July 17, 1957
Los Angeles
With the cancellation of the Navaho cruise missile program, North American Aviation made plans to lay off 15,600 employees, nearly a third of the workforce at its plant in Downey.
Efforts
were made to find jobs for some of the workers at other aerospace firms
such as Douglas, which was making the DC-6 and DC-7, Hughes, Lockheed
and Northrop. The State Department of Employment was also staying open
in the evenings to help place workers, the Mirror said.
"But
the consensus appears to be that only the engineers and some highly
skilled types–such as machinists, tool designers and makers–will find
it easy to get new jobs," the Mirror said. "For the ordinary aircraft
worker, it will be tough sledding. And there is still the possibility
that additional thousands will be laid off as the result of
cancellation by NAA of more than $35,000,000 in orders placed with
subcontractors."
The layoffs were difficult for all employees,
but the California Eagle, a weekly newspaper serving the African
American community, focused on about 800 black workers who lost their jobs. (And in case there is any doubt, the headline above is from the Eagle, certainly not any of the white newspapers in Los Angeles).
"Some of the laid-off Negro workers report that they have been
offered jobs at other North American plants–as janitors," the Eagle
said. "Some of the workers interviewed by the Eagle stated that Negro
men and women who have been working in skilled jobs and who have
seniority have been offered employment at other North American
facilities through the Los Angeles area, but not at their customary
skills.
"According to these reports, at least two of the very
few Negro women employed as electronics assemblers have been asked to
return as janitors–cleaning bathrooms, keeping areas clean, etc.
"These
workers also say that at least one Negro engineer, one toolmaker and
one friction tester have also been told they could be hired as
janitors."
Workers harshly criticized the Eisenhower
administration for scrapping the Navaho, the Eagle said. "Said one
worker: ‘There’s not a Republican in this end of town.’ "
Defense
Secretary Charles Wilson, the former president of General Motors, was
particularly disliked, the Eagle said, because a GM division near
Milwaukee had been given a large missile contract.
"Most of the Negroes who worked in Downey lived in Watts and Compton,
Downey being a lily-white town," the Eagle said, quoting Nate Brown,
head of the United Auto Workers unit representing employees in the
missile program.
Brown denied charges that there was discrimination in laying off black
employees. "While some Negroes were hit as the ‘last hired,’ for the
most part Negroes fared about the same as whites," Brown said.
"About
90% of the black employees at North American had been hired in the
lowest-paying jobs as janitors, laborers and in the shipping and
receiving departments. A number of these men, however, have been
upgraded, largely as a result of union pressure," Brown said.
Although
the Navaho missile was canceled, some of the rocket propulsion,
supersonic airframe and guidance technology was used in later
projects.
Note: North American eventually lowered the number of layoffs to 12,000.
Photograph courtesy of NASA.
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