Boeing Cutting Satellite Work Force

[Satellite Today – 5-22-08] Boeing will lay off about 750 employees due to a downturn in its satellite assembly and integration business, the company announced May 21.
The reductions at the company’s in El Segundo and Seal Beach, Calif., facilities primarily will be in the area of engineering. Boeing expects to issue 60-day notices before the end of May for an initial group of 100 employees, with layoffs to occur in July. Another group of employees will be notified at the end of June with redeployment occurring in July and August.
“The stretching out of government contract awards, along with a continuing lighter demand in the commercial marketplace for large, high-power satellites, has created a surplus in the work force that must be addressed now so that we are competitive," Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, said in a statement.
The announcement also comes less than a week after the U.S. Air Force awarded the GPS 3 satellite development contract to Lockheed Martin over Boeing.
Space and Intelligence Systems will have about 6,450 employees at the end of 2008, compared with its current count of 7,200, Boeing said.