BASE WORKERS FEAR LAYOFFS; CONTRACTOR TO TAKE OVER EDWARDS SUPPLY WORK.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

More than 300 military and civilian employees' jobs are in jeopardy after government officials decided that a private company could run the base's supply operation more cheaply than the Air Force can.

United Paradyne Corp., a Santa Maria firm, will take over the base's supply operations next spring under a contract that Edwards officials said can save the government $5.9 million over 4-1/2 years.

The decision was made after studies comparing bids by private contractors, and comparisons between the Paradyne bid and estimates for doing the work in-house.

``Price was a substantial factor in the selection,'' said Alfred Jacobsen, Edwards's contracting officer. ``Paradyne was the best value for the government.''

The decision might be contested by an government employees union, whose leaders fear that government civilian positions in civil engineering and flight-line operations may be targeted next.

The supply contract, which affects supplies ranging from paper clips to jet fuel, is Edwards' first major operation taken away from the government workers and turned over to a contractor.

The initial contract is for five months with four one-year options, potentially worth $28.9 million, base officials said.

Of the 121 government civilian positions affected by the decision, 106 are now filled. Of those, 93 are permanent employees and the rest are temporary workers. The 215 military personnel will be reassigned either at Edwards or elsewhere in the Air Force, officials said.

In the next six weeks, the civilian workers will be offered incentives to voluntarily leave their positions. Others could be placed in other jobs or be laid off, and United Paradyne says it is interested in hiring many when it takes over, effective May 1.

``Hopefully we will be able to find places for them on base,'' said Brandt Taylor, chief of position management and classification of civilian personnel.

A United Paradyne executive said the company hopes to hire 150 to 200 of the civilian workers at salaries comparable to what they make with the government.

``Our plan is to pick up as many existing incumbent government employees as possible,'' said Joe Hasay, vice president and chief technology officer.

United Paradyne was started two years ago by three managers who quit their jobs with a construction engineering company doing work at Vandenberg Air Force Base. They formed their own business to go after a Vandenberg contract handling rocket fuels.

Besides the Vandenberg work, the company handles jet fuel at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.

Together, the contracts total about $7 million a year, meaning the Edwards contract will almost double the firm's government work.

``It is a huge win for us. We have focused on growth this past year. This constitutes a great step for us,'' Hasay said.

Despite United Paradyne's intention to hire many of the workers, a government union says it likely will fight the privatization plan.

American Federation of Government Employees Local 1406, which represents about half of the affected civilian workers, is researching how the decision was made to determine possible grounds for an appeal.

``We think it was done wrong. You can't beat the government by $6 million and not have something done wrong,'' said Stan Schoen, president of the local. ``It's a sad situation. Some of those people have 20, 30 years in civil services and now they are being told, `Tough luck.' ''

The union has 20 days to appeal the decision. A base appeals board will have 30 days to respond. If the decision goes against the union, the union can appeal for a further review by Edwards' parent unit, the Air Force Materiel Command, said Raymond Neubig, manpower and quality officer for the Air Force Flight Test Center.

Union leaders believe the Air Force will look at government civilian positions in civil engineering and the base flight-line operations next.

Base officials said there are no plans for studying those activities at this point, but those operations ``lend themselves to this type of study,'' said Neubig.