Chromalloy cuts another 75 jobs

Carson City's biggest manufacturer, Chromalloy Nevada, laid off more employees this week because of a continued slowdown in business, a spokesman with the business' parent company said Thursday.

The 75 workers laid off Wednesday and Thursday at the jet engine parts manufacturing and repair plant may be rehired in January if the airline business picks up again, said Andrew Farrant of New York-based Sequa Corp.

"We hope this economic storm is going to lift," he said.

Chromalloy Nevada laid off about 80 employees earlier this month. The company said at the time it didn't plan any more cuts.

The second round of layoffs leaves the business with 409 employees at its two locations in Carson City. Chromalloy's Industrial Park Drive location opened in 1990 and the larger Arrowhead Drive location opened in 1991.

Carson City's unemployment rate is 7.4 percent in a state that's seen its highest rate in more than 23 years, according to the most recent state report.

Michael Roach, who designed tools at Chromalloy, said many workers expected the cuts. This didn't make losing his job of more than two years easier, however, he said.

"I am 60 years old," Roach said, "and this puts the hurt on my Christmas."

The grandfather of three said he was looking forward to the holiday ham the business was going to give out, but he knows the company was suffering in the slow economy.

"I don't harbor any ill feelings," he said. "I just think it's the way it is."

But Melissa Cavenagh, who worked at Chromalloy for eight years, said she was surprised when her supervisor told her to go to the human resources office Wednesday.

"I said, 'It's happening, isn't it?' And he said, 'Yeah.'"

Cavenagh said she loved her job as a planner, and, after the lay offs earlier this month, she thought she was safe.

She said she doesn't know what she's going to do now. She'll probably have to move, she said, but she wants to stay close to her daughter.

She said it is hard to talk about losing her job.

"It was a shock," she said. "We didn't see it coming."

Besides the cuts in Carson City, Sequa announced earlier this month it would close a Chromalloy plant in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., next year.

Sequa has Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corporation plants in 21 U.S. cities and in nine countries. The Carlyle Group, an international equity firm, bought Sequa last year.

- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.