Lockheed Martin is moving hundreds of Marietta-based employees who worked on sophisticated stealth fighter jets to Texas. The cuts are another blow to the sprawling airplane manufacturing plant’s local workforce.
The company said it was relocating about 560 employees who worked on F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to its Fort Worth plant in 2013 in a cost-cutting consolidation to save about $50 million a year. It comes after the plant slashed another 400 workers earlier this year as production on the C-130 Hercules cargo plane slowed.
The company’s job cuts underscore the volatility of Georgia’s manufacturing sector. The state has landed thousands of new manufacturing jobs this year — including high-profile announcements from Caterpillar and Baxter International — and economists expect that to continue in 2013 given Georgia’s geographical advantages and workforce training programs.
But state officials have been working furiously to attract more research and design jobs and foster more homegrown startup companies to buffer Georgia’s economy from the furloughs, layoffs and job relocations that are all-too-typical with the large-scale manufacturers that dot the state.
Lockheed is a prime example. The Marietta plant’s workforce hovered around 7,400 in early 2012 and by next year will be down by about 1,000, including the cuts announced Tuesday. In all, the company has cut more than 26,000 jobs in the past three years. More jobs could be at risk if an agreement over the “fiscal cliff” isn’t reached, as the company warned it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in additional government business.
The F-22 program has been up in the air since Lockheed Martin in May delivered to the U.S. Airforce the final warplane in a bittersweet ceremony. The fighter jet, known as the "baddest bird on the planet," was dogged by criticism of its high cost and shrinking usefulness in today's military. None of the 195 Raptors that were built were used in Iraq or Afghanistan.
There are about 600 F-22 employees in Marietta, and the 40 who will remain are set to focus on canopy work and other specialized tasks. The other jobs that will be moved to Texas will focus on maintenance and improvements on the existing fleet.
“This is just one part of our overall efforts that we’re all working on so we can remain affordable and competitive for future work,” said company spokesman Johnny Whitaker.
The decision is another dose of frustrating news to Georgia’s manufacturing sector, which is looking to rebound after a sluggish summer and a sputtering fall. Manufacturers reported that new orders declined in October, according to a Kennesaw State University study which indicates that the sector is expanding – albeit slowly.
Cobb business leaders were taken by surprise by the news.
“No community wants to lose any jobs, much less jobs of that number,” said Brooks Mathis, the vice president of economic development at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Members of Local Lodge 709, a machinist union that represents thousands of Lockheed Martin’s Marietta employees, said morale at the plant was plummeting as workers waited for the company’s next move. Union officials say the jobs tend to pay between $20 to $26 an hour.
“Everybody is scared,” said Rick Underwood, a machinist who has worked at Lockheed for 25 years. “People are definitely worried about their future. Everyone is wondering who is going to be next, wondering what the company is going to pull on me when I come in the next morning.”
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