Lockheed Gets Set to Eliminate Up to 9,500 Jobs : No Other Big Project to Move Workers to as C-5b Program Passes Its Peak

Lockheed is preparing to eliminate 1,500 jobs on C-5b aircraft production in the Los Angeles area by this summer and as many as 8,000 at its facilities in Georgia by next year, as the cargo aircraft program passes its peak activity, the firm disclosed Friday.

The company said it expects to find other assignments for about 500 of the C-5 workers in Los Angeles and to lay off the other 1,000. Lockheed spokesman James Ragsdale said the company so far has laid off 100 workers locally. “We don’t have a big project for them to move into right now,” Ragsdale said.

Lockheed builds about 25% of the airframe of the Air Force C-5 at facilities in Burbank, Palmdale and the Watts-Willowbrook area of Los Angeles. Until this cutback, Lockheed’s work force of 16,500 has been fairly stable, with attrition of about 500 workers since early 1987.

The Calabasis-based aerospace firm was awarded a fixed-price contract in 1982 to build 50 of the cargo aircraft, the largest capacity transport aircraft ever produced, for $7.8 billion or an average of $156 million each. The cost was later reduced to $6.95 billion or $139 million each.

“Frightened Work Force”

“The project is running out--it’s as simple as that,” said a union official at the International Assn. of Machinists, which represents Lockheed workers. “If we don’t get something to replace this, we are going to lose a lot of people before the end of June. I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at 1,000.

“It is going to hurt us--and hurt us badly,” he added. “A lot of people are sweating. People are jockeying for any job. It is a frightened work force. Unless you are in a skilled trade--tool and die or jig and fixture--you are out of luck.”

Nonetheless, the Lockheed layoffs were predictable because the Los Angeles-area operations are completing work under schedules laid out far in advance, but the confirmation Friday was the first word from Lockheed that the layoffs have begun.

Many of the multibillion-dollar programs launched at the start of the Reagan Administration, which created a heyday for aerospace industry, have begun to wind down in the past year. Rockwell International last month rolled out the final B-1 bomber and is continuing a layoff that will eventually reach 20,000 employees across the country.

Meanwhile, other cutbacks are beginning to show up around the industry, such as recent ones that were disclosed by Hughes Aircraft and TRW. In some respects, aerospace analysts have found these cutbacks more troubling because they appear to reflect recent efforts to trim defense spending by $33 billion, rather than the churning of specific contracts in a cyclical industry.

Despite the layoffs, some hiring is continuing at other aerospace firms in the Los Angeles area. Douglas Aircraft is continuing to build up employment on its C-17 Air Force cargo aircraft, T-45 Navy trainer and commercial jetliners. Northrop is adding 1,000 jobs on the Boeing 747 fuselage program in Hawthorne. And Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division is undergoing rapid growth in rocket engine production.

Ragsdale, the Lockheed spokesman, said the company expects to create about 400 jobs under a subcontract from Douglas to build the wings for the C-17 aircraft. But the company is facing other shrinkages in its work load.

Production of the P-3 Orion, a Navy patrol aircraft, is slowing down, Ragsdale said. Congress funded only six P-3s in the fiscal 1988 budget, down from the 12 P-3s that have been typically funded in recent years.

Moreover, the Navy is now throwing the program up for competition by asking for bids on a new generation of aircraft. Those bids will submitted this month and pit Boeing and Douglas against Lockheed.

One apparent bright spot for Lockheed is in its “black,” or secret programs at its advanced development projects facility in Burbank, commonly known as the Skunk Works. Although many analysts have expected a major secret aircraft program there to wind down by now, there is no indication of a cutback.

“If you have security clearance, you are relatively safe at Lockheed at this point,” said the union official, who asked not to be quoted by name. “It is the ‘white’ world where you are in danger in.”