600 San Onofre Workers Get Layoff Notices

Southern California Edison said Wednesday it was sending layoff notices to 600 non-union workers at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

It's the first round in plans to let go of 1,100 employees in the wake of the plant's permanent closure after a 2012 steam leak revealed pervasive design flaws to newly installed steam generators.

"The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice issued Monday signals that non-union employees affected by the workforce reduction will be laid off in a little over 60 days," Edison said in a press release. "In addition, SCE will work with the Utility Workers Union of America and the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers through the collective bargaining process on transition plans for the union employees affected by the shutdown."

Pete Dietrich, SCE’s senior vice president and chief nuclear officer, said the company would hold a job fair for the displaced workers and institute other measures to help them find other jobs. 

“We have an extraordinary team of men and women. We appreciate their years of dedicated service and will continue to extend to them the utmost respect and consideration," Dietrich said in the SCE release.

Read Patch's analysis and what experts say about the economic fallout of the San  Onofre plant closure here.