Most Rockwell Workers Take News in Stride

Thursday’s announcement that they will soon be working for Boeing didn’t exactly shake up Rockwell employees Darold Cummings and David Boyer.

After a flurry of morning briefings and memos on Boeing’s pending purchase of Rockwell’s operations here, the two aircraft designers loosened their ties, grabbed some lunch by the shore and even took some time out to watch the filming of the television series “Pacific Blue” down by the Seal Beach Pier.

After years of shake-ups, shakeouts and consolidation in the defense industry, the news that they will soon switch employers was just another day at the office for the B-1 bomber specialists.

“It’s like baseball. You just change your uniform,” said Cummings, a 23-year Rockwell veteran, looking relaxed with his open collar and shades upon returning to the Seal Beach headquarters from lunch.

Boyer, who at 35 already has worked for four different defense contractors, soon to be five, concurred.

“It’s part of the business that we’ve just come to expect,” Boyer said. “If you want to build airplanes you’ve got to get used to it.”

Battle-hardened Rockwell employees at the Seal Beach headquarters appeared unfazed by the news that they’ll soon cast their lot with Seattle-based Boeing. Perhaps it’s because they’ve been assured that no one is facing immediate layoff. Or that they’ve learned to live with the constant uncertainty of the turbulent defense industry. Or that a company spokesman was listening to everything they said to a visiting reporter. But Rockwell employees expressed cautious optimism about the latest wave of change to wash over Seal Beach.

“It could have been a lot worse,” said Linda Dozal, an administrative assistant in the contracts area. “Boeing is a top-notch company. Plus, they’ve told me I have a job, so I think it’s great.”

Employees at Rockwell’s Seal Beach and Anaheim facilities say they received word of the pending deal when they showed up for work Thursday morning. They received a news release at the door and were directed to attend mass meetings, in which they were addressed by company officials and viewed a 20-minute video introducing them to Boeing.

Although neither company made ironclad guarantees about job security, employees said they were given no hint of wholesale layoffs and were led to believe that no one would lose a job, at least in the near future.

“The meetings were very upbeat and really made people feel more comfortable,” said Sharon Reed, manager of building services, who will remain a Rockwell employee following the sale. “I came out of the meeting feeling very good about the future.”

Rockwell employs about 2,000 at its Seal Beach headquarters, which is also home to engineers for the company’s advanced aircraft operations.

The facility’s 1,300 aerospace and defense workers are slated to become Boeing employees and remain in Seal Beach. The 700 corporate staff and information systems workers will remain Rockwell employees and eventually transfer to the company’s new Southern California headquarters, the location of which has yet to be announced.

In Anaheim, home to Rockwell’s defense-related guidance and navigation systems, about 2,900 workers will become Boeing employees and about 100 will stay with Rockwell.

Not all employees there were upbeat about Thursday’s news.

Matthew Walthour, 31, an electrical engineer at Rockwell’s Anaheim facility for the past eight years, said many younger employees are concerned about their retirement plans under Boeing.

Walthour says Rockwell currently kicks in 75 cents for every dollar employees put into the plan, while Boeing will contribute only 50 cents.

“I think it’s going to hurt me more than help me because the savings plan is not as good as Rockwell’s,” Walthour said. “I had dreams of early retirement on the tax-free dollars that go into the retirement fund.”

Likewise, Richard Thousand, an electrical engineer at the Anaheim plant for 12 years, fears that job losses following the sale are inevitable.

“I don’t think any of us are fooling ourselves,” said Thousand, 34. “They will probably move the work [to other parts of the country] over the next three to five years and down the line there will probably be layoffs.”