Sentinel_070516

Those of you who are long-term Sentinel subscribers, from 2001 on may remember many of the issues that spoke of the reductions in force. We had one every year 2001 to 2006. In some of those years there were more than one, as we were whittled down from over 1000 to 260. I poured out my feelings about the loss of jobs and the hardship to the workers who lost them. I shared my fears each time about being one of them in the next layoff; well today I must admit I have nothing left to fear. The ship took a salvo of torpedoes at 1330 hours today and all 260 souls on board are going down at sea. The worry is over and as of July 16, 2007 the entire crew will be abandoning a lost ship. As of that date we’ll be over the side and in the water together, as shark bait. There were no tears that I saw today, but many were close and I suspect the floodgates will open as we approach July 16, 2007.

What happened? Everything happened. In 2000 we had a company meeting in the circuit board shop in which all of the speakers told us there was no limit to where our sales and profits were going. We assumed that meant up. That was just before the dot.com implosion of 2001 when we had the first layoff. Litton put us in Springfield up for sale, but after trotting several prospects through the building, no one wanted to buy at the price Litton wanted to sell us. Northrop Grumman bought the greater Litton parcel in 2003 I think and we in Springfield were just part of the package. Northrop soon put us on the sale block, but the same thing happened, no one wanted us, so Northrop had to take us back into the fold after two years on the chopping block. It looked like we were going to make a go of it when we shifted into the defense business, but it turned out the big reptiles in the pond have a way of dealing with small fry who try and take a piece of the government action. We spent a huge sum of money developing processes and skills for Cisco, but when we put our hand out to collect for our services, we pulled back a stump. Our commercial business has vanished to China, leaving nothing here but empty mouths to feed and no way to sustain them.

Whose fault is this? I don’t have all the facts but I know about customer returns and there were very few in the last six years, so what products we shipped were good. I’ve always been proud of our efforts to improve reliability of products shipped and to increase the yields of those we produce. We’ve made tremendous strides in fault reduction through the last 14 years. The company has been on an exponential rise in new product and materials development the last 7 years, but now it doesn’t matter because the ship is mortally wounded and going down in deep waters far from shore.

Where do we go from here? There are jobs in town, but for the majority of us who have worked for Litton, Northrop Grumman for 20 to 40 years and are 50 or more years old, there’s nowhere to get the combination of pay scale, vacation, and health insurance that we find ourselves in need of come July 16, 2007. Despite federal laws to the contrary, many if not most of the employers in town do not want older people on the payroll. They won’t admit to that, but as soon as one’s age becomes evident, interviews suddenly end with a just remembered appointment and a “We’ll let you know.” Or “We’ll call you.” I know that may sound incredible to some of you, but that’s Springfield and age discrimination is a tough thing to prove, even though it’s readily evident at an interview.

I’ve worked for 46 years of my life and this is my first time being laid off. I’ve left jobs in that time, but was never laid off. This is a new experience for me.

I'd like to know your opinion on this event. You can click the "Comments "below and leave a comment. If you select anonymous, no one will ever know your identity. If there are a lot of comments I may publish them, but without any names or addresses. I encourage you to post a comment. It will make you feel good to get it off of your chest!

Bill