CHATSWORTH'S NATEL PICKS UP JOBS IN RAYTHEON LAYOFFS.

Byline: MUHAMMED EL-HASAN and JULIA SCOTT

Staff Writers

Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems is outsourcing some work to Chatsworth-based Natel Engineering Co. and about 60 workers at the El Segundo-based company will lose their jobs.

The first group of employees were laid off Wednesday at Raytheon, the company said.

Raytheon did not give the number of employees affected by the first wave of layoffs.

"We adjust how we do business over time," Raytheon spokeswoman Sabrina Steele said. "Sometimes we make decisions based on our suppliers' ability to assume discreet tasks.

Other times, we shift the work our employees do to meet our customer requirements."

The affected workers are a small fraction of the 8,000 Raytheon employs in El Segundo.

In July, Natel signed a five-year contract with Raytheon, in effect transferring an entire division to the Chatsworth company. Natel bought equipment for an undisclosed price from Raytheon to manufacture microwave integrated circuits used in tactical radar and electronic warfare products. The contract is for $20 million a year, Natel president and CEO Sudesh Arora said.

"It will next year form about one-quarter of our sales volume," said Arora, who is hiring six to seven engineers and technicians to meet the contract.

While the agreement between Raytheon and the union calls for a maximum of 60 employees to be affected by the reorganization, Steele and a union spokesman both said the final figure could be closer to 50.

Kevin Dodd, president of Electronics and Space Technicians Local 1553 in Hawthorne, which represented the affected employees, said that by his last count, layoffs will include about 21 technicians and 16 assemblers, with about a dozen voluntary buyouts.

"(Raytheon) is projecting the layoffs to be completed by the end of the year, but it may or may not end up that way," Dodd said.

"It depends on how successful the new company that bought these operations will be able to complete the work," he said.

Such outsourcing agreements and other types of shifting of resources are common in the industry, Dodd said.

A Natel official did not return a call seeking comment. However, a Natel release in July said, "The transaction is a positive development for both parties, with (Raytheon) divesting a non-core product and Natel strengthening its position as a RF/Microwave manufacturer."

Another part of the agreement between Raytheon and the union is that laid-off employees would have opportunities to return to the El Segundo company under different job classifications.

Laid-off employees often can return to Raytheon if a position that fits their job classification opens. However, the affected employees in the reorganization have such specialized job classifications that finding an equivalent job is unlikely, Dodd said.

"This was a specialized operation in Raytheon," Dodd said.

"A lot of people have never held job classifications outside of that area. So through our negotiations, we were able to give both assemblers and technicians the opportunity to be re- employed in other areas that are similar to the work they used to do."

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