Hughes Unit to Lay Off 100 More Workers

Hughes Aircraft Co.’s Ground Systems Group has launched a new round of layoffs this week that will affect at least 100 workers, the company said Wednesday.

Hughes spokesman Richard Dore said the move is aimed at reducing overhead costs and is a continuation of the corporation’s overall restructuring to position itself for an era of lower defense spending. “You have to assume everything will continue to decrease--and not just at Ground Systems--with the current defense spending outlook,” Dore said.

The Ground Systems Group employed 7,290 workers before the layoff, not counting an additional 248 employees who are considered to be on leaves of absence, Dore said. That compares to a work force of 8,577 (with 235 others on leaves of absence) a year ago and about 15,000 in 1985.

The cuts are surprising because the Fullerton-based unit won several major contracts in the past year, including an $837-million contract to build an air defense system for Saudi Arabia and a program worth a potential $452 million to build mobile radar for the U.S. Army.

Dore said centralized support functions would be cut back in the layoffs, including positions in human resources, transportation and library services. Production workers should not be affected by the cuts, he said.

Each of Hughes Aircraft’s seven operating groups will be affected by the latest corporate restructuring, which was initially announced last July. The Westchester-based corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors Corp., expects to lose 2,000 of its 63,000 employees in the next year, Dore said. Most of those cuts will come from layoffs at the company’s Tucson missile production plant as the Maverick air-to-ground missile and the Phoenix air-to-air missile programs come to an end, Dore said.