Ford to Lay Off Another 600 Workers : Sgt. York Cuts Reach 1,200

Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp. announced Friday that another 600 employees assigned to the Sgt. York program the Pentagon abruptly scrapped last week will be terminated in two weeks, the second wave of workers the company will lay off.

Earlier Friday, 600 mostly low-level production workers drew their last paychecks at Ford’s Irvine, Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano plants. That group of employees had received their pink slips on Wednesday.

The employees given their two-week notice on Friday were primarily engineers and manufacturing professionals and logistics managers. A company spokesman said they will receive severance benefits that include one week’s pay for each year of service with the company.

The 600 who left their jobs Friday were given only two days notice and no severance pay.

The company said the fate of the remaining 700 employees working on the Sgt. York project was unclear.

Janet Igo of La Habra was one of the first 600 employees who left Friday. She whisked out the front door of Ford’s Irvine plant at noon smiling brightly. She carried a gray Sgt. York sweat shirt her supervisors and fellow workers had signed.

But moments later, Igo’s smile had disappeared as she talked about the sadness of being one of the first 600 employees who lost their jobs because the Pentagon canceled the Sgt. York contract with Ford.

“It hurts. It was like a big family here and now I have to start all over. And it’s spooky,” she said.

Last-Minute Counseling

Igo, who worked at the plant for six years as an electrical assembler, and those who have been terminated--or will be in two weeks--represented almost two-thirds of Ford employees working on production of the Sgt. York anti-aircraft weapon.

The 600 low-level production employees who drew their last paychecks Friday were given last-minute unemployment counseling before leaving the Irvine plant.

They later trickled out of the plant in pairs or small groups. All were solemn. A few stopped to shake hands in the parking lot with other employees who had been laid off. Some just jumped in their cars and drove off without uttering a word.

For Igo, the sudden loss of her job will not be so bad. She starts another job Monday with Lockheed. But she will earn $4 an hour less than she made with Ford.

Brothers Laid Off

“I got to take the job. You have to take the job wherever you can get it. I was here six years and I built up a lot of benefits and got good pay raises. Now I have to take a big pay cut and that hurts,” she said. “But I have to do what I have to do.”

For Bill Geis of Tustin, the layoff was especially bitter. The position mechanic had only been on the job for four months. His brother, Hank of Dana Point, also was laid off. Neither has another job.

“I got applications all over the place. For now, my brother and I will use his garage and work on cars,” he said.

Geis said he had tried for at least five years to get a job with a company such as Ford, and the abrupt end to his employment sharpened the pain just a bit.

“This is the kind of job I always looked for. I liked it here. I never had a better employer,” Geis said.

Aeronutronic to Hire Some

Of the 600 employees who left their jobs Friday, perhaps one-third will soon be working again. The company has plans to absorb some of the displaced Sgt. York employees in its 3,200-worker Aeronutronic Division in Newport Beach. It also has promised to help employees find jobs at other Ford installations in Palo Alto, Las Vegas, Colorado Springs and Houston.

Today, Ford will host an employment fair at its Newport Beach facility. Approximately two dozen companies, including Lockheed, TRW, Litton, Northrop and Magnavox, are expected to attend and recruit some of the displaced Ford workers.

The wholesale layoffs by Ford were necessitated after Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger stunned company officials by immediately stopping work on Sgt. York, a tank-mounted anti-aircraft weapon. The Army had already spent $1.8 billion on the Sgt. York project before it was abruptly canceled last week.

Ray Hageman, 25, of Santa Ana, was the only employee leaving the plant Friday who had harsh words for Weinberger’s decision.

“This was a good company to work for . . . until Weinberger (screwed) us,” the electronics technician said.

Looking for Higher Pay

Hageman was among those who have an immediate job with Lockheed, but he, too, will take a pay cut. He said he would attend today’s job fair because “I have to see if I can possibly find something that will pay more.”

For Louis Beltran, an assembler from Orange, the abrupt layoff was the second one he has experienced since he joined Ford eight years ago. He was laid off for two months three years ago.

Beltran, 44, is also one of the few fortunate who have other jobs. He will begin work next week with a Santa Ana electronics firm. But that prospect still didn’t ease his mind as he was leaving the plant.

“This is a good company. I’ll go to the other job, but I’ll come back again if they call me. This is a good company to work for,” Beltran said.