Rockwell Collins To Cut 6% of Workforce

Rockwell Collins Inc. (COL) says it plans to cut about 6 percent of its workforce in the next year as the aerospace manufacturer’s defense revenue falls amid curtailed U.S. military spending.

The maker of products including cockpits and radios expects to let 1,250 employees go in the fiscal year through September, Chief Executive Officer Clay Jones said in an interview. About 250 have already been given notices, he said.

Of the 1,000 left, he says about 350 are tied to the U.S. deficit-cutting process called sequestration. Other defense contractors including Boeing Co. (BA) are also cutting jobs to prepare for the $500 billion in additional defense cuts slated to go into effect in January unless lawmakers agree on an alternative deficit-reduction plan.

“If we can avoid sequestration altogether and sanity is restored in Washington, and it’s not just a kicked can which doesn’t help us much, we could avoid those” 350 cuts, he says.

The process would reduce Rockwell Collins’s revenue from military programs (COL) by about 10% next year, Jones forecasts.

Rockwell Collins, based in Cedar Rapids, IA, which cut about 800 jobs over the past 12 months, notified workers last month of the additional reductions planned, says Pam Tvrdy- Cleary, a spokeswoman. The company employed 20,500 people at the end of the fiscal year through September 2011.

Edited from an article by Susanna Ray, from Bloomberg. Click here for the full article.