Southern Oregon taking brunt of job losses after the aviation company restructures.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Erickson, Inc. announced Thursday it would be cutting 150 jobs, most in Southern Oregon.
The Mail Tribune interviewed a company spokesman about the layoffs:
“We’ve cut deep,” Erickson spokeswoman Susan Bladholm said Thursday. “(CEO) Udo Rieder shared with the remaining employees the intent has been to cut deep and to right-size so we can minimize the need for coming back in a couple of quarters, or whatever, and doing this again. I don’t know if that has been the practice in the past, but it certainly is the intention for this round.”
Following the 2013 acquisitions of McMinnville-based Evergreen Helicopters and Air Amazonia Serviços Aeronauticos of Brazil, Erickson appeared poised to aggressively pursue contracts in virtually every hemisphere, softening the blow of the loss of military contract income that had sustained Evergreen. But global oil prices tumbled unexpectedly, and with shareholders expecting improving results every quarter, the company was forced restructure into smaller units. From pilots and flight crews to mechanics and engineers, Erickson found itself with redundancy at every turn in a down market.
The news about the layoffs came in a release about the company restructuring, which was packaged as a net-positive:
”We value our team members deeply and have been fortunate to build an organization that has demonstrated exceptional quality and commitment,” said Udo Rieder, Erickson President and CEO, in the release. “This restructuring will create efficiency, reduce our costs, simplify lines of reporting and responsibility and enhance accountability. We believe we will be better able to address the challenges we have seen in our end markets, particularly in Defense and Oil & Gas, and reinforce our position as one of the world’s leading aviation services providers.”
Read more news about the layoffs and restructuring here.
