Lockheed Merger Deals Yet Another Blow to County : Defense: About one-fourth of 250 jobs at Calabasas headquarters are held by employees who live here.

By KAY SAILLANT

Aug. 31, 1994 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

About 60 Ventura County residents could lose their jobs as a result of the planned merger between Lockheed and Martin Marietta, the latest in a string of layoffs that have crippled the area’s defense industry.

Lockheed spokesman Pete Haney said Tuesday that closure of the company’s Calabasas headquarters puts the 250 jobs there in jeopardy. About one-fourth of those jobs are held by employees who live in Ventura County, he said.

Nearly all of the threatened positions are high-paying jobs held by Lockheed managers and executives, as well as secretaries and other support staff, he said.

The merger must get anti-trust clearance before any action is taken, Haney said. But that could happen as early as December, he said.

“It’s going to be status quo until then,” he said.

Lockheed announced Monday that it intended to merge with Marietta Martin, creating new aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, to be based near Washington.

“They want to be close to our principal customers--the Pentagon, NASA and the Department of Energy,” Haney said.

In a memo to employees Tuesday, Lockheed Chairman Daniel E. Tellep said executives are in the process of determining what positions will be eliminated.

The merged firm will maintain a “residual corporate office” in the Los Angeles area, but not in its current Calabasas building, Tellep said. The decision to lay off people will be done in a “fair and equitable” manner, Tellep’s memo said.

Despite his reassuring tone, nerves were frayed Tuesday among some Lockheed employees concerned about losing their jobs, said Keith Mordoff, an Oak Park resident who works in the company’s public relations department.

“You see people in the halls and trying to work it out,” he said. “At the same time, they’re trying to do their job.”

Mordoff, who moved to Oak Park from San Mateo less than two years ago, is among those who do not know if they will be employed after Christmas. But Mordoff said he is trying to stay upbeat.

“I have skills that I can market if Lockheed Martin decides they don’t need me,” Mordoff said. “But on the flip side, you do have anxieties about losing your job and having to move.”

Lockheed’s proposed pullout from California is only the latest setback for Ventura County residents working in the aerospace industry. The nation’s shrinking defense budget has triggered the loss of at least 3,000 county jobs over the past four years.

Raytheon Co. closed its Oxnard plant manufacturing missile-tracking equipment in May, 1990, laying off 400 people. Later that year, Northrop Corp. closed its Newbury Park plant, cutting 1,800 jobs.

And in 1992, Abex Aerospace shut down its Oxnard manufacturing plant, which employed 880 people at its peak.

The loss of 60 more jobs may not sound like much, but taken with the other layoffs it is significant, said Carolyn Leavens, president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.

“It’s like the human body,” she said. “You can prick an artery or bruise a limb. But when you start hemorrhaging, you’ve really got trouble.”

Other community leaders were also distressed about the prospective job losses.

“Oh man, that’s all we need to hear,” said Madeleine Brockwell, who coordinates a job club for white-collar workers--many displaced by defense cutbacks--at Simi Valley’s Employment Development Department.

The job club already has 125 members actively scouring help-wanted ads and telephoning friends for job tips, Brockwell said. Many of those who left the club took temporary jobs or contract work after trying for months to find a new permanent position, she said.

Nevertheless, the job club is always ready to take new members. Participants attend a weekly meeting to share job leads and exchange interviewing tips, she said. Computers and fax machines are also available to help job hunters update their resumes and submit them to companies, she said.

Lockheed’s Mordoff said he and his wife prefer to stay in Ventura County and begin a family. But he knows that may not be possible with the merger.

“At some point, you like to put your roots down and Oak Park is a great place to live,” he said. “But if I get lucky and get an offer to move with Lockheed to Bethesda, Md., then I would do that.”