Rohr to Step Up Layoff Plan in Chula Vista

Rohr Inc. said Saturday it will accelerate its previously announced plan to lay off up to 1,000 of its Chula Vista workers because it expects to lose a valuable contract to supply jet engine parts to Pratt & Whitney.

In a press conference after its annual shareholders meeting at its new $49-million design facility in Chula Vista, board chairman Robert Goldsmith said the layoffs will be stepped up because the contract it is losing to competitor Martin Marietta to supply nacelles, or jet engine housings, amounts to 15% of Rohr’s revenue.

Goldsmith also told reporters that the company is close to a decision whether to close its Hagerstown, Md., manufacturing plant that employs 500 because of the downturn in orders for commercial jetliners.

Goldsmith, who did not specify a timetable for closing the Maryland plant, said that Maryland Governor William D. Schaefer called on him at his Chula Vista office to personally lobby Rohr to keep the plant open.

Rohr announced this fall that the slowdown in commercial jetliner manufacturing would cause it to lay off between 1,500 and 2,000 employees over the next two to three years, up to 22% of the 9,000 workers now on the Rohr payroll.

Half, or up to 1,000, of the layoffs would be spread among the 4,500 workers at Rohr’s office and manufacturing complex on San Diego Bay in Chula Vista.

On Saturday, Goldsmith said the loss of the Pratt & Whitney contract would force the company to compress the time frame for completion of the layoffs to as early as July, 1994. And Goldsmith said that the final total of jobs cut will be closer to 2,000 rather than 1,500.