Quest for Efficiency : Area’s Biggest Private Firms Trimming Jobs

Most of the big private companies in the San Fernando and Conejo valleys have been trimming their employment over the past year in an effort to streamline their operations or simply cut costs, a Times survey has found.

Reports from the 10 largest employers show that eight of the companies, including the area’s biggest employer, Lockheed, have fewer workers than at this time last year. But the cutbacks have not been dramatic; most were less than 5%. Only two companies, Walt Disney and Rockwell International, reported higher employment at their local operations.

The biggest percentage decline came at GTE, a major telecommunications and long-distance telephone company whose California operations are based in Thousand Oaks. The company said its work force fell 12% to 4,112 from 4,690 a year ago, and it attributed the drop to GTE’s ongoing effort to pare its costs in the face of strong competition.

Defense Cuts

Several other big employers are involved in defense-related work and said their smaller payrolls reflect the industrywide cuts in employment stemming from the recent slowdown in government defense spending.

For instance, employment at Hughes Missile Systems Group in Canoga Park fell 12% to 2,739 from 3,100 a year ago, largely because of “a slackening of contracts and a reduction of business volume,” said spokesman Hal Watkins.

Hughes is part of Hughes Aircraft, which is owned by General Motors. And the drop at Hughes Missile Systems contributed to an overall 8% decline in GM’s local employment to 7,299 from 7,965 a year ago.

The rest of GM’s employment cut came mostly at the company’s car assembly plant in Van Nuys, where the work force fell to 4,314 employees from 4,619. GM attributed the drop to normal attrition and its unwillingness to replace those workers.

The plant builds the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, sales of which have been slumping in recent months. Indeed, GM has announced plans to indefinitely lay off about 400 workers next month because it will be slowing production of the cars.

Lockheed Cuts

Another aerospace concern, Lockheed, reported a 3% cutback to 13,560 workers from 13,906. Lockheed is headquartered in Calabasas and has several plants in the area, including aircraft facilities in Burbank and Rye Canyon near Valencia.

Lockheed’s employment has dropped largely because the company has completed work on some airplane contracts for the military, such as production of the C-5B cargo plane for the U.S. Air Force, without having replaced those contracts with enough new ones.

“We have some encouraging prospects for increasing our production, but that’s not going to come about until the early 1990s,” said James Ragsdale, spokesman for Lockheed’s aircraft group. Lockheed has won a Navy contract to develop an anti-submarine patrol airplane and is vying to build an advanced jet fighter for the Air Force.

Litton Industries, which has facilities in Woodland Hills and Moorpark, also reported a 3% decline, to about 6,400 workers from 6,600. But spokesman John Thom said the drop occurred mostly at another Litton site, in Agoura Hills, where its Data Command Systems unit is located. The group is finishing a 10-year-old contract from Saudi Arabia to build electronics products for an air-defense system and likely will cease to exist once the program is completed, Thom said.

ITT, which also does defense work locally through its ITT Gilfillan unit, a Van Nuys maker of radar systems, also reported a 3% decline in employment, to 2,913 from 3,013.

“We’ve completed work on some contracts, so we’re allowing attrition to slim us down until we bring in the next series of contracts,” said ITT spokesman Brian Eden. “Like all aerospace companies, we’re trying to streamline.”

ITT’s holdings in the area also include the Sheraton Universal Hotel in North Hollywood and two divisions that make aerospace-related control systems in Glendale and Burbank.

But at Rockwell, whose Rocketdyne rocket-building division has a major facility in Canoga Park, employment rose 9% over the past year to 8,855 from 8,100, and spokeswoman Joyce Lincoln said the company will look to hire several hundred more engineers and other workers. “We need them right now,” she said.

Rockwell is busy with several contracts, including one to build rocket engines for a proposed advanced launch system for satellites and other spacecraft, one to continue building engines for the existing Delta and Atlas rockets, and experimental work on a space station and a proposed aerospace plane that would fly at speeds many times the speed of sound, she said.

Disney Additions

Burbank-based Disney also added to its work force, reporting a 10% increase to 4,263 from 3,880. Spokesman Mike Ferguson attributed the gains to several expanding Disney ventures, including its chain of retail stores that sell Disney merchandise, its new movie division called Hollywood Pictures, and the Disney Channel cable-television unit.

Blue Cross of California, based in Woodland Hills, said its employment in the local valleys slipped 3%, to 2,782 from 2,875. St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank also reported a 3% drop, to 2,558 from 2,640.

Teledyne, a major producer of aviation, electronic and industrial products that has plants in Northridge, Newbury Park and Moorpark, said its employment slipped 4% to about 2,600 from 2,700.

THE VALLEY’S 10 LARGEST PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYERS

Company June 1989 June 1988 % Change Lockheed 13,560 13,906 -3% Rockwell International 8,855 8,100 +9% General Motors* 7,299 7,965 -8% Litton Industries 6,400 6,600 -3% Walt Disney 4,263 3,880 +10% GTE 4,112 4,690 -12% ITT 2,913 3,013 -3% Blue Cross of Calif. 2,782 2,875 -3% Teledyne 2,600 2,700 -4% St. Joseph Med. Center 2,558 2,640 -3%

* Includes Hughes Aircraft subsidiary