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User ID: 14756837 United States 09/10/2012 09:28 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Defense firms confirm layoff warnings shortly before Election Day 9/10/12 5:00 PM EDT Major defense contractors have confirmed they’ll send tens of thousands of employee layoff warnings shortly before Election Day, according to correspondence released Monday by Arizona Sen. John McCain.McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to jump-start congressional action to avert automatic, across-the-board budget restrictions set to take effect early next year. Hawks and defense vendors hope the threat of mass layoff warnings in late October will light a fire under a deadlocked Congress. Already, they point out the mere threat of the year-end “sequester” is hurting the defense industry and the broader national econ To that end, McCain’s office released letters from the CEOs of thirteen major defense vendors, of which three said they already know they’ll send the warnings: Lockheed Martin, the world’s biggest defense contractor; EADS North America and BAE Systems. Several others left open the possibility, including Raytheon, General Dynamics, SAIC and Northrop Grumman. Other CEOs said they didn’t expect they would need to issue layoff warnings, or that they wouldn’t issue them unless the Defense Department specifically terminated or restructured their existing contracts. Each CEO complained about the uncertainty caused by the potential cuts, and each reinforced industry leaders’ longstanding warnings about the dangers of sequestration, citing studies that have found it could cost millions of jobs and put the U.S. economy into recession. Read more: [ link to www.politico.com] |