Major layoffs in Hampton Roads

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - Hampton Roads has seen its share of layoffs and job eliminations in the past several years. Some of the biggest in the area are below:

In 2006, Ford announced it was shutting down its assembly plant in Norfolk. At the time, the plant employed 2,400 workers. The plant closed in June, 2007.

In July 2008, TeleTech Holdings announced plans to close its call center in Hampton. The center, which employed over 530 workers, closed two months later.

In February 2009, approximately 350 workers at Smithfield Packing Co. in Smithfield lost their jobs when parent company Smithfield Foods Inc. announced a series of nationwide job cuts and plant closings. Another 290 local employees were transferred to plants in North Carolina.

In August 2009, CooperVision Inc. said it would cut 570 jobs in Norfolk as it closed a soft contact lens manufacturing plant.

In October 2009, International Paper announced it would close its paper mill in Franklin. After 70 years of production, the mill's paper making machines were shut down in April 2010. By the end of the summer, when the plant was finally shuttered, over 1,100 employees had lost their jobs.

In January 2010, West Corp. announced it would close its Hampton call center in March. Approximately 450 workers lost their jobs.

In August of this year, Western Refining announced the closure of its refinery in Yorktown. Approximately 230 people were slated to lose their jobs.

Also in August, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the Pentagon's desire to dissolve the Norfolk-based Joint Forces Command. The command, which houses virtually off of its workers in northern Suffolk, has approximately 6000 civilian and military employees. No date for the closure has been announced. Local lawmakers are fighting back in hopes of saving the command. If that's not possible, they hope to retain many of the command's unique functions, and employees, in Hampton Roads.

On November 12, Northrop Grumman announced it would lay off nearly 400 salaried employees at its Newport News shipbuilding facility.