1,900 to Lose Jobs at York Facilities in Orange County

Ford Aerospace officials in Newport Beach had expected bad news from Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger this week. But when it came Tuesday, it was far worse than they had prepared for.

As a result, the 1,900 employees at the company’s Sgt. York facilities in Orange County waited for eight tense hours to be officially notified that the Army was scrapping the controversial tank-mounted gun immediately and that their jobs would end soon.

“We did not plan that there would be a complete cancellation,” a spokeswoman at Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp. said in Washington. “This has never happened to Ford before . . . . We expected at least to have work through mid-1986.”

However, the impact on Orange County’s diversified economy was not expected to be great.

Company officials were unable to tell employees exactly when to expect the layoffs or how the seven-year-old program would be phased out. For at least today, a spokesman said, all employees would be on the job at the four Orange County facilities where the guns are designed, manufactured and tested.

“Perhaps we’ll know more then,” the spokesman said with a shrug. “Right now we’re waiting for word on the timing of all this from the Army.”

Ford Aerospace’s response demonstrates how stunned their executives were by Weinberger’s announcement. Just a week ago, one official confided, executives were privately preparing to be told that the Army would not buy another 117 Sgt. York systems. That news, the official said, at least would have allowed the company to complete work on the 90 systems already authorized and given it about a year to phase out the program and its employees.

Nervously Waiting

The shock was felt throughout the work force. By 2 p.m., the employees at the manufacturing and assembly plant in Irvine were nervously waiting for officials to confirm the radio reports they had been hearing all morning.

One worker, who declined to identify herself, said she was resigned to the bad news. “I’ll continue working until I’m told differently, but sooner or later I expect to be laid off,” she said. “That’s always the chance you take in aerospace.”

Ford officials have promised to begin programs to help the employees find new jobs, at aerospace plants throughout Southern California and within the company’s 3,200-worker Aeronutronic division, which is also based in Newport Beach. The Aeronutronic division, which opened in Orange County in 1958, makes ammunition, an advanced infrared missile guidance guidance system and control systems for the successful Sidewinder missile program.

Weinberger’s decision also put into question the fate of Ford’s $50-million investment in facilities and equipment for the Sgt. York system. Within months of receiving the initial production contract for the guns in 1981, the company built two Orange County plants with a total of 300,000 square feet to house design and production workers.

No Immediate Plan

Ford officials said the company had no immediate plan for the plants but noted that they could be used if the company wins contracts for two Navy missile systems now being designed.

Labor analysts predicted that many fired Ford employees will encounter some difficulty finding new jobs. These analysts say that the continuing slump in the computer industry has put electronic assembly and manufacturing jobs at a premium throughout the region. In Orange County alone, 2,000 manufacturing and aerospace jobs have been lost since December, said Alta Yetter of the state Department of Development in Santa Ana.

Furthermore, other analysts say that highly specialized engineers may find difficulty in translating their job skills to new positions. “Some people aren’t useful doing anything other than what they were doing and need retraining to get a new job,” said Lynne Pierson, an economics professor at Chapman College in Orange. “But that’s been the cycle in aerospace for years.”

Despite such difficulties, the economic impact on Orange County from the forthcoming layoffs is not expected to be great.

During the last two decades, economists say, the county, which was once heavily dependent on military contracts, has successfully expanded its employment base and diversified its economy. State records show that about 9% of the county’s civilian work force is employed by aerospace companies and that about half work on defense-funded programs.

“This is nothing like the mid-1960s,” when Rockwell International laid off about 15,000 over a two-year period, Yetter said.