Boeing issued layoff notices to more than 400 members of its aerospace workers union as part of the company’s sweeping attempts to recover from its financial and regulatory woes.
The company announced in October that it plans to cut 10 per cent of its workforce, about 17,000 jobs, in the coming months. CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees the company must “reset its workforce levels to align with our financial reality.”
The pink slips have been sent out to members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). The union said 438 members were affected by the cuts. Of those 438 employees, 218 are members of SPEEA’s professional division, which includes engineers and scientists.
The workers will remain on the payroll until the middle of January. Eligible employees will receive career transition services and subsidised health benefits. Employees will also receive severance pay, usually about one week of pay for each year of service.
The prolonged strike has strained Boeing’s finances. But Ortberg said in an October conference call with analysts that it did not cause the layoffs, which he described as the result of overstaffing. Boeing’s unionised machinists began returning to work earlier this month after the strike.
The company has been facing difficulties since the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane broke away from its fuselage in January. Production has slowed to a trickle, and the Federal Aviation Administration has capped 737 MAX production at 38 planes a month – a threshold Boeing has yet to reach.
