By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-18 20:41:45 | Updated at 2024-11-25 10:32:06
6 days ago
Boeing will slash 2,200 jobs in Washington and Oregon in the coming weeks, according to official filings posted on Monday.
The cuts are part of the embattled aerospace giant's plan to cut 10 percent of its workforce, around 17,000 jobs.
The US planemaker has been struggling with heavy debt and a series of plane crashes and mid-flight disasters.
Boeing began informing affected workers on Wednesday last week, and another round of cuts is expected in December.
Laid-off employees will remain on the company payroll until January 17, 2025, complying with federal requirements to notify employees at least 60 days in advance.
In October, Boeing's new CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company does not intend to 'take people off production or out of the engineering labs.'
However, several hundred engineers and production workers were among those who received pink slips last week.
Major unions such as The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) and The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) confirmed that hundreds of their members had received layoff notices.
The US planemaker will slash 2,200 jobs in Washington and Oregon in the coming weeks
The notices come as Boeing tries to restart production of its strongest-selling 737 MAX, after a weeks-long strike by more than 33,000 West Coast workers halted output of most of its commercial jets.
Boeing staff with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers walked off the job on September 13 after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer.
Boeing had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but Ortberg said those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.
The company will further delay the rollout of a new plane, the 777X, to 2026 instead of 2025.
It will also stop building the cargo version of its 767 jet in 2027 after finishing current orders.
Among the other recent issues, the Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of the company after a panel blew out of a Max aircraft during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Boeing executives also accepted a $243.6 million plea deal in July that would see the company avoid a criminal trial over two deadly 737 Max crashes.
Under the agreement, Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from the fatal crashes in Indonesia in October 2018 and in Ethiopia less than five months later that killed a combined 346 people.
Boeing drew scrutiny after a panel blew out of a Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January
Factory workers and supporters gather on a picket line during a Boeing strike in September
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Worker members count strike ballots
Boeing must also pay the hefty fine, invest at least $455 million in compliance and safety programs, and have an independent monitor oversee Boeing's safety and quality procedures for three years.
But relatives of the 346 people who died in the two Max crashes want tougher punishments.
And Boeing got attention for all the wrong reasons when NASA decided that a Boeing spacecraft wasn't safe enough to carry two astronauts home from the International Space Station.
The company currently has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in the states of Washington and South Carolina.
Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.
The company declined to comment further on Monday.
