Ninety employees from the Cambridge location of Babcock & Wilcox will be out of work come January.
The company says the layoffs are due to a slowdown in the nuclear industry. Only front-line, hourly employees are affected, but the layoffs represent about 30 per cent of the company’s entire Cambridge hourly workforce.
“We had a big meeting – they brought everybody into the plant and just told us [there’s] no work coming in,” says Scott Daly, one of the workers who received a layoff notice last month.
Nuclear parts manufacturer Babcock & Wilcox operates facilities in several countries, including Mexico and China. Company officials say no work is being transferred to those countries due to the layoffs.
Employee assistance programs will be offered when the layoffs take effect in January.
“The preparations, we hope, provide enough time to be able to prepare,” says Babcock & Wilcox spokesperson Natalie Cutler.
Workers say rumours are spreading that only a few dozen employees will remain in Cambridge by 2015.
The company denies those rumours, saying they hope an industry turnaround will allow them to rehire the laid-off workers.
