Thousands of workers for Boeing Co. lost their jobs this week but it’s not clear whether the layoffs will hit the company’s Oklahoma operations, most of which are centered around Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City.
The company announced Wednesday the layoff of 6,770 workers as part of a plan to eventually reduce 16,000 total jobs because of the rapid decline in air traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have come to the unfortunate moment of having to start involuntary layoffs,” CEO Dave Calhoun said in a message to employees Wednesday. “I wish there was some other way.”
Before Wednesday’s involuntary layoffs, 5,520 Boeing employees had accepted a voluntary buyout package, a Boeing spokesperson told CNN.
That brings job cuts at the company to more than 12,000 so far. Boeing had disclosed the 16,000-job reduction target last month. Additional rounds of layoffs are ahead “over the next few months,” said the spokesman.
The 16,000 jobs to be eliminated are equal to about 10% of Boeing’s global staff, almost all of whom work in the United States. Almost all of the job cuts are coming from the commercial aircraft unit, rather than its defense or space operations.
A spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) union that represents 17,600 Boeing employees told Reuters Tuesday the company informed the union it should expect layoff notices on Friday.
Its Oklahoma City operations are linked to making upgrades and modifications to AWACS planes at Tinker Air Force Base as well as B-52s, B-1 bombers and the “Flying Pentagon” E-4B. Engineers and other experts at the Oklahoma offices help modernize aircraft and extend their service time for the Air Force and Navy which have operations at the Air Base.
In April, Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun said the company had “begun taking action to lower our number of employees by roughly 10% through a combination of voluntary layoffs, natural turnover and involuntary layoffs as necessary.”
Calhoun said in April Boeing will need to make “even deeper reductions in areas that are most exposed to the condition of our commercial customers — more than 15% across our commercial airplanes and services businesses, as well as our corporate functions.”
SPEEA said about 1,300 of its members applied to take voluntary layoffs.
The Puget Sound Business Journal reported earlier that Boeing planned to layoff thousands of workers.
A union official confirmed the newspaper’s report that Boeing had told union leaders to expect cuts of between 15 to 20% of its membership, which represents engineers and technical workers in Washington State and southern California.
Boeing is struggling as the worldwide airline sector has been rocked by the travel demand falloff from the coronavirus pandemic.
In April, Boeing recorded zero orders for the second time this year and customers canceled another 108 orders for its grounded 737 MAX plane compounding its worst start to a year since 1962.
The outbreak worsened a crisis following the second of two fatal crashes that led to the grounding of the 737 MAX in March 2019. Calhoun said on May 8 he expected to resume production of grounded 737 MAX jet this month.
Source: Reuters