Anaheim Reorganization : ‘Several Hundred’ Layoffs Revealed at Rockwell Unit

Rockwell International Corp., which recently consolidated three of its defense electronics divisions into a single Anaheim-based unit, confirmed Monday that the reorganization has resulted in an unspecified number of employee layoffs.

Although a worker who requested anonymity said employees have been told that up to 25% of Rockwell’s 9,600 Anaheim employees could lose their jobs, a company spokesman said that only “a couple of hundred, not a couple of thousand” employees have been laid off so far.

The spokesman said he was unable to cite a more precise figure because the “review and consolidation are still ongoing.”

Rockwell ranks as Orange County’s second-largest private-sector employer, exceeded only by Hughes Aircraft’s Ground Systems Group in Fullerton. Rockwell has about 14,000 employees in the county, of which 9,600 work at the Anaheim electronics complex. The remainder work at facilities in Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Santa Ana.

In mid-June, Rockwell announced that it was combining its Anaheim-based Marine Systems, ICBM and Aircraft Systems divisions into a single unit known as Autonetics Electronics Systems.

The spokesman said that as a result of the consolidation, the once-separate logistics, quality assurance and manufacturing operations staffs of the three divisions have been combined, so overlapping jobs are being eliminated.

“We have one each of quality assurance, one logistics and one manufacturing operations staff now, instead of three,” he said. “We combined because were were looking for efficiencies.”