Improved Productivity Spurs Cutbacks at Rohr
Some Rohr Industries employees are about to work themselves out of a job.
Citing increased productivity on certain contracts, the Chula Vista aerospace manufacturer said at its annual shareholders meeting Saturday it will cut 200 jobs through layoffs and attrition from its 5,700-worker payroll at its South Bay facility by next July.
Rohr has been slowly downsizing over the past year and more than 300 jobs have been cut in Chula Vista since August, Rohr spokesman John Walsh said. Companywide, Rohr’s Dec. 2 payroll of 10,622 workers was down from 11,177 employees as of August. Rohr makes jet engine housings and other components used mainly in commercial airliners.
Rohr acknowledged that major airlines have delayed and canceled orders of aircraft in recent months in response to the depressed air-passenger industry. That trend impacts Rohr because its major customers include Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus.
Rohr’s firm backlog at end of October was $1.8 billion, a decrease from the $2.4 billion in firm backlog at the same time last year.
But Walsh said the effects of the declining order trend will not be felt at Rohr until the fiscal year beginning August, 1992, and that this year’s job cuts are basically a means of cutting superfluous overhead.
“We see having the same sales level” over the remainder of the current fiscal year “but there is added productivity” as increased worker proficiency means fewer workers than before are needed to perform the same tasks, Walsh said.
“In the aggregate, these are not very large cuts compared with other aerospace companies,” he said, referring to large-scale layoffs at other Southern California companies, particularly those specializing in military aircraft.
Over its first quarter, Rohr Industries earned a profit of $8.8 million on sales of $324.8 million, compared with a profit of $4.6 million on sales of $320.7 million over the same three months last year.
