100-plus workers from ailing Hawker attend LR job fair

Friday, December 14, 2012

— More than 100 current and former Hawker Beechcraft employees attended a job fair Thursday in Little Rock, hoping to find their next job.

Hawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring in May. An attempt to sell the Wichita, Kan., aircraft firm to a Chinese company collapsed later this year, and Hawker began announcing layoffs in Little Rock in August.

After that, Hawker said it intended to emerge from restructuring as a stand-alone company, making only propeller planes like its King Air turboprop. Hawker facilities in Little Rock have been finishing out jet aircraft and include a service center.

Mark Morecraft has worked for Hawker in Little Rock for 16 years. He’s unsure when his last day with the company will be.

“That’s what makes it rough,” said Morecraft, who works in Hawker’s completion center.

He’d like to remain in the Little Rock area, Morecraft said.

“But any decisions we make has to be made according to what’s best for us and our families,” he said.

The job fair was held at the Aerospace Education Center near the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field. It was jointly hosted by the airport and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Jerrell Law, who also works in the completion center, has been with Hawker for 17 years. The job fair was beneficial, Law said.

“This is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this,” said Law, who drives from Pine Bluff each day to work. “I wanted to come over here to get some information so when we do get let go, we have already made some contacts.”

Hawker has not said when or if the completion center will close. Hawker’s service center in Little Rock will close by the end of January, a company spokesman said. She declined to say how many employees Hawker has in Little Rock after several layoffs in the past few months.

Hawker reduced its employment level by about 170 in August, which left the company with about 280 workers in Little Rock then. Hawker announced more cuts in November that likely will exceed 100.

There were 18 companies represented at Thursday’s job fair. Most are based in Arkansas or have operations in the state. The companies included Dassault Falcon Jet, Custom Aircraft Cabinets of Sherwood and Kimberly-Clark.

Bill Stolowski, a recruiter with Strom Direct, an aviation staffing firm based in Coppell, Tex., said the firms he represents have enough openings around the country to hire most of Hawker’s workers.

“The quality of the people coming out of Hawker is exactly what we’re looking for,” Stolowski said.

Nan Vandervort, humanresources manager at Hawker in Little Rock, said employees still working at the Little Rock plant were given full pay to attend Thursday’s job fair. The 100-plus attendees Thursday exceeded the number who attended a job fair in September held by Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.

“This was a success on both sides, with the number of employers as well as the number of Hawker Beechcraft employees,” Vandervort said.

Hawker is owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Onex Corp. Carrying a heavy debt load, it has registered net losses over the past two years of more than $900 million because of declining sales.

Business, Pages 25 on 12/14/2012