Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Did Lockheed Martin Just Win Virginia for Obama?

It's difficult to understate the importance of Lockheed Martin's latest announcement on the race for the White House: the defense contractor said on Monday it will not be issuing employee layoff notices to 123,000 workers on Nov. 2—just four days before the presidential election. Amidst all of the super PACs and campaign ads, the threat of telling a sizable chunk of voters in key areas of the country that they could lose their jobs if the election didn't go Lockheed's way was one of the most potent examples of corporate electioneering. But the layoff threat was largely unreported outside of  Beltway trade publications. Here's why today's announcement matters:
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Why was Lockheed Martin threatening to send layoff notices to 123,000 employees? 
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In one word: Sequestration, the Congress-approved plan to strip some $500 billion in defense cuts over the next ten years. In June, Lockheed said it would have to issue layoff notices to workers under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act due to impending Pentagon budget cuts. Lockheed wanted assurances from the government that its contracts wouldn't be affected by sequestration. 

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