After Obama guidance, Lockheed won’t issue layoff notices this year

[kpete]

Source: The Hill

After Obama guidance, Lockheed won’t issue layoff notices this year
By Jeremy Herb - 10/01/12 11:10 AM ET

Lockheed Martin said Monday it will not issue employee layoff notices this year, ending an election-year showdown with the Obama administration.

The company said it based its decision on new guidance issued Friday by the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon.

The guidance said the Pentagon did not anticipate killing any contracts on Jan. 2, the day automatic spending cuts are set to begin hitting defense spending. The guidance also said the federal government would cover severance costs that are mandated under a federal layoff notices law.


The decision by Lockheed means tens of thousands won't get layoff notices days before Election Day, which might have cast a crucial blow against President Obama's reelection chances.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/industry/259431-lockheed-martin-wont-issue-layoff-notices-this-year

[Kindly Refrain]

1. Pentagon did not anticipate killing any contracts

Instead they'll just kill innocent civilians. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!

[leftyohiolib]

2. or threaten to pull their welfare

[Bette Noir]

3. This will be news to my friend who just got laid off from Lockheed.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Was your friend doing defence work?

Eons ago, I worked for Martin Marietta, now part of Lockheed Martin, on a NASA contract. I was laid off, along with a lot of my colleagues, even while MM was hiring in other areas. That happens a lot in the aerospace biz.

[Ash_F]

5. It's easy for politicians to cut science. /nt

[haele]

7. If he just got laid off, it was for a different reason.

Not the current budget sequestration.

I've ridden the contractor pony ride long enough to know that the DoD's "fiscal year" ended last friday, and if Lockheed didn't win a particular contract or re-compete, a particular R&D project ended, or a program was cut from the POM budget last year, that's what caused your friend's layoff.

Been there, done that, collected the UI a couple times for a month or so until hiring for "the next contract" started up.

Haele

[harun]

6. Blackmail

[DCBob]

8. The WH must have already agreed to a deal with Republican leadership behind the scenes.

I still think there will be some cuts.. just not as drastic.