Authority.
The industry pays well, averaging from $37,400 for production people to $80,370 for aerospace engineers.
If the private-jet business rebounds, Green said Moog will "recontact the people who unfortunately lost their jobs."
But, he added, "these are kind of nasty times. We thought almost nine months ago we were going to escape the [downturn], but we haven't. We have to restructure and get ready for the future."
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13546293

__________________
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.
It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Live each day as if there is World enough and Time~
Arubi 

11/3/09
Just today were heard:
Johnson & Johnson announce restructuring with world wide cutbacks of 8.000
Nokia with cut backs of 5700
HSBC UK division cutbacks of 1760

Thats 15,400= job cuts announced

IN ONE DAY

Sure they're world wide cuts and may not all be in the U.S. - but 15K + jobs? In a day?

This is not a good thing.......

Best Regards
Vog

Hints of another round at MSFT this week...

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http://octopuswithafez.blogspot.com/
 

US Air as well. Pilots were given 2 days notice I believe I heard tonight.
They're cutting a lot of routes to places like Las Vegas where planes have not been filled for quite some time..........

Best Regards
Vog

I posted that on the Aviation layoffs/furloughs thread

http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=101434

__________________
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.
It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Live each day as if there is World enough and Time~
Arubi 

Arubi-
You are right and I missed it.
Sorry........

Thinking about Las Vegas though - the cancellation of flights indicates that more and more people are staying away from the gambling mecca. Thank gawd the Mafia is a diversified industry - they can always make up the gambling losses with something else......

Best regards
Vog

The hammer has come down in Redmond:

Seattle P-I post

Microsoft laying off 800 more

Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday that it is cutting 800 more employees, completing the large round of layoffs the company announced in January.
With the goal of eliminating 5,000 positions by June 2010, Microsoft began laying off employees this past spring. Spokesman Lou Gellos said Wednesday's cuts bring the total to about 5,800 – more than what was expected.

"This larger effort, this one that's gained a lot of attention because of the size and the economy, is now complete," Gellos said.

The layoffs are spread throughout many different divisions of the world's biggest software company. About one-quarter of the layoffs announced Wednesday are coming to the Puget Sound area, where Microsoft employs about 40,000 people.

Rumors of the layoffs began several weeks ago and came to a head Tuesday night as word got out that Wednesday was the day.

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Red Wing Shoe to eliminate shift, jobs lost.

Red Wing Shoe Co. announced it is eliminating the second shift at the company's Plant Two facility in Red Wing's Industrial Park in February.

RED WING - Red Wing Shoe Co. announced it is eliminating the second shift at the company's Plant Two facility in Red Wing's Industrial Park in February.

The company is also closing its manufacturing plant in Danville, Ky. In total, approximately 200 workers will be laid off, according to a company press release.


Local Shoe workers were told of the development in the past 48 hours.


Shoe spokesperson Peter Engel said the company will offer early retirement packages to older workers in the hope of avoiding layoffs.


Depending on how many workers accept early retirement there could be up to 60 local layoffs, Engel said.

http://www.piercecountyherald.com/e...ticle/id/22204/

__________________
Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect.
It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Live each day as if there is World enough and Time~
Arubi 

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) will be shuttering its Delaware City refinery by the end of shift Sunday and will have total economic impact of $8.8 million, said a Delaware economic official.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell received a phone call from Bill Klesse, Valero's chief executive, at 5:30 p.m. EST Thursday and was informed that the 210,000-barrel-a-day refinery was "shutting down effective Sunday," said Delaware Economic Development Secretary Alan Levin. The news of the shutdown was made public Friday morning.

Levin said there are no plans to turn the facility into a terminal and to use it for something else once the oil and product are shipped out.

The plant's shutdown will result in a total economic impact of $8.8 million, including the loss of business to suppliers, according to the Delaware Economic Development Office.

This Valero refinery is the largest employer in the southern portion of New Castle County, one of the state's three counties. The northern portion is home to a number of banks, DuPont (DD) and a number of other companies. DuPont, a Valero supplier, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

For the southern part of New Castle, Valero "was really it, so it's a bit hit for that portion of the county and more importantly for the state when you only have 870,000 people," Levin said. "A closure of this magnitude--550 workers--is a big hit." He noted it will have ramifications on suppliers such as DuPont.

Markell and Levin met with Klesse sometime in the second quarter. "We had a very frank discussion about their operations in Delaware City and the predicament is really economic," Levin said.

Delaware City has been beleaguered by operational problems, resulting in millions of dollars of repairs and upgrades, said Ann Kohler, analyst at Caris & Co. However, it was profitable processor of heavy, sour crude a couple years ago when this hard-to-process oil was trading at a wide discount to premium light, sweet oil. That difference has collapsed and Valero has been taking a hit. With burgeoning supplies of gasoline and distillates, a fuel category including diesel and heating oil, in the U.S. while oil prices have rallied more than 70% this year, Valero has been experiencing a "double whammy" on its refining economics.

Valero considered upgrading the facility so that it can process light, sweet crude but abandoned the idea based on an estimate that it would cost at least $250 million to convert the refinery, Levin said.

Last night's notice that Valero would shut Delaware City with within days was a shock especially after last month's announcement that it would be idling for maintenance work. So instead of expecting 150 additional workers for that project, the state is now facing hundreds of workers being out of jobs.

"All of a sudden that construction is gone now, so this is a very tough pill to swallow," Levin said. Earlier this year, General Motors gave a two-month notice before a plant was shut in the state.

Markell said in a press statement Friday that the state would make sure that public services are available, including job retraining.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO...120-710042.html

__________________
"He said to me I understand now why the 1st and 2nd Amendment are the way they are. The 1st Amendment is the most important and if they take that one away then you should start loading your weapons." Ron Suskind 8/5/2008


(\__/) This is Bunny. He says "Those who would
(='.'=) give up essential liberty to purchase a little
(")_(") temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 

Buttt ... I thought that environment restrictions were keeping NEW refineries from opening, which was really really bad for the US economy (or so my Conservative friends have been "lecturing" me about for years).

(of course they have ALWAYS ignored the fact that in this state 3 refineries, including one mega size refinery, have closed in the last decade or so, next door one way two others have closed also and next door another way another one closed - economics was always cited as the reasons for the closings).