Rocketdyne Will Cut Even Deeper, Eliminate Up to 990 Jobs in Year
Rocketdyne, citing various space program cuts, said it will undertake a new round of deeper and broader cuts that will eliminate up to 990 jobs over the next year.
The job cuts will come through layoffs, transfers and attrition, and will be spread across the board, from clerks to engineers to management staff.
Rocketdyne has not yet specified the exact number of jobs to be eliminated, but said between 660 and 990 positions will be slashed. That would represent 10% to 15% of Rocketdyne’s total employment, which now stands at about 6,600--most of whom work at the company’s sprawling complex in Canoga Park.
“The work force reductions are based on expected funding levels for the division’s program over the next year,” Rocketdyne said in a terse statement Tuesday.
Rocketdyne is a unit of Rockwell International based in Seal Beach.
Rocketdyne said it has already begun making some of the job cuts. Since Oct. 1, 67 workers have been laid off, 49 have received transfers, and others have received layoff notices.
Karen Scribner, a nine-year Rocketdyne employee who lives in Sherman Oaks, said she received word two weeks ago that she would be laid off on Dec. 3.
“Given how many years I’ve given to the company, I think it’s a pretty rough deal to do this before the holidays,” said Scribner, 30. She earns more than $17 an hour as a blueprint clerk.
Rocketdyne derives about two-thirds of its $1-billion annual revenue from NASA for two projects: developing the electrical power for the space station and building the main engines for space shuttles. But both programs have come under the congressional budget ax, resulting in funding cutbacks to contractors.
The rest of Rocketdyne’s revenue comes mainly from making engines for the Atlas and Delta rockets, which launch commercial and military payloads into space.
The job cuts include 200 positions that Rocketdyne announced in mid-September. Rocketdyne said then that it would pare down its space station employment as a result of anticipated program cuts. At that time, company officials said no further job cuts were being contemplated.
But in a letter to employees in early October, at the start of the company’s new fiscal year, Rocketdyne President Bob Paster said plans were to trim employment by 10% to 15% in the new fiscal year. Paster was unavailable for comment Tuesday. But Mel Davis, vice president of human resources, said the company decided it needed to make more job cuts in light of the reduced orders.
