The Boeing Co. signaled that hundreds of employees involved in aerospace engineering in Washington state and other locations will be laid off starting in June.
The job cuts, reportedly due to begin on June 23, come on top of earlier rounds of voluntary and involuntary layoffs that have unfolded over the past year. Boeing Commercial Airplane’s employment figures have fallen by just over 10 percent since the start of 2017. Last month, Boeing approved voluntary buyouts for 1,500 machinists and 305 engineers, and also issued 245 involuntary layoff notices to take effect in May.
The newly announced layoffs should start taking effect on June 23, according to a widely cited memo from John Hamilton, vice president of engineering at Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
“We are moving forward with a second phase of involuntary layoffs for some select skills in Washington state and other enterprise locations,” Reuters quoted Hamilton’s memo as saying. “We anticipate this will impact hundreds of Engineering employees. Additional reductions in Engineering later this year will be driven by our business environment and the amount of voluntary attrition.”
Bill Dugovich, a spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, told GeekWire that his union has asked Boeing for further information about the layoffs. The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., quoted a Boeing spokeswoman as saying “there have been no involuntary layoff notices issued at Boeing South Carolina,”
Boeing executives have said the job reductions are necessary to keep the company competitive with Airbus amid a challenging market for commercial airplane sales. In a statement issued today, the company said the latest layoffs are consistent with its previously announced cost-cutting strategy:
“We continue to follow the plan outlined to Boeing Commercial Airplanes employees in December 2016. In an ongoing effort to increase overall competitiveness and invest in our future, we are reducing costs and matching employment levels to business and market requirements. Employment reductions, including managers and executives, will come through a combination of attrition, leaving open positions unfilled, a voluntary layoff program and in some cases, involuntary layoffs. All information is being shared directly with employees.”
