Something really is the matter with Kansas this time. Namely, mass layoffs at local employer Hawker Beechcraft. Here is the Wichita Eagle with the story:
Hawker Beechcraft passed out 60-day layoff notices to 350 employees today as it synchronizes its production line “by making changes to previously planned production schedules and resizing our work force.”Whoo-boy, that's a lot of Corporate Flackspeak right there. But wait, there's more:
The company told employees of the layoffs in an early morning meeting on Monday and in a letter to employees.
“We continue to manage our way through a challenging and rapidly changing environment while implementing transformations across our company,” the letter to employees said.
“While we have experienced success with our transformation, market conditions are requiring us to adjust our overall production cadence to help ensure the company will compete effectively in the future,” it said.
“This remains a difficult, unprecedented time for our company, our employees and our industry, Boisture and Miller said in the letter. “I ask that we all uphold our pattern of respect and care for our impacted colleagues, and remain focused on our jobs as we carry on our effort to become a smaller, more agile company that will remain competitive in the future.”In other words, the shit we build our airplanes with has become too damn expensive and there ain't hardly anybody buying 'em anyway. Sometimes it helps the reader to have someone fluent in the language who can translate.
In March and April, the company began to furlough employees that work on various aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air, Piston and Premier IA and the Hawker 4000 and 987 family, the company said in its 2011 financial report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“These furloughs were a result of difficulty in obtaining adequate composite materials in order to continue production as well as matching production to demand,” it said.
Bonus: Not everyone can work for the county
This is yet another evidence of "peak everything." It's plainly obvious that air travel as we know it is in a permanent state of decline.
ReplyDeleteHopefully some of those employees can find a future in something transportation related that has a future like bicycles, canal barges, rail, or transit.
Small Veteran Owned Business gets caught in Hawker Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteWell, here is another chapter in American history where a large company will simply wipe out a small veteran owned business because they get caught up in the chapter 11. Twenty Eight years in business and now our existence is questionable because the US Court system is allowing Hawker to simply say "See Ya" to small businesses that entrust companies like Hawker to do the right thing. I get the whole "The needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few" I am a Vietnam Era Veteran who build my business on sweat equity and the one thing that never crosses my mind is "Let someone else pay for my mistakes". How can our court system here in the US allow a small business like mine to be in a position where we have all worked so hard and pay taxes to just say, Oh it is OK for you Hawker big business to simply never have to pay back these hard working US Veterans who have put their lives and savings to build a business and work 15 hours a day for most of the 28 years we have been around.
How does this make sense, please someone tell me.