Boeing reportedly lay off roughly 400 employees in Washington and 500 in California as part of their staff reduction initiative. The aerospace giant is in the process of shrinking its global workforce by 10%, having previously announced plans to cut about 17,000 jobs. As part of this endeavour, the company fired off approximately 400 employees in November, all of whom were members of Boeing’s professional aerospace labour union.
Boeing’s commercial, defence, and global services departments have borne the brunt of the layoffs in Washington and California.
The company has been coping with a financial problem for some time. Furthermore, employees went on strike for eight weeks, bringing production to a stop. The layoff is unsurprising given that Boeing earlier announced plans to cut 17,000 positions while 33,000 workers were on strike, demanding a 40% wage hike, among other things. The strike has hampered production of the 737 MAX and 777 planes, among other aircraft. The company’s loss due to the labour strike was reportedly approximately $5 billion in Q3. During the strike, it was reported that Boeing was losing around $1 billion each month.
At the time of the November layoffs, Boeing indicated that eligible employees will receive career transition support as well as discounted healthcare benefits for three months. Severance pay of one week’s earnings for each year of service would be provided.
Boeing is now focused on restarting production of the 737 MAX aircraft, which was stalled by a walkout involving over 33,000 employees.
