Boeing plans to lay off more than 2,500 workers in the US states of Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and Missouri, according to federally requested filings released on Monday and a union official, as part of the debt-laden US plane maker’s plan to cut 17,000 jobs. Or 10% of its global workforce.
Nearly 2,200 layoff notices were sent to workers in Washington and another 220 notices in South Carolina, the two states where Boeing makes commercial airplanes. Boeing declined to comment on the layoffs on Monday.
The aerospace giant began telling affected U.S. workers on Wednesday that they will remain on Boeing’s payroll through Jan. 17, to comply with federal requirements to give employees at least 60 days’ notice before terminating their employment.
News that Boeing would send out a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) in mid-November was widely expected. Another round is expected in December. Boeing can also use workforce attrition, selective hiring, and subsidiary sales to reduce the workforce.
Boeing shares rose 2.6% to close at $143.87 on Monday.
In October, Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, said the company did not intend to “take employees out of production or out of engineering laboratories.” Industry watchers were waiting for the warnings to get some indication of how the layoffs would affect workers at the company’s major manufacturing centers.
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However, several hundred engineers and production workers were among those who received pink slips last week.
The Aerospace Professional Engineering Employees Association said 438 union members at Boeing received layoff notices last week, including 218 engineers and 220 technicians.
The International Association of Aerospace Machinists and Machinists (IAM) at Lodge 837 in St. Louis said Boeing sent notices to 111 members, most of whom made wing components for the 777X.
Several non-union workers who received warnings told Reuters that who gets laid off appears to vary between departments within Boeing.
One engineer at Boeing Defense, Space and Security said all but two or three members of his 12-person team had been let go, while another said she was the only one of her roughly 20-person team to receive a warning. Both said they provide vital support to production and design engineers, but are not considered for work in production.
These notices come at a time when Boeing is trying to resume production of its best-selling 737 MAX aircraft, after a weeks-long strike in which more than 33,000 workers on the American West Coast participated, which led to the halt of production of most of its commercial aircraft.
Union members voted 59% in favor of the new contract earlier this month, which includes a 38% pay rise over four years, after voting to reject two previous offers.
