Posted on 11/20/2002 3:10:31 PM PST by Inspectorette
Boeing to cut 5,000 more jobs
SEATTLE - Boeing plans to cut another 5,000 jobs next year. Commercial Airplanes CEO Alan Mulally in Seattle told employees he hopes half the cuts will come from attrition, instead of layoffs.
katu.com will have more details as soon as they are available.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
November 20, 2002 By KOMO Staff & News Services
SEATTLE - Boeing Co.'s commercial airplanes division expects to cut 5,000 jobs in 2003, Commercial Airplanes chief executive Alan Mulally said at an employee meeting Wednesday. The reductions come on top of nearly 30,000 cuts the Chicago-based aerospace company has made since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Mullaly, who spoke to workers at Boeing's widebody jetliner assembly plant in Everett, said the company expects half the cuts to come through attrition and the remainder through layoffs.
In October, Boeing Chairman Phil Condit signaled that the company will need to make further job cuts, citing the airline industry's prolonged downturn. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Boeing has deferred deliveries of more than 500 jets as airlines, bleeding billions of dollars, dropped routes, parked planes and rescheduled new orders.
By the end of 2003, the Renton-based commercial planes division expects to have a work force of 60,000, down from its current 65,000, said spokesman Bill Cogswell. The first layoff notices will go out on Friday and take effect on Jan. 24, he said. For the Machinists union, which has lost thousands of workers in the past year and lost a contract battle in September to win stronger job security guarantees, the prospect of additional losses comes hard.
"We've been cut pretty bare bones," said Mark Blondin, president of District 751, which represents machinists in the Puget Sound area. "We kind of assumed this was leveling out right now."
He added that the union feels the need for more people in the factories, saying many employees have to work mandatory overtime shifts. "I still feel we're understaffed out there," he said.
The job reductions are in addition to the 1,200 to 1,500 announced last month by Boeing's Bellevue-based Shared Services division, which handles computing, telecommunications, building maintenance and other in-house jobs for the aerospace company.
Boeing has spent the last few weeks trying to determine how many people it will need in the coming year to match employment with production levels, Cogswell said. The company expects to deliver between 275 and 285 jets in 2003, down from the 380 expected for this year.
Most of the new reductions will come in the Puget Sound area, Cogswell said, where Boeing builds its jetliners in factories in Everett and Renton. "We believe the employment reductions will impact all of our areas, all of our employees, nonsalaried members and executives across the board," said Cogswell.
Mulally: Global Boeing must share"...We just operate everywhere," he said. "We need to include everybody around the world in the asset utilization. They buy our products and pay up. We can't just extract wealth from other countries and pay ourselves.
"And the United States has no divine right to our standard of living," Mulally added, defending Boeing's overseas parts production. ..."
Well, good. Let the union use some of the millions it has
collected in dues to hire more people in the factories.
More union people, paying dues. Why, it's a perpetual
money machine!!!
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