OXNARD : Abex to Lay Off 150 to 200 Workers

Between 150 and 200 employees will be laid off at Abex Aerospace Division in Oxnard, the result of a long-awaited restructuring, company and union officials said Thursday.

Despite the personnel cutbacks, Abex officials said the decision assures the survival of the company, one of Oxnard’s largest employers.

Officials blamed the continuing slump in the aerospace industry for the restructuring, ordered by Abex’s parent company, New Hampshire-based Pneumo Abex.

Half of the layoffs will be announced in October and the remainder in February, said Raul Ramirez, international representative of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, after meeting with corporate officials Monday. The union represents nearly 400 of the plant’s 600 employees.

Randall Holliday, counsel for Abex Division, said an undetermined number of non-union, salaried employees will also be trimmed as Pneumo Abex consolidates military operations in Michigan and its commercial operations in Oxnard.

Yet Holliday expressed optimism that the worst is over. “Our hope is that this is the last shoe to drop,� he said of the announced layoffs, which follow another layoff of 140 employees last year.

“There was a risk of losing all 600 jobs here,� Holliday said, “but through the combined efforts of local management, the union and the city of Oxnard, we have preserved the business here and are in a position to grow in the future.�

The union agreed to a contract extension that gave the company better flexibility in job assignments and delayed promised pay raises.

But the layoffs were inevitable after Pneumo Abex decided to shift manufacturing of military hardware from Oxnard to Kalamazoo, Mich., and Dublin, Ga., he said.

Ramirez said the union has contacted state and federal officials for assistance in retraining or relocating the displaced employees.

But with the aerospace firms of Northrop and Raytheon leaving the area, Ramirez said it would be difficult to place the laid-off employees in the same field. “Unfortunately, the aerospace industry in the Oxnard Plain is very limited, and almost nonexistent,� he said.