Chromalloy lays off 100 employees

Tony Copeland said business "has been real slow" recently at Chromalloy.

Copeland, who worked in quality assurance, said he worked for Chromalloy for 141⁄2 years before being laid off Monday.

Copeland was one of 100 employees laid off because of the lack of business at the manufacturer's two Carson City plants.

Chromalloy spokesman Cathy Gedvilas said the layoffs were ordered in part because of reductions in military spending plus the flat economy in Europe and Asia.

Chromalloy does high-tech repairs, coatings, and reengineered parts for jet engines and critical components for commercial airlines, the military, industrial turbine engines, and other applications. 

Gedvilas said about 100 positions at the Arrowhead and Industrial Parkway facilities were cut, including hourly and salaried positions "from each functional area."

That draws the total company workforce in western Nevada down to about 280, from a high of 540 in December 2008.

She said those people losing their jobs were provided with a severance benefit but that she didn't know exactly what that benefit was.

Ex-employee Copeland said he believes they were primarily getting rid of the higher-paid workers in each area.

He said he would start looking for a new job after an elk hunting trip in mid-October.

"It's kind of hard to start a job then say I need a week and a half off," he said.