A view of the exterior of Haas Automation in Oxnard, Calif.
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Less than a year after promising to remain “committed” to California, one of America’s leading manufacturers has begun the process of shifting dozens of jobs to a new facility out of state.
Haas Automation, the manufacturing giant that makes large-scale machines and tools, is planning to relocate 73 jobs out of Southern California, per a WARN notice filed this month. The jobs are being sent to neighboring Nevada, where the company is nearing completion of a massive 2.5 million-square-foot facility in Henderson in the Las Vegas area.
Haas is among Ventura County’s largest private-sector employers, with about 1,700 total employees at its Oxnard headquarters. Founder Gene Haas started the company in 1983 after previously running a small machine shop in greater Los Angeles and has grown the brand into America’s leading machine tools manufacturer. Haas also oversees a global F1 racing team under the same name, based in North Carolina.
Haas Automation has been working on its Nevada facility for more than six years, which, when completed, will contain millions of square feet of machining and tooling space, as well as a giant shipping facility and small convention center for events. Last year, Haas Vice President Peter Zierhut told the Ventura County Star that while the new facility is vital for its future, the company is “still committed to Ventura County, and we will still have a good presence here.”
A view of the city of Henderson ends abruptly at the edge of the desert in this view above Boulder City Parkway on Jan. 11, 2022, in Henderson, Nev.
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“Haas is taking this action to enable future growth,” the company stated in its WARN notice, which was obtained by SFGATE. “We built a new, state-of-the-art 2.5 million- square-foot manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada, and we hope employees who move there will enjoy everything the Henderson community offers.”
The relocated jobs include assemblers, operators and machinists on various assembly lines, with a planned move before the end of the year.
In an email to SFGATE, Haas Automation Chief Human Resources Officer Cheryl Johnston said only that “Haas Automation declines to comment with respect to this matter beyond the information contained in the referenced notice,” but added in the email that “the notice does not announce any layoffs, and it applies only to certain relocating employees whose employment is expected to continue without interruption.”
In recent years, Nevada has become a popular option for California residents and businesses looking to move to what Silver State officials say is a more business- and tax-friendly environment. That move does come with lifestyle and other costs, though, including increasing worries about water availability, unaffordability and climate change-related weather conditions.
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