Tucson-area job losses continue, including positions cut at an airport service company, Arizona Portland Cement, a precision machine shop and a local hospital emergency room.
Competitive Engineering Inc., 3371 E. Hemisphere Loop, laid off 20 workers last month. A company official would not give details of the job descriptions for those laid off, but said it was safe to assume most were machinists and the cutback was related to the slowing economy. Competitive Engineering Inc. is a precision machine shop.
Worldwide Flight Services, a company that provides a variety of ground services including baggage handling at airports, laid off 16 workers at Tucson International Airport Tuesday, according to a state employment Web site run by the Department of Economic Security. WFS officials didn't return calls requesting confirmation and details of the jobs the state says were cut.
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Oro Valley Hospital, formerly known as Northwest Medical Center/Oro Valley, laid off seven emergency- room technicians. A company spokeswoman said the workers were told they could apply for other jobs in the hospital, but she didn't know if they had. She said the layoffs were part of a move to "a model where direct patient care is provided by RNs," or registered nurses, said Kristina Gobel, marketing director for the hospital, owned by Community Health Systems.
Thirty-six workers, a mix of union hourly or salaried employees, at Arizona Portland Cement's Rillito plant, 11115 N. Casa Grande Highway, were laid off last week, said company Vice President Craig Starkey.
Starkey said he looks forward to bringing the workers back, but couldn't speculate about when that would happen because of the sluggish economy.
"It's one of those unfortunate things. We're impacted like everyone else, only more so because we're in that construction business. We've gone from roughly consuming over 5 million tons in the state to now where we're under 3 million tons in 2008 — and this year is going to be even worse. Across the country, our industry is hurting," Starkey said.
He said the company hasn't seen much evidence of the economic stimulus package, at least in terms of demand for cement, the key component in concrete. There will be some demand from an I-10 widening project west of Phoenix that goes to bid this coming week, but not for at least eight months, he said.
Arizona Portland recently shut down its one remaining operating kiln at the Rillito plant for relining, Starkey said. The routine maintenance involves replacing the 8-inch-thick, high-temperature bricks that line the kiln used in the cement-making process.
The plant shut down three of its four kilns last year. Between 95 and 100 employees remain at work at the Rillito plant, and there is enough inventory to meet anticipated demand, Starkey said.
"We can start the kilns up and take off in a moment's notice," he added.