Layoffs Hit Oregon Manufacturing Sector BY ETHAN LINDSEY
Bend, OR January 9, 2009 1:14 a.m. Share Discuss
Oregon is continuing to lose jobs. Freightliner is laying off 190 workers in Portland. And Cessna workers in Bend are bracing for more layoffs there. Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports.
The exact number of jobs lost, if any, that will be lost at the Bend Cessna plant remains unknown.
But Cessna’s president, in a memo to the company’s 12,000 employees, said major job cuts are coming.
A spokesman confirmed the company's composite plane factory in Bend could see additional layoffs.
165 of Cessna's 500 Bend workers lost their jobs late last year.
Roger Lee is the executive director of Economic Development of Central Oregon.
Roger Lee: “We’d certainly rather see no layoffs whatsoever, but its certainly better than a closure. And we’ve seen competitors across other parts of the country send everybody home. Period. That we’re continuing production of aircraft here, and so forth, I think speaks to what’s being made here is a pretty attractive product.”
When asked whether the Bend factory could be shuttered, Cessna would not comment.
But the spokesman said one thing Bend has going for it is the planes sold from here are not made anywhere else.
