Sale snag furloughs 800 Eclipse workers

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A nervous group of Eclipse Aviation workers left their jobs Wednesday morning not knowing when or if they’d come back.

About 800 people are in limbo caught in a bankruptcy sale of Eclipse, which is running out of money to pay them, and European-based ETIRC, which is buying Eclipse but hasn’t been able to secure financing.

Some people left the southeast Albuquerque plant where Eclipse makes small jet aircraft carrying boxes of family pictures and documents just in case they are away for some time.

“Hopefully it's a short-lived vacation,” one man said as he broke for the day.

“We're going to take a little furlough and be back in a few days, we hope,” said another.

When a bankruptcy court approved the sale of Eclipse assets to ETIRC last month, those connected to the deal thought the change would be done by now.

Instead ETIRC hasn’t secured the financing for the $188 million deal

“We are in the midst of a worldwide economic turmoil,” Eclipse Chairman and President Mike McConnell said early Wednesday in explaining the deal.

And since there was no solid closing date for the sale, McConnell said Eclipse had no reason to keep manufacturing jets.

“The board of directors this morning made the decision to furlough essentially all the employees on a short-term basis.” McConnell said. While expressing confidence the plant will reopen, McConnell was unable to say how long a “short-term basis” will be.

A skeletal crew of about 30 or 40 executives and security workers will remain. About 30 jets in various stages of assembly are inside the plant.

This is the second time in the last four months the Albuquerque company shut down. In November workers were sent home and told that the company had no money for the biweekly payroll.

That shutdown lasted two days, and workers got paid just days before Eclipse declared bankruptcy.