Employees Join in 2nd Rescue of Their Firm : Aftermath: Workers who armed themselves to face rioters take a pay cut to keep company afloat.

They saved the business during the riots by arming themselves and standing shoulder-to-shoulder out front as a mob surged down their street, torching buildings.

Now 115 workers at a family-run manufacturing plant in South-Central Los Angeles have lined up to save their company again.

Employees of Bonded Motors said Monday that they have voted to give back 20% of their pay to keep their company afloat while its customers struggle to recover from the rioting.

The 35-year-old factory rebuilds automobile engines. More than 60 Los Angeles-area garages and auto-supply outlets that sell the engines were destroyed by looters.

“We wanted to protect our jobs then. And we want to now,” said Eleazar Almanza, a $346-a-week engine-block assembler who lives near the rambling, tin-roofed factory on Maie Avenue. He brought a pistol from home to help guard the plant on April 30 and May 1.

Now, he is among the workers who voted 102 to 13 to return 20% of their pay to Bonded Motors for the next two months.

“There are no other jobs out there,” Almanza, 25, said. “Nobody else is going to pay my rent. If I don’t have a job, what can I do?”

Taking a midafternoon catering truck break near the spot where they took their stand 12 days ago, his co-workers agreed.

“I didn’t think I had enough courage to shoot anybody. I figured the noise it made would get me out of any problem,” said John Edgar, a 44-year-old production foreman, of the .357 Magnum revolver he tucked in his belt behind his back as he faced the rioters.

“But I didn’t want anything to happen to this place. It would take a long time to find another job and get established all over again.”

Plant owner Aaron Landon said he was pleased by both the security guard work and the salary giveback.

“Our engines mainly go to middle- and low-income people,” said Landon, 50, who has operated the plant for 21 years. “They don’t go to Beverly Hills or Palos Verdes. This community is our best sales territory.”

Plant controller Paul Sullivan said last week’s post-rioting sales figures were down 20% compared to the first 10 days of April. But the recession already had begun taking a toll of Bonded Motors before the riots, he said.

The plant produces about 10,000 rebuilt engines a year and grosses about $9 million annually. The workers’ pay return will save about $100,000, Sullivan said.

Company service manager Bob Jones, 44, said he was not surprised by the paycheck rebate vote after watching his co-workers guard the factory.

“We were scared stiff. We couldn’t breathe because of all the smoke coming in from the fires around here,” said Jones, who brought a shotgun and .38-caliber pistol from his home in Downey. “But the guys were saying, ‘Nobody’s messing with my company.’ ”

Engine tester Willard McLaughlin, 50, didn’t have a gun. But he had a foot-long steel bar handy.

“When people saw us, they kept on going,” the Compton resident said of the rioters.