Countywide : 2 Firms to Lay Off 157 Employees

Federal defense cuts hit Ventura County twice this week, with a Simi Valley-based company disclosing that it will lay off 65 employees and an Oxnard firm following through on 92 previously announced dismissals.

Datron Systems Inc., a radio and communications equipment manufacturer, announced that it will consolidate its defense-related operations at its Simi Valley headquarters.

The company will close its Camarillo plant on Flynn Road and lay off 65 employees by June 6, said Chief Financial Officer Thomas V. Baker.

More than half the employees being laid off are at the Camarillo plant, with the rest in Simi Valley.

The company’s Ventura County division produces equipment mainly for military uses and projects a $15-million drop in sales for the fiscal year, Baker said.

In Oxnard, Abex Aerospace completed its third round of layoffs since its announcement in October that the company would close its plant and transfer or lay off 550 employees by the end of 1993.

Abex, which manufactures hydraulic pumps and valves for defense purposes, laid off 80 workers in October and 50 in January, Vice President of Human Resources Joe Parsons said. In January, officials notified another 92 employees that they would be laid off Feb. 26.

Those workers learned at their lunch break Thursday that they would not return to work today because the layoffs had been moved up one week.