Parker Bertea Laying Off 41 After U.S. Cancels A-12

Parker Bertea Aerospace will lay off 41 people on Friday as a result of cancellation of a Navy fighter plane and slowdown in orders for some commercial programs, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

In addition, 19 employees have been transferred to new jobs and 29 others have voluntarily resigned, either by taking early retirement or finding other jobs. The reductions represent about 3% of the company’s 3,000-employee Irvine work force.

Cheryl Morosco, a spokeswoman for the aircraft parts maker, said the company’s business was hurt when Defense Secretary Dick Cheney canceled the Navy’s A-12 attack plane earlier this month, but she said the program’s cancellation is not the sole reason for the layoffs, which will affect mainly salaried personnel.

The A-12 cancellation “has affected us on the bottom line,” she said, “but we are not identifying which people are linked to a specific program.”

Morosco said the Persian Gulf War is expected to generate little additional business for the company in the near term. She said the company also is feeling a pinch in its commercial projects as aircraft manufacturers order fewer components than the company had expected.

The Pentagon axed the $57-billion A-12 program because of cost overruns. The government had already spent $3.1 billion on the program, but cost overruns on the fixed-price contracts could have forced a bailout of the prime contractors--General Dynamics Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp.

Morosco said each of the company’s three divisions in Irvine had subcontracts for the A-12 program.

McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s list of subcontractors for the A-12 program included six other Orange County aerospace firms: Sargent Controls Aerospace in Yorba Linda; Orbit Instrument Corp. in Cypress; Hartwell Corp. in Placentia; and H. Koch & Sons, Datum Inc. and Circle Seal Controls, all in Anaheim.