The California economy got another punch in the nose as aerospace contractor Pratt & Whitney announced last week that their AeroPower facility in San Diego will relocate all remaining operations to existing facilities to Florida, Georgia, Texas and Canada.
Last year, the company announced layoffs of more than 800 employees and said that another 575 had agreed to retire with voluntary buyouts. The latest announcement will cost the city 530 high paying jobs as AeroPower permanently closes all its facilities. A spokesman for Governor Brown's Go-Biz, Office of Business and Economic Development, declined to comment on Pratt & Whitney's latest departure.
Pratt & Whitney’s AeroPower division makes portable military and commercial auxiliary power units used mainly to provide electricity and air conditioning to aircraft on the ground, and to start a plane's main engines for airplanes. AeroPower's military business will move to Pratt & Whitney's Military Engines organization and the commercial side will go to Pratt & Whitney Canada. Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Corp. subsidiary, employs about 32,000 workers worldwide, with about 15,000 in the United States.
According to a statement by Pratt & Whitney spokesman Ray Hernandez, “This decision, while a difficult one to make, is necessary to maintain our competitiveness in the market, further leverage Pratt & Whitney's network and best position the company for the future.” He said that Pratt & Whitney has been dealing with fallout from spending cuts as the U.S. military is preparing to exit Iraq and Afghanistan. The firm said they were also hit with uncertainty in the commercial jet engine spare parts business.
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Will the last person to leave California please turn out the lights?
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