After issuing 429 lay off notices to engineering and mechanical union members, due to take effect on June 23rd, Boeing refuses to disclose if there will be further redundancies among non-union staff. The latest redundancies mostly concern staff at Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit in Washington State, northeastern USA, with the biggest cuts coming to the aircraft manufacturer's widebody operations in Everett.
According to union sources cited by the Seattle Times, the overall number of redundancies may rise as these notices only concern union members.
The notices, issued on 21st April, follow a round of voluntary redundancies offered in January. Those were accepted by more than 300 engineering and technical staff and 1,500 machinists. All the engineers who accepted that offer plus about 1000 machinists have already quit the company.
A first round of 245 involuntary layoffs, including 62 engineering staff and 111 machinists, was announced late March to start on May 19th. This in response to increasing competition and slowing aircraft sales.
In spite of these voluntary redundancies and layoffs, further redundancies in engineering may follow later this year, according to a recent statement from management: “We are moving forward with a second phase of involuntary layoffs for some select skills in Washington state and other enterprise locations,” wrote John Hamilton, Vice President of Engineering at Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Additional reductions in engineering later this year will be driven by our business environment and the amount of voluntary attrition.”
