As I posted here, and to paraphrase cranky-d, the plan of the Obama administration to pay the fines of defense contractors who violate government regs concerning layoff notices, is now paying off.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin heeded a request from the White House today – one with political overtones – and announced it will not issue layoff notices to thousands of employees just days before the November presidential election.
Lockheed, one of the biggest employers in the key battleground state of Virginia, previously warned it would have to issue notices to employees, required by law, due to looming defense cuts set to begin to take effect after Jan. 2 because of the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – the so-called Super-committee, which was created.
h/t Instapundit
This looks like a bridge too far to me…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/28/presidential-memorandum-presidential-determination-respect-child-soldier
With enough exposure, this is so vile it has to lose Obama a lot of black votes. Its unspinnable, its illegal.
If there is some version if this story that I am privy to and can share, I will.
From a purely selfish point of view, the lack of layoff notices doesn’t look so bad.
With Obama willing to support child slavery as official US foreign policy, layoff notices seem to pale in comparison.
Glenn Beck needs to see that. Rush Limbaugh needs to see that. Roger Ailes needs to see that.
Slart,
But it’s not that the layoff notices aren’t there, it just that they are not going to be given to you until Obama is securely back in the White House.
If the layoffs weren’t still looming, there would be no need for the taxpayer to pick up the legal tab for WARN Act violations.
No, I think it’s more like this: it’s that the layoff notices aren’t there, and won’t be there until some kind of notice of termination is obtained.
I think Lockheed management is genuinely in the dark about which programs will be involved, and to what extent. And as long as the administration/Congress keep them in the dark, they can’t do much about that.
I know this is an issue that looks like it should have traction, but I don’t think it does. At least, not at present.
This notion that layoff notices somehow generate themselves spontaneously, and that Lockheed Martin is actively restraining them in exchange for…something; just what exactly that something is, I have no idea…just has no basis in reality.
Does the corporation have lists of people that it would lay off first? Of course they do. They always do. Do they have a strawman list of people who might have to go should sequestration kick in? I have little doubt. Is LM somehow holding back on issuing layoff notices to a predetermined group of people because of some tit for tat (or tit in exchange for no-tat) arrangement with the Obama administration? That remains to be shown.
LM and Boeing used to regular cyclical layoffs when I was a kid. It was almost like it was a seasonal thing. They’d be off-line for about six-eight weeks and then pick back up.
Brown used to do the same thing with contractors when the nuclear power plants were being constructed in California.
Of course, all of the people who received layoff notices at those three places were bottom-feeders on the assembly lines or doing coolie work at the towers.
It never hurts to trim management unless you’re running a skeleton crew.
This might be interesting. Or not. Either way:
Honestly, I don’t think Bob Stevens is the kind of guy to fold under a little administration pressure. He just doesn’t know how this will affect the company.
I come out of this environment and still have many friends there. First, note that everyone understands what is happening and no one is going to be fooled by it or know anything more when they get their notices a week after the election than the did a week before the election. The budget cuts are coming unless Congress and the President act, which seems unlikely. Many people have been looking for their next job already and in some cases hoping for a layoff which will provide a severance package they won’t get if they leave first.
Second, the disuption this is going to cause to the defense agencies and their suppliers and contractors is immense, primarily because everything is not being handled out in the open. Clear and explicit cuts are one thing and everyone can plan, act and move on accordingly. Not knowing if there are going to be cuts, or what shape and form those cuts are going to take means no one can plan or act and the nonsense of deferring the “official” notices just compresses the “official” time everyone has to act. My friends assume the worst and are moving forward as they see best.
Third, Lockheed-Martin’s actions aren’t surprising but they are a clear indicator of the corporatism and crony capitalism that infests our goevnement and many large businesses. But instead of talking about that, Big Media will focus on the poor unfortunates who are going to lose their jobs and Obama is only trying to help them — by helping himself get reelected, at which point they will wonder where those tire marks all of them came from.
What could be more crony capitalistic than passing laws that affect an industry and then helping favored players to not suffer from the breaking of those laws?
How can anyone not see what is going on here?