Missile Program Cuts to Cost 275 Jobs : Defense: Reductions on advanced cruise missile project will mean layoffs at General Dynamics’ Convair Division.
About 275 General Dynamics’ Convair Division employees will lose their jobs because of an unexpected Defense Department funding cut in the advanced cruise missile program, the company said Tuesday.
The layoffs, which could occur as early as next week, are driven by the “easing of international military tensions and the corresponding reduction in defense spending,” according to an employee memorandum circulated Tuesday by M.C. Keel, acting general manager of the Convair Division.
About 1,500 San Diego-based Convair Division employees work on the advanced cruise missile program, an Air Force weapon launched from B-52 bombers. The layoffs evidently will be limited to 275 employees who are developing a classified version of the missile.
The layoffs are not expected to affect an additional 2,000 San Diego-based General Dynamics employees who are directly involved in the production of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which the Navy launches from ships and submarines.
Ed Maudlin, a spokesman for the International Assn. of Machinists, which represents about 5,900 General Dynamics employees, linked the layoffs to “the peace dividend.” The government “issued a stop-work order, so the company evidently has no choice in the matter,” he said. “You can’t work on it . . . or, at least, you’re not going to get paid.”
The layoffs announced Tuesday are driven by the loss of $50 million in funding for a classified derivative of the advanced cruise missile, Keel said. Congress cut the $50 million late last week from the Defense Department budget, according to Keel.
The layoffs were a surprise to company officials because “the program had been going well,” Keel said.
Layoffs will include a number of engineers because the classified project was “largely developmental,” according to General Dynamics spokeswoman Julie Andrews. However, the company has yet to determine “the exact mix of people” that will lose jobs, Andrews said.
Word of the layoffs was the latest in a string of upsetting announcements for General Dynamics employee.
In early October, President Bush suggested that the U.S. yank nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles off U.S. surface ships. That announcement spurred speculation that some Convair employees who work on the Tomahawk program might lose their jobs.
Earlier this month, General Dynamics said it is contemplating layoffs in its Space Systems Division. As many as 375 of the division’s 4,700 employees might lose their jobs during 1992 as the division cuts overhead in an attempt to remain competitive.
And, in late October, local employees were stunned when General Dynamics Chairman William A. Anders suggested that three San Diego-based divisions--Convair, Electronics and Space Systems--might be on the block.
Anders, in an Oct. 30 speech to a defense contracting industry gathering, said that General Dynamics was giving strong consideration to restructuring its operations. Anders raised the possibility of selling off, bolstering or simply exiting businesses in which General Dynamics is not the market leader.
