Company Lays Off Approx. 300 More Employees, Plans Week-Long
Shutdowns
Aero-News has learned
Vero Beach, FL-based Piper Aircraft will take further actions in
the wake of a massive slump in sales, releasing approximately 300
employees effective immediately.
"As a result of the deepening global recession, Piper Aircraft
finds it necessary to take further actions to ensure the Company
remains viable," said Piper spokesman Mark Miller. "Similar to many
other businesses, General Aviation has been experiencing one of the
worst downturns in its history and sales of airplanes have sharply
deteriorated over the past few months. These unforeseeable business
circumstances are virtually unprecedented and have caused the
company to take agonizing and painful actions."
In addition to the layoffs, Piper will shut down for one week in
April, and again in July, "to avoid building up unnecessary
inventory and to provide time to assess rapidly changing market
conditions." The shutdowns will be without pay, and will affect all
employees, Miller added, from Management to hourly manufacturing
workers.
Miller stressed that "when the economy improves, every attempt
will be made to rehire impacted employees," but added Piper may be
forced to take further action before then if the market continues
to "deteriorate."
The layoffs are on top of the 150 workers Piper laid off in
November.
As ANN reported, last month Piper CEO Jim Bass
told commissioners in Indian River County the planemaker planned to
curtail production this year by at least 40 percent compared to
2008 levels, due to the ongoing sales slump.
"We deeply regret the pain this is causing," said Miller, "but
the truth is that people aren’t buying planes, or, boats, or
cars or making any other big-ticket purchases for that matter. It's
never business-as-usual when people lose their jobs. We're talking
about friends and neighbors, and the impact on them, their
families, and everyone else in the community is heart wrenching.
But we have had to do this to preserve the business and the
approximately 650 jobs Piper continues to provide in a very
difficult economy.
"We are building far less than we normally would and cannot
afford to keep a full workforce when we don't have the sales to
support that," he continued. "This is a very difficult and
agonizing situation driven by virtually unprecedented and
unforeseeable business circumstances. Our hearts go out to the
people we have had to let go, and we're focused now on bringing
back as many people as possible once the economy recovers.
"Piper designs, builds and sells some of the best aircraft in
the world, and we are hopeful that we will emerge from this
downturn with renewed optimism that better days are ahead of us,"
Miller concluded.