Employees Rejoice, Give Sigh of Relief : Jobs: TRW’s relocation would have meant wholesale disruptions in lives of workers.

TRW employees cheered Tuesday on hearing that their company will stay put, relieving them of a job search during a lingering recession.

“If this decision was bad, I was ready to go anywhere TRW was going to move to--Dallas or any other city,” said Larry Palmblade, who has worked for TRW for 17 years.

Such a relocation would have meant selling his home and asking his wife to give up her job as a first-grade teacher at Orangethorpe Elementary School in Fullerton, the 47-year-old computer systems security officer said.

Tami Driver, 36, a senior technical assistant for TRW, said uncertainty has hovered over the company for at least two years, even though its potential move was made public less than a month ago.

“We’re all relieved that we know where we’re headed,” Driver said after the announcement.

City officials, although they would not give details of incentives offered to TRW, did not disguise their delight with the company’s decision.

“We’re extremely pleased to maintain a major, quality employer like TRW,” City Manager Ron Thompson said. “They’re a vital part of our economic base.”

Said Mayor Gene Beyer: “It feels good to beat out Dallas and Denver and Cleveland.”

TRW’s exit would have hammered home a point being made increasingly by business leaders and some legislators: that insurance costs and environmental regulations are so high that they are chasing employers out of California.

Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Santa Ana) said he became aware during an April 24 address by Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the Council on California Competitiveness, that TRW might leave. Ueberroth criticized Conroy for not acting to keep TRW. Conroy contacted Orange city officials, who then convened with TRW, its landlord and local utility companies.

Conroy said TRW is staying for two reasons: “It was a combination of incentives from the city and a reassurance that this state government has finally recognized that it can no longer continue on the course of hostility toward business.”

Workers’ compensation costs and environmental rules must be changed, Conroy said in a telephone interview shortly after the TRW decision was announced. “The people with clipboards and badges are bringing industry to its knees.”

Back at the Hyatt, TRW employees Tony E. Hill and Bill Edgar were jubilant.

“We’re going to exercise our credit and keep America strong--we’re going out to celebrate,” Hill said.

Times Staff Writer Cristina Lee and Correspondent Mary Helen Berg contributed to this report.