At White House Request, Lockheed Martin Drops Plan to Issue Layoff Notices

ABCNews.com ^ | October 2, 2012 | Mary Bruce and Jake Tapper

[castowell]

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 to find a way to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade.

[castowell]

Unreal.

[kevslisababy]

so they will still be laid off, just not notified in accordance with the law?

[Army Air Corps]

So, people have to wait until after the election to learn who gets the chop. Yeah, that is going to make family budgets fun...

[rhubarbk]

Turn out the lights, the party is over.

[dead]

Is this finally the outrage that is TOO blatant for the likes of the NYTimes, ABC, MSNBC, to ignore?

He's breaking the law to influence the election and he's not even trying to hide it.

Without a vigilant press, we are doomed to armed revolution.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

So much for Obama’s management of news.

[Qwackertoo]

This is nuts. So what happens IF he wins and 20,000+ workers are laid off? Crickets?

I worked at GD when A12 was canceled and between GD and McAir over 10K were laid off in ONE DAY.

This is unfreakingbelievable.

[Gene Eric]

>> Without a vigilant press, we are doomed to armed revolution.

Did you see Pat Caddell’s rant against the Leftwing propaganda machine? It was good.

[Mr. Silverback]

Just when I thought I couldn’t be more of a Boeing fan...

The upside is that every worker at L-M knows that Obama is not only the reason this is being hidden, but is the reason that the cuts are happening in the first place. They also know that Obama tried real, real hard to keep people just like them from having good jobs in SC by siccing his labor board on Boeing. And, our guys will be able to pound away at this from the stump just as much as they could pound away at actual losses.

[SECURE AMERICA]

So what are we saying here?
That the workers at Lockheed Martin are stupid? That they do not read news papers? Watch TV news?
Regardless of a memo going out in November wouldn’t you think that most of the workers there have some knowledge of this possibility?

[Menehune56]

Lockheed Martin got the message there was an existential threat if they went ahead with the notices and Obama was re-elected.

[stuartcr]

I’m sure the majority already know if they’re getting laid off.

[null and void]

“drops plan” Lib speak for “breaks the law requiring”

[manovark]

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.

How sweet it would be if Mitt Romney would bring this up at the first debate and kindly inform the public that their job literally is at stake in this election.

[George from New England]

Maybe the families’ uncertainty will backfire on Obama.

[DCBryan1]

Yep. Make your list up now. Think local. Act local.

[stuartcr]

Do you think Romney will stop those cuts in Jan?

[null and void]

so they will still be laid off, just not notified in accordance with the law?

Yes.

On the bright side, the obama administration will pay any fees, penalties and legal expenses Lockheed-Martin would be subject to as a result of violating the WARN Act.

On the brighter side, your tax dollars will cover it.

On the brightest side, L-M just landed a fat radar maintenance contract in North Carolina.

[catnipman]

Fascism is as fascism does.

[null and void]

Is this finally the outrage that is TOO blatant for the likes of the NYTimes, ABC, MSNBC, to ignore?

You made a funny!

Not bad, not bad at all!