Red Cross to Lay Off 134 Employees

Faced with a $1.5-million deficit, officials at the Los Angeles-Orange counties region of the American Red Cross on Monday announced that about 25% of the regional staff will be laid off, affecting 134 clerical workers, lab technicians and nurses.

The cutbacks, effective Wednesday, could curtail the agency’s response in some emergencies, Red Cross Medical Director Steven Kleinman said.

“If we have something like the response we had to an earthquake or to Desert Storm, where large numbers of people want to donate blood, certainly we will be less able to respond,” Kleinman said. For now, however, the agency should be able to handle most emergencies, he said.

Red Cross supervisors broke the news to their staffs in a series of meetings on Monday.