Slashdot Mirror
Lockheed To Furlough 3,000 On Monday, Layoffs Also Kicking In
Dawn Kawamoto writes "Lockheed employees are the latest casualty in the government shutdown, with the defense contractor announcing Friday it plans to furlough 3,000 workers on Monday. But what they didn't mention is they are laying off workers too, says a Lockheed source on the hush-hush. Lockheed, of course, isn't the only defense contractor taking it on the chin. Other contractors include United Technologies, which has furloughed 2,000, and BAE Systems which cut 1,000."
They want to make you think that if you don't give them what they want then you'll suffer for it. Legal extortion from the ring masters.
We won't be able to kill as many people. Shucks.
The Democrats are just getting started. This is from the top down, like the IRS voter suppression to make sure President Obama won re-election.
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/04/park-ranger-angry-admits-they-were-told-to-make-life-as-difficult-for-people-as-we-can/
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback
Defense spending needs to be reduced, but this bullshit isn't the way to do it. If anything these shenanigans are going to end up costing the American taxpayer more.
Your (dipshit) Congress in action.
Looking for those "qualified Americans"that you can't find?!
Well, heeerrrre they are!
And they have have been working on much more advanced technology than your dipshit advertising/push/ïnterests/ or whatever the buzz word is for basically saying "we're advertizing shit"; which is what everything I have seen in the Valley is selling.
These guys can do everything you want.
But here is the catch - they have been paid well, they are Americans, and they know their worth.
So what's it gonna be?!
Didn't think so. You are all a bunch of lying hypocrites. Fuck You!
I hope we get Eisenhower era level of income taxes - you sacks of shit.
campaign "contributions" good bye....
i can totally see defense industry cutting back on bribes^H^H^H^H^H^Hcontributions in upcoming elections, or turning their back on previously-"sponsored" candidates currently in office.... AND a corresponding increase in defense appropriations bills over the next 2-5 years, being congress' effort to win them back.
Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.
There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going -- except for ObamaCare.
This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.
As for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.
Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their opinion.
ObamaCare is indeed "the law of the land," as its supporters keep saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality.
But the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution.
The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies -- unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.
Since we cannot read minds, we cannot say who -- if anybody -- "wants to shut down the government." But we do know who had the option to keep the government running and chose not to. The money voted by the House of Representatives covered everything that the government does, except for ObamaCare.
The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants?
If Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility.
You cannot blame other people for not giving you everything you want. And it is a fraud to blame them when you refuse to use the money they did vote, even when it is ample to pay for everything else in the government.
When Barack Obama keeps claiming that it is some new outrage for those who control the money to try to change government policy by granting or withholding money, that is simply a bald-faced lie. You can check the history of other examples of "legislation by appropriation" as it used to be called.
Whether legislation by appropriation is a good idea or a bad idea is a matter of opinion. But whether it is both legal and not unprecedented is a matter of fact.
Perhaps the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be able to pay what it owes on the national debt, creating a danger of default. Tax money keeps coming into the Treasury during the shutdown, and it vastly exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the national debt.
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt. But that does not mean that it is unable to pay the interest on existing debt.
None of this is rocket science. But unless the Republicans get their side of the story out -- and articulation has never been their strong suit -- the lies will win. More important, the whole country will lose.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/10/04/who-shut-down-the-government-n1716292
(I got layed off today. There my Hope and Change right up my ass.)
Oakridge National Laboratory is also laying off some of their employees as well. By laying off I don't mean temporarily kicking them to the curb until the shutdown is done and over with but actually telling them to find another job. I've heard that NASA is doing the same thing but I can't confirm that one.
Taking it on the chin?
Fire one million.
The predictable result will be schedule slips, increased costs, and more waste. Of course the system is conflicted.
DoD to award contracts throughout shutdown, but won't announce them
Defense Giant Warns Shutdown Could Force 5,000 Layoffs
Jupiter aircraft company furloughs 2,000 employees because of gov't shutdown
Shutdown prompts furloughs for 1,800 in Ohio National Guard
News for nerds? I don't think so. What's happened to slashdot lately? All kinds of political (and biased) posts.
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
Lockheed gets to lay off a bunch of employees while blaming the government even though the government shutdown doesn't actually affect them. That's brilliant PR. Now the employees will be angry at the government for shutting down instead of Lockheed executives laying off thousands of people in order to pad their own back pockets.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
I knew a guy who had worked at Lockheed. He gave me a sample of Lockheed humor. He said, "Lockheed working gloves" and put his hands in his pockets. Then he said "Lockheed salute" and shrugged his shoulders. I think he had a few other examples but those are the only ones I remember. I think I read somewhere that Michael Milken, the junk bond guy, liked Lockheed because no matter what they did, the Gov't was sure to bail them out.
Lockheed has a company with 1.6 billion prostitutes giving world-wide service.
Send the 3000 over there and do not ask me about this again.
Every cloud has its silver lining. This is an opportunity, not that anyone's brave or smart enough to take it. The last time the British government had this sort of shut down was 1975. The Queen fired parliament. It never happened again. Take your chance now to send a message that doing their job of keeping the government running is more important than the partisan ideological bullshit. Fire congress. Sure, you'll just get some other batch of corrupt ass-hats, but you won't regret having the new batch at least knowing there will be some accountability if they fuck shit up again.
The US political system is deliberately designed to create gridlock. The philosophy is that the less government can do, the better. Obviously nothing is idiot proof. Yelling about how one side is evil and the other good, while the other side takes the same tone is just part of the plan. Eventually though someone involved is supposed to be mature enough to ensure the essential stuff happens.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
He's PROBABLY right as it gets when it comes to lunacy like this.
* Democrats or Republicans, most of the USA general public understand by now, that they're more-or-less the SAME (run by lobbyist big money)... that's all I have to say about it.
(Sometimes, we as "the people" have to set examples with what little power we have available, & that's really ONLY votes - IF you can trust that, that is).
APK
P.S.=> He even corrected his mistake, but the point's still there... apk
And I was just about to start testing my control system for my democrat-seeking missile system! Oh well, guess I'll just have to go be a male stripper now. If the money's good enough, I might just keep doing that once the government gets rolling again. I guess no one really wanted this democrat-seeking missile system anyway!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is keeping track and can report to congress about the damage they are doing. Oh.. Wait... http://www.bls.gov/
for what it's worth, a large part of what our defense industry does is pry money out of the hands of the super wealthy and spread it around the economy. Eisenhower basically created the Military Industrial Complex for purpose of keeping the US economy out of recession post WWII, and he talked about regretting it in his Memoirs. Wealth concentrates, and left to their own devices the rich will take it all for themselves. The economy becomes a zero sum game when power comes into play and the joy of using your wealth to control and manipulate others. Fear of the communists kept the rich in check (somewhat) and allowed for protectionism and pork projects that took money from the wealthy and redistributed it without anyone's feathers being ruffled. Now that that's gone we haven't got anything to replace it with. That's why wealth inequality is the worst since the 1920s...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
But the budget isn't the time to fight things. The way to get a law changed isn't to say "Let's stop paying for the law!" but rather to change the law. The ACA can be repealed, just as it was introduced. That is the right way. However there isn't the votes for that.
What's worse is that there IS the votes to pass the budget in a straight up and down vote but the leadership won't let it happen. That's why people are, rightly, calling "taking hostage". The unmodified budget could and should pass a vote, but they won't let it go to vote because they are mad. A minority trying to force things on a majority.
I also can 100% support the president in saying "No we won't make concessions," because it is in the same vein as "Never negotiate with terrorists." If they can get away with whatever they want just by threatening a shutdown, then that'll happen every single time.They continue to force more and more radical agendas saying "Do this or we shut things down!" No, no negotiation when you play hostage with the budget. Do it right or fuck off.
At least not easily. Unlike a parliamentary system, there's no dissolution option. The vote happens once every 2 years for 1/3rd of the house. There is no clause to speed that up. Some individual states could execute a recall or other sort of ousting on their representatives but it depends on the state law and would require the voters to organize it.
So part of congress can get fired in 2014, and very well may, but not before then, at least not easily. The executive can't dissolve congress.
It's too bad about all the people getting laid off, but these companies have exported too much "defense equipment" used to "defend freedom and democracy" in the Middle East already. The American invasion machine must shut down.
Signature intentionally left blank.
This just goes to show you that such organizations are actually governmental.
The truth is, you simply can't stand the fact that a BLACK man became president.
You're lying to yourself, there, asshole. You ain't fooling me.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Really... when was the last time Lockheed delivered a project on time and/or on budget?
This is a company with a distinguished history of pillaging the federal government. After all, why charge $10 for a pencil sharpener if you can charge $10,000. Just quote $5 and then show up late complaining that the guy who quoted the deal was fired for underbidding and you'll need another $10,000 to deliver it because of the extra costs involved in cleaning up the first guy's cock up.
Hope the government stays closed long enough for Lockheed to go tits up.
The war is winding down and Lockheed isn't getting as much of the defense pie as they were expecting. The whole drone thing isn't something they were ready to exploit.
Lots of defense contractors are laying people off. So many of them reported this to the government in fact, that hte government asked them to delay the firings because it would show up in the unemployment stats.
I can only cynically assume that the contractors assumed that now would be an okay time to terminate excess labor.
They've been talking about doing this for over a year.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Companies making military hardware bring in tens of billions of $, but have no issue firing people to save a few thousand per year? This is what the celebration of egoism brings about.
It's important to realize that many Slashdot posters are non-Americans and thus fundamentally opposed to the US military. They want to our military to be defunded, because they ARE the enemy.
*Disclosure: I served in the US Army during OIF and currently work for a defense contractor.
how can big companies like these shutdown just because one of their clients stops paying? Don't they have money on the bank?
so these companies exist only because the USA government exists? what kind of suckers are these kind of companies?
But I suspect you mean "it's the niggah's fault, boy!".
Music to my ears. Gotta suck for the people working for these companies, mind you.
I'd agree historically, but today defense pries money from the hands of the middle class and spend it on the upper-middle class and wealthy, which I guess you just said too.
There is a larger picture here though :
Keynesianism works. Economic activity is increased when the resources are distributed more evenly because this increases the chance that any given person has the resources to do any given thing they might wish to do.
But Keynesianism is just a hack as implemented. What's actually goes on is : Technology reduces the need for work. So money gets wasted on make work, like most management, administration, law enforcement, finance, defense, etc. Eventually we start running out of easily justifiable make work though, creating a recession. Keynesianism gets interpreted as "avoid recession by making more make-work, even less justifiable make work".
What happens when our culture internalizes the need to make stupid make work? Well, we squander hundreds of billions on defense, law enforcement, Wall St., etc. And our justifications for all this make-work lauds them so highly that real work like education, healthcare, bridge repair, etc. get neglected. All this Keynesian spending on make-work creates way too much corruption, distorts needs, etc.
So we must eliminate all this make-work : Cut defense back to pre-WWII levels. Cut law enforcement back to 1960s levels. Just fyi, law enforcement is the only category of discretionary spending that increased as a share of GDP since 1972. It caused an enormous portion of our national debt. Reduce bureaucracy across the board. etc.
Won't that throw the economy into chaos? Not if you simultaneously shorten the working week and remove most exempt categories from FLSA. You still spread the money around, but you do so by pushing people to spend more time away from work.
We're already doing this through facebook, slashdot, etc., which turn people's work hours into play hours, but that's a pretty stupid way to do it. In particular, people cannot really work on hobbies that benefit the world if they're spending so much time in the office.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Whatever you think of Obamacare, it was passed into law by a majority of both houses and the president's signature, just like the Constitution requires.
The Ag Act of 1949 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Act_of_1949 was passed into law too. But that doesn't stop conservatives from pushing http://heritageaction.com/2012/12/farm-bill-fiasco-circa-1949/ every few years to pass temporary repeals of that law ... and usually by tying passage of the repeals to passage of the budget or lifting of the debt ceiling.
As far as I can see, the only difference seems to be that the Dems support the Repubs when temporary repeal of that law is tied to funding the rest of the federal government and so we've had a situation for decades where the House uses its chance every five years to effectively veto a law they don't like.
Think about what's going to happen to YOUR job when a couple hundred thousand highly skilled and educated software engineers hit the job market, all U.S. Citizens with references and squeaky clean records. And we don't need those cushy Silicon Valley perks to get the job done.
(Captcha: "compete".. Lol.)
I'm sure they don't know how to program in jQuery or how to make the next big social media app, so I doubt the Silicon Valley folks will care.
Or they might be the Lockheed programmers who developed an open source social networking platform http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Streams
Many defense contractors do not work on weapons projects. My job, prior to a week ago, was designing secure radios and comms for troops. Many of my co-workers performed Cyber Incident Response for both the gov't as well as private companies, and every single civilian as well as contractor is now sitting at home. So on top of sequestration, which forced 20% of my co-workers out, we now have the shutdown. Remember this: In the state of Maryland, every civilian job is supported by 6 other, indirect workers, including contractors. This will impact unemployment and consumer confidence (would you buy a house or a car if you were sitting at home and not working).
Gov't is a tool, and a powerful one. The wealthy and well connected will use that tool for themselves. You're not going to be able to stop them. 2000 years of human history pretty much proves that. The only question is are you going to pick up the tool and use it yourself?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
In all seriousness, doesn't his mean 3,000 fewer people are building fighters, drones, missiles, and other weapons?
No. Lockheed does make arms, but given that only non-military parts of the government are shut down, the cuts are probably in the IT and project management areas. For example, work to build the next version of the air traffic control systems, or people who build the systems FEMA will use to track cleanup work after a hurricane.
How many foreign lives will this furlough save? And the layoffs? 75% of Lockheed's revenue comes from the military. That's 2,250 genius serial killers we've been funding before the furlough, the 2,250 people who've been hoarding a fifth of the national budget to murder people for profit.
You are thinking (and given your hyperbole, I use the term loosely) of the military. No cuts there.
What's the point of having a supreme court deciding matters of law, when they can't consider the most fundamental aspects of law and how they apply, namely, the Constitution? Deciding to cancel part of a law which Congress gave no provision for doing so is usurping the power of Congress.
True dat. "Line item veto" is unconstitutional when Congress gives the the President the power to do it, but its totally ok when SCOTUS gives SCOTUS the power to do it. Blah
And the members of the house were supposed to be up for election every -2- years and be proportional to the number of constituents to make sure that power stayed squarely with the people. Somehow, both the length of a term got extended and the number of congressmen got capped which limited the power of the people.
Which is overrun with libfag ballslurpers.
All that stuff's still going to get built, it'll just end up costing us more money because the contractors will bill us for delay related costs. Some clouds just don't have a silver lining.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Boeing will be laying off 5000. And it's significantly affecting their ability to reliever planes to customers.
Lockheed does many more things that just build weapons.
They also build communication satellites, provide IT services for both military and civilian government and Healthcare
Well you could look for your self I guess.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/what-we-do.html
Those 3,000 could be any employee assigned to a non essential position on an of dozens of federal contracts. not related to weapons.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm an ex-Air force R&D engineer, and I worked most of my career developing vacuum tube equipment.
Now, you will notice that you have an S-band power oscillator vacuum tube in your kitchen right now. But what the government uses is mostly big, high power linear beam amplifier tubes like traveling wave tubes and klystrons. You need lots of power to run long-range radars for air traffic control and weather. Also, transmitting data from orbit. The typical radar TWT weighs more than you do, costs over $200K, and puts out hundreds of kilowatts of peak power.
I still have one guitar amp that uses tubes, but SS is the way to go, and that's been proven by articles in Electronic Design magazine (can't find the article right now, it was last year sometime). The people who like the tube sound actually like the output transformer sound.