Lockheed to close Eagan plant; 1,000 jobs affected
SUSAN FEYDER, Star Tribune
Lockheed Martin said Thursday it will close its Eagan facility that employs about 1,000 by 2013. The plant makes components for P-3 surveillance planes.
The company said the layoffs will be partially offset by the transfer of approximately 650 jobs from Eagan to Owego, N.Y., San Diego, Calif.; and Manassas, Va.
Lockheed said the moves are being done to trim costs and should save it about $150 million over the next 10 years.
Folks, this year I moved from a good job I liked in Iowa back to Minnesota to work for Lockheed-Martin. When I use the word "hate", I do not use it lightly to describe the job I was doing there. A month later, I had gone back to the job I loved in Iowa, even though it didn't pay as much. Even though Iowa is a good distance from my house in the Twin Cities. A house I'm concerned about selling for a decent price in a soft real estate market.
Guess what? I'd rather have to pay for a mortgage and rent simultaneously and pinch pennies for a while. It's preferable to having just the mortgage payment and not having the job to pay for it!
Now the vast horde of the uninformed just had to weigh in on this. Let the blame game begin!
This is great news! The recession is over and this means that maybe we will be cutting the defense budget! Besides, this is happening to an evil suburb that no one cares about. Eagan can move to Wisconsin for all I care.
posted by pdempsey on Nov. 18, 10 at 2:28 PM |
Please tell me this is satire. Given that Tawny's brother Fernando sometimes "thinks" like this, I fear it's not.
Please tell me this is satire. Given that Tawny's brother Fernando sometimes "thinks" like this, I fear it's not.
Republican change. Conservative change. Voters got what they asked for - job loss.
posted by bradtheissenla on Nov. 18, 10 at 2:50 PM |
That would be the Republicans and Conservatives (not the same thing, bradtheissenla!) whom haven't even taken office yet? The same Republicans and Conservatives who weren't in power in Minnesota's legislature for...decades? The same Republicans and Conservatives whom were in a distinct minority in both houses of Congress for the past four years? Damn those evil Republican and Conservative puppet-masters for making the Democrats, liberals, and socialists double-down on failed economic policies!
This Eagan plant closing has been in the works for over a year, and was not dependent on who won or lost in the election. The defense industry is downsizing due to decreased budgets. The Eagan plant was built in the late 1960s when there was nothing but farmland all around. Back then the company was Univac div. of Sperry Rand, then it got rid of the Univac name and became Sperry. Sperry was purchased by Burroughs in about 1987, and the name changed to Unisys. Unisys, which remains a business disaster to this day, renamed their defense business Paramax and peddled it to Loral in 1995. The next year Lockheed bought the plant from Loral. Besides Lockheed, about the only defense businesses left in town are General Dynamics (former Control Data defense biz), BAE Systems (former United Defense - former FMC) and Alliant Tech (former Honeywell?) Any others?
posted by moparfool on Nov. 18, 10 at 3:58 PM |
OK, I can tell moparfool has worked in the defense industry. He knows what he's talking about, but his info is a little dated. BAE laid off a good chunk of their Twin Cities workforce last year and are considering closing the plant, and a neighbor of mine tells me Honeywell has a hiring freeze in place and have been in trouble for a while. Upon finding moparfool's comment, I had to include it as an example of what Star & Sickle commenters should be: informed, civil, and intelligent.
And I just heard that Republicans in Washington nixed the funding for unemployment compensation. Careful who you vote for!
posted by carlbs on Nov. 18, 10 at 5:11 PM |
Facts are such pesky things. The incoming Republicans are holding the line on extending unemployment benefits past 99 weeks. Ninety-nine weeks! That's almost two years. The well is dry already, folks, but the Left wants to continue priming the pump. Maybe instead of just printing more money and devaluing the earnings of those fortunate enough to still be employed, we should introduce an environment where businesses are willing to risk investment. An environment with lower taxes and lower health care costs. An environment where the President of the United States does not do everything he can to demean certain businesses that are still employing people in the midst of a recession: Defense, oil, nuclear energy, health care, auto manufacturing, financial services, etc.
Defense contracting has been a huge industry in Minnesota and it tends to employ a well-educated technical work force. The problem with defense contracting is that every so often peace breaks out. This happened in the late 1980's and the Minnesota defense industry fell upon hard times. Bill Clinton with a Republican Congress used the "Peace Dividend" to start balancing federal budgets. George W. Bush took over a country that was at peace with balanced budgets and he started two wars and cut taxes. The rest is history. The defense industry tends to be a boom and bust industry so in the long run it is probably better for Minnsota to wean itself off defense contracting. The CIA likes to manufacture threats (not to mention WMD's) so we can expect ongoing requests from DOD for expensive systems we can't afford. That will be good for Lockhead, wherever they are.
posted by theprince on Nov. 19, 10 at 10:05 AM |
It's patently false that the defense industry got a boost from the two wars that Bush "started": BAE, then called United Defense, lost the Crusader program within two years of Bush taking office. Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld slated a number of defense programs for termination. Reasoning? Making the Army a swifter, more responsive force. Crusader was replaced with Future Combat Systems (FCS), which, thanks to Congressional allies, provisioned a cannon leveraging the Crusader technology be among the first vehicles built. But the budget for the cannon for FCS was smaller than Crusader. In the wake of the Crusader cancellation, many were laid off. In the wake of getting the FCS contract, fewer people were hired on.
The rest of theprince's comment leads me to believe he has an ample supply of aluminum foil in his home. The "Peace Dividend" basically consisted of Clinton doing relatively little to combat the terrorism that impacted U.S. citizens and interests around the world, including in 1993 in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center. Or did theprince forget about that?
Gee, Another Transportation Company is leaving along with Oberstar.
posted by otter5 on Nov. 19, 10 at 10:44 AM |
*facepalm*
Firstly, would that be Jim Oberstar, resident of Maryland? Whenever he's in Minnesota, he's just visiting.
Second, the bulk of Lockheed's business in Eagan was surveillance equipment for military aircraft. I know. I WORKED THERE! A smaller piece of the Eagan facility works on the ERAM system for the FAA that I believe otter5 is referring to. But why let facts get in the way of your misguided hero worship?
How ironic that we blame Minnesota's high taxes for the closing of a company that relies on high federal taxes for support.
posted by philipp10 on Nov. 19, 10 at 12:18 PM |
And philipp10 doesn't grasp the difference between federal income tax and Minnesota's oppressive structure of sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes, etc.
There you have it folks.
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