Boeing is cutting 17,000 jobs amid a difficult economic situation and struggling with the aftermath of a major strike and the lingering effects of the latest safety crisis, according to The Guardian.
Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, declared that “tough decisions” and “structural changes” were required. “We need to be clear-eyed about the work we face,” he wrote in a memo to staff on Friday, “and realistic about the time it will take to achieve key milestones on the path to recovery.”
Some 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington and Oregon went on strike a month ago, halting production of the company’s 737 Max, 767 and 777 aircraft amid a standoff over pay, but negotiations remain in limbo.
The company has faced a tough year. Difficulties began with the explosion of a cabin panel in January during the flight of the new Max aircraft provoked a new crisis over the safety and quality of the company’s aircraft; in addition, the Starliner spacecraft mission also provoked doubts about Boeing’s continued existence in space.
Boeing “must … reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality,” Ortberg told the company’s staff. “Over the coming months, we are planning to reduce the size of our total workforce by roughly 10 per cent,” he said. “These reductions will include executives, managers and employees.”
“As we move through this process, we will maintain our steadfast focus on safety, quality and delivering for our customers. We know these decisions will cause difficulty for you, your families and our team, and I sincerely wish we could avoid taking them. However, the state of our business and our future recovery require tough actions,” said Ortberg.
Strikes have recently hit the US. For example, analysts earlier warned a strike by US East and Gulf Coast dockworkers could have cost the economy $4.5 billion a day and cut the country’s GDP by half a per cent in the fourth quarter, but the crisis has gradually receded.
