Author Topic: Lockheed Martin Space Systems to Eliminate Approximately 1,200 Positions  (Read 13673 times)

Online Chris Bergin

Lockheed Martin Space Systems to Eliminate Approximately

1,200 Positions

 

 

DENVER, June 14, 2011 – Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major business area of the Lockheed Martin Corporation [NYSE: LMT], announced today employment reductions designed to address affordability and improve its competitive posture.

 

Space Systems, which currently employs approximately 16,000 employees in 12 states, will implement a broad-based workforce reduction of roughly 1,200 employees by year-end.  It is anticipated that middle management will be reduced by 25 percent, with significantly smaller percentage impacts in other levels and disciplines.

 

Operations across the country will be affected, with the largest impact expected at the company’s sites in Sunnyvale, Calif., the Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania, and Denver, Colo., where several of the company’s major programs are transitioning out of develop ment.

 

Joanne Maguire, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said, “In today’s economic environment, we have two choices: make painful decisions now or pay a greater price down the road. This is a difficult but necessary action to improve efficiencies and make our business more competitive going forward.  We will remain relentlessly focused on achieving operational excellence and mission success for our customers as we position to deliver more affordably in the future.”

 

Space Systems will offer eligible salaried employees an opportunity for a voluntary layoff to minimize the number of involuntary layoffs that will occur.  The company also will provide career transition support to those affected by this workforce reduction.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company designs, develops, tests, manufactures, and operates a full spectrum of advanced-technology systems for national security, military, civil government, and commercial customers. Chief products include human space flight systems; a full range of remote sensing, navigation, meteorological and communications satellites and instruments; space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft; laser radar; ballistic missiles; missile defense systems; and nanotechnology research and development.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.

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Offline vt_hokie

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That's too bad.  I sent a couple of resumes out to Newtown, PA a while back to no avail, but maybe it's just as well that I'm getting out of the aerospace field!  I know some folks out there, though...hope they aren't impacted by this.

Online Chris Bergin

I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.
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Offline Namechange User

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I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.

Denver is where much of the Orion work is taking place.
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Online Chris Bergin

I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.

Denver is where much of the Orion work is taking place.

Yeah, which is what confused me. I wonder what else they do in Denver?

Really awful news, again.
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Offline Robotbeat

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I was actually at the Lockheed Martin site at Denver this last weekend (just happened to be in the area with time to kill). It's a neat area, really. Then I realized that there's no way we'd be let in the security perimeter without a good reason for a visit (besides, we had cameras and a cellphone... big no-no), so turned around and went back. I had been thinking about applying there... Probably not worth it at this point!

I'm sorry to hear about the layoff. Sucks.
« Last Edit: 06/14/2011 07:04 pm by Robotbeat »
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Offline Mark S

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Well, that ought to help encourage and motivate our kids to enter into STEM fields when they grow up.

Why do so many politicians make such a big deal about STEM education efforts when "highly trained, highly educated" workers are being laid off every day? Shouldn't we be encouraging our kids to be CEO's, stock brokers, and politicians instead? That's where the real money is.

News like this just reinforces the idea that "STEM is for losers".

Offline Namechange User

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Well, that ought to help encourage and motivate our kids to enter into STEM fields when they grow up.

Why do so many politicians make such a big deal about STEM education efforts when "highly trained, highly educated" workers are being laid off every day? Shouldn't we be encouraging our kids to be CEO's, stock brokers, and politicians instead? That's where the real money is.

News like this just reinforces the idea that "STEM is for losers".

McDonald's just hired 50,000 people supposedly.  Not bad for 800 billion dollar investment that actually saw a net decrease in jobs since the "stimulus" was passed.

Besides, other than the occassional riot it seems, should be a lot less stressful. 
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Offline vt_hokie

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I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.

Newtown, PA builds the A2100 satellites, and GPS III is a big program for them.  I don't know if that's one of the programs referred to as transitioning out of development.  Sunnyvale is also involved in A2100 production.

Offline Danderman

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I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.

Denver is where much of the Orion work is taking place.

Yeah, which is what confused me. I wonder what else they do in Denver?

Really awful news, again.

Lockheed concentrates on putting together Atlases in Denver, plus Mars spacecraft.

Offline Ronsmytheiii

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Lockheed concentrates on putting together Atlas in Denver, plus Mars spacecraft.

I thought Atlas (at least first stage ) production moved to Decatur when it was taken over by ULA.

Offline robertross

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Lockheed Martin Space Systems to Eliminate Approximately 1,200 Positions

This is getting out of hand...
I really feel bad for these people.
The whole country is bleeding jobs. Unless the government changes its attitude and realize where the growth opportunities are, this will continue to spiral downhill and in a much broader way.

Offline Prober

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Lockheed Martin Space Systems to Eliminate Approximately 1,200 Positions

This is getting out of hand...
I really feel bad for these people.
The whole country is bleeding jobs. Unless the government changes its attitude and realize where the growth opportunities are, this will continue to spiral downhill and in a much broader way.

Sorry to say this is just the start.  Some 20-25,000 go with the end of the Shuttle.
 
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Offline Jim

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I wonder what those listed areas do? Orion's folk should be safe.

Denver is where much of the Orion work is taking place.

Yeah, which is what confused me. I wonder what else they do in Denver?

Really awful news, again.

GPS-III
Juno
GRAIL
MAVEN
GOES
the next Discovery mission
The Asteroid mission
Some defense spacecraft

Offline psloss

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Sorry to say this is just the start.  Some 20-25,000 go with the end of the Shuttle.
That's already well underway -- they are basically down to the final large layoff after the last mission is complete; however, production ceased a long time ago (already laid off) and operations/ops support have already seen multiple layoffs and are down to probably about half (if not less).

Offline arachnitect

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Quote
announced today employment reductions designed to address affordability and improve its competitive posture.

I just hope the cost savings get passed on to the government and other customers, not just shareholders. That way, at least some good could come of this.

Offline robertross

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Quote
announced today employment reductions designed to address affordability and improve its competitive posture.

I just hope the cost savings get passed on to the government and other customers, not just shareholders. That way, at least some good could come of this.

I doubt it's cost savings that can be passed on - more like targetted savings to prevent rising costs from being passed on while maintaining profit margins.

Online Chris Bergin

Quote
announced today employment reductions designed to address affordability and improve its competitive posture.

I just hope the cost savings get passed on to the government and other customers, not just shareholders. That way, at least some good could come of this.

Yeah, that'd give the 1200 familes that warm and cozy feeling.
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Offline STS Tony

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What happened to the flood of jobs Bolden promised?

Oh right, yeah.

Offline Rabidpanda

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What happened to the flood of jobs Bolden promised?

Oh right, yeah.

I could be wrong but weren't those comments about FY2011, which failed to pass in congress?

Offline padrat

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He's been promising that well before FY2011.....


Yeah, still waiting.........
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Offline woods170

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Not bad for 800 billion dollar investment that actually saw a net decrease in jobs since the "stimulus" was passed.

Imagine what would have happened if that 800 billion dollar had not been invested in the US economy. The net decrease in jobs would have been substantially larger.

Offline butters

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The key takeaway from the release is that they're reducing middle management by 25%. The total cut is 1200 out of 16000, so even without knowing the existing ratio of middle management in the organization, one can assume that a large percentage of the 1200 layoffs are from middle management.

While it's a terrible situation that the US economy is losing so many jobs, one of the many reasons is that we are heavy on lawyers, accountants, marketing, and middle management. This an expensive labor market. We can't afford to employ any more paper pushers than we absolutely need. We have to make the business case that our engineers, technicians, and other front-line producers are worth the wages they command, and we can't do that if we're lavishing extra first-world salaries on unnecessary management structure.

The reality of the American trade position in the global economy is that we need to be more productive with fewer people, and if we can do that, then we'll be able to compete in more markets and win back more production.

Henry Ford revolutionized the American economy by increasing the automation of labor. To take the next step, we need to increase the automation of management. Information technology has advanced to the point where we can adopt much flatter management hierarchies, and we have the kind of assertive, proactive workforce that thrives on a certain amount of self-management responsibility.

Middle management is dead weight. The production economy can't carry them. But they're generally personable and compelling folks, so they might be able to find high-end domestic service jobs. I hear these days the well-heeled are into hiring "life coaches" and such. Seems like a gig for an ex-middle manager.
« Last Edit: 06/15/2011 09:22 am by butters »

Offline Mark S

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Middle management is dead weight. The production economy can't carry them. But they're generally personable and compelling folks, so they might be able to find high-end domestic service jobs. I hear these days the well-heeled are into hiring "life coaches" and such. Seems like a gig for an ex-middle manager.

Clearly middle managers are evil and should all be shot. Sheesh.  ::)

Offline JohnFornaro

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quote author=butters link=topic=25516.msg757250#msg757250 date=1308129644]We can't afford to employ any more paper pushers than we absolutely need.[/quote]

Of course there's no way to know the layoff percentage that you wonder about.  But it is certainly true that a significant strategy for reducing manufacturing, launch, and operations costs, is to follow your suggestion above.  What I can't understand is how this sensible suggestion can be considered "evil".  Shallow analysis will drive a business under pretty darn quickly.  Somebody needs a life coach, stat.
Sometimes I just flat out don't get it.

Offline Mark S

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My point was that butters was making absolute statements without nuance or qualification. "Middle management is dead weight." No, middle management is a necessary intermediary between executive decision makers and line workers (of any kind). Sure you can argue about the optimal ratio of executives to managers, and managers to workers, but to say that management is "dead weight", i.e. performs no useful function, is incorrect.

Also "The production economy can't carry them." Says who? Management hierarchies have been flattening for decades, and the trend will continue. And of course improvements in IT has been the primary enabler. But there will always be a balance to be found between each level of corporate hierarchy. We'll never get to the point where we have corporations with one CEO, fifty thousand employees, and no managers. Ain't gonna happen.

I can assure you that if any company had the choice between getting rid of 1500 managers, or 50,000 employees, due to increased automation or improved IT systems, the employees would be first to go. In spite of the common "employees are our greatest asset" pablum that companies often spout.

Offline mr_magoo

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If it's true that it's management then it jibes with my experience lately.  I know of a large corporation that just went through a management bloodbath and now has a much leaner org chart.

Offline Prober

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Getting back on topic.....These Lockheed employees, are they from the shutdown of the Space shuttle or is this another downsizing?
 
 
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Offline si39

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Middle management is dead weight. The production economy can't carry them. But they're generally personable and compelling folks, so they might be able to find high-end domestic service jobs. I hear these days the well-heeled are into hiring "life coaches" and such. Seems like a gig for an ex-middle manager.

Clearly middle managers are evil and should all be shot. Sheesh.  ::)

Clearly 25% of L/M middle managers are evil  :) - but they should not be shot - just bumped down a level or so.
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Offline arachnitect

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Getting back on topic.....These Lockheed employees, are they from the shutdown of the Space shuttle or is this another downsizing?
 

This article anticipates that they are mostly from DOD projects (AEHF, etc)

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110531-lockheed-plans-layoffs.html

Offline Mark S

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My sympathies and best wishes to all those affected, management or not.

Offline jjnodice

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Getting back on topic.....These Lockheed employees, are they from the shutdown of the Space shuttle or is this another downsizing?
 
 

It does not include any shuttle related layoffs.  Those have been previously announced.

Offline Prober

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Getting back on topic.....These Lockheed employees, are they from the shutdown of the Space shuttle or is this another downsizing?
 
 

It does not include any shuttle related layoffs.  Those have been previously announced.

Well it looks like another 1500 are being let go out of "Aerospace".  Is it ok to sell F-16's to Taiwan?  Read the story...
http://news.yahoo.com/lockheeds-aeronautics-unit-cut-jobs-193900929.html


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Offline Namechange User

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Well, luckily, the administration's plan is to creat 10,000 new "high paying jobs" with their space policy.......so far, that has turned out well.
« Last Edit: 07/01/2011 02:30 am by OV-106 »
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Offline rdale

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Well, luckily, the administration's plan is to creat 10,000 new "high paying jobs" with their space policy.......so far, that has turned out well.

I agree, the groundwork is being laid. But I'm not sure what the connection is with this thread, I'm not sure 10,000 positions will be in place for these employees to take advantage of in the short-term timeframe.

Offline Namechange User

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Well, luckily, the administration's plan is to creat 10,000 new "high paying jobs" with their space policy.......so far, that has turned out well.

I agree, the groundwork is being laid. But I'm not sure what the connection is with this thread, I'm not sure 10,000 positions will be in place for these employees to take advantage of in the short-term timeframe.

Well, I think the connection is rather obvious that 1,200 people being laid off from "space systems" and the jobs that are supposed to be created, but hey, I guess you know better.

So, while I'm here and since you clearly see we are on track, how many jobs have been created that maybe these 1200 people could look into?
« Last Edit: 07/01/2011 03:25 am by OV-106 »
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