Unless you happen to make weapons for a living the odds are good that you do not even know that Center Industries exists. The company’s self-description reads, “Center Industries Corporation (CIC) specializes in a wide array of manufacturing disciplines such as precision CNC machining, metal fabrication, printing and assembly work. The company culture at CIC fosters an atmosphere of continuous improvement.”

Apparently the company believes that the can achieve that continuous improvement by cutting back on a significant number of its staff, at least for the time being that is. The company that makes, among other things, parts for the weapons used by members of the U.S. military in the course of their duties, is getting ready to cut back on a significant percentage of workers on its weapons parts business. The company was recently given a cease order by military officials, and was asked to cease production of parts for the men and women in uniform. This has been a major blow to the company.

In response to this change in their market the company has sent layoff notices out to 72 of its current workers in that area of their manufacturing concerns. This is enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea here is a look at how the federal government defines a mass layoff, “actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The cuts are significant on the whole the company is getting rid of 72 workers, and leaving 30 on that particular production line. After all is said and done with these cuts the company will only have a total of about 161 workers on the payroll overall. So you can see that these cuts will have a significant impact on the overall percentage of the workers who are being cut from the company. It also gives one an idea of exactly how much of the companies business base was actually from the military.

The cuts may have been worse if the company had not negotiated with the military when they got the cease production order. The company was able to preserve at least some of its work, and some of its workers, by negotiating a new set of terms for the production of these parts for weapons.

The company is offering some services to the soon to be displaced workers. That help includes guidance on how their former workers can fill out the paperwork for unemployment and how they can get access to other training for displaced workers. For the time being the company has not said anything about what kind of severance, if any, they plan on offering the cut workers.