The doom and gloom of the economy and the business aviation industry seems to only get worse as we hear of other problems with Hawker Beechcraft and their latest news of layoffs as stated by AIN:
“While there are pockets of growth in the global economy, the market for new production aircraft has stagnated at a very low level,” Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO Bill Boisture said in a memo to employees on Friday. In the letter, he said the company plans to “reduce the size of our salaried (non-hourly) work force by approximately 350.”
The report went on to state that this does not involve possibly involving union workers it may soon include them:
Although this latest round of layoffs does not affect hourly union workers, Boisture made it clear that future reductions in force might do so. “While we do not see a large-scale layoff of hourly employees at this time, small reductions or short furloughs may be required to modulate production line output in an attempt to reduce unsold aircraft inventory.”
Hawker is currently in talks to renew its contract with union workers and they are currently negotiating that contract. Apparently the current contract has one more year left, and union officials are expecting that Hawker is going to provide them with a contract to vote upon by October 9, next week. This is going to be an up or down vote for the union and there will either be an acceptance or a rejection of the offer and there will not be a strike as part of the process.