Hughes Aircraft Will Move Division to Carlsbad; Number of Jobs in Doubt
Hughes Aircraft Co. plans to close a division here by mid-year and move the operation to Carlsbad, clouding the future of nearly 500 employees.
Hughes, which has cut thousands of jobs corporate-wide since 1986, is combining two divisions into one, said William Herrman, a Hughes spokesman. Herrman would not say how many jobs would be eliminated, but Hughes employees said they were told that only about 100 workers would be offered jobs in Carlsbad.
The Hughes Microelectronic Systems Division at the Santa Margarita Center business park employs about 475 people who make military communications equipment, security devices and stereo equipment. Another 25 to 30 people work in two smaller business
groups.
The division will merge by mid-year with Hughes Industrial Products, a Carlsbad operation that employs about 475 who make welding and soldering tools, Herrman said. Westchester-based Hughes Aircraft Co. is a subsidiary of General Motors Corp.
Employees will learn by mid-March how their jobs will be affected, Herman said. They said managers have told them that layoff notices will be handed out March 6, and those terminated will get 60 days’ severance pay.
The move will dismantle the one of three Hughes plants in Orange County. The company also operates Hughes Ground Systems Group, which employs 7,500 people in Fullerton, and two semiconductor divisions in Newport Beach employing 1,250.
Employees interviewed as they left the company parking lot in a driving rainstorm Wednesday afternoon said they were shocked by the announcement. Managers told employees about the planned move at a plant-wide meeting that morning.
“This was a complete surprise. . . . People started crying. It hit us hard,” said Gidget DeMun, 43, of Huntington Beach. “Everyone was in shock. . . . We don’t know who’s going, who’s coming, if anyone is going to be here. What am I going to do? Pray.”
Another worker, Mary Ambriz, said she felt scared and depressed. “My husband is disabled and I don’t know if we can keep our house. Moving to Carlsbad is pretty much out of the question, and I don’t know if I’m going to be offered a job anyhow.”
The Hughes announcement is the latest in a series of local defense job cuts, Loral Aeronutronic, a unit of New York-based Loral Corp., said last month that it would lay off up to 600 employees in Newport Beach. A week later, Rockwell International announced plans to cut as many as 200 jobs in Anaheim after President Bush decided to cancel the Midgetman nuclear missile program.
“Obviously, we’re concerned when there is any loss of high-tech employment in the county,” said Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley. “I think this is happening throughout the state.”
Employees said they were surprised by the move because Hughes moved the microelectronics unit from Irvine to Rancho Santa Margarita only five years ago. The company moved what was then a work force of 950 people into a new $30-million plant in the business park. But the division has been shrinking. since then due to layoffs and attrition.
Hughes hasn’t decided whether it will pay relocation expenses for employees offered jobs in Carlsbad, Herrman said. He also could not say what would happen to a smaller group of workers at other divisions in Rancho Santa Margarita. One unit makes passenger control units for airplane seats, and another produces electronic identification tags. Hughes holds a 10-year lease on the building.
Hughes leased 300,000-square-feet of office and manufacturing space at the park. Herrman said Hughes would seek a tenant to sublease the space, but commercial real estate sources said the company will have a tough time finding a tenant because of a weak market.
The business park is the center of a 5,000-acre planned community due east of Mission Viejo at the foot of Saddleback Mountain. It includes golf courses, shopping centers and residential developments that house 15,000 people.
Free-lance reporter Frank Messina contributed to this report.
