Only one day after the machinist strike has ended, Boeing has begun issuing layoff notices. They plan to cut their workforce by 10%, averaging 17,000 jobs. Boeing has reported that these will mostly be affecting white-collar workers and not the machinists who participated in a labour strike for 8 weeks.
Current Forecast and Previous Layoffs
Boeing has forecasted that by mid-January, 10% of the workforce will be cut, with notices beginning to reach workers this week. These notices will contain a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) – with 60 days paid notice period. Boeing has also reported that these layoffs will be mostly affecting white collar workers and not the employees who participated in the strike. In actuality, the two subject matters seem unrelated – their only potential relation being the temporal proximity to the two events taking place. Boeing’s CEO Kelly Orthberg said the company’s $25 billion in losses is the primary reason for these job terminations, the Seattle Times reported.
In 2020, Boeing enacted a very similar large-scale layoff procedure. Due to their losses from the pandemic, Boeing ended up making 30,000 workers redundant. This was just under 20% of their active workforce at the time. Therefore, these large scale procedural job terminations are nothing new to Boeing, leading to anger, here being displayed by Brian Bryant, International President of the IAM Union:
“Boeing just turned its back on 17,000 of its own workers – the same people who carried Boeing through crisis after crisis, year after year. Their reward? A pink slip. This is corporate greed at its worst. Shame on you, Boeing executives.”
Boeing Machinist’s Strike
Boeing machinists had only been back to work for one day when the layoff notices began being distributed. However, due to an agreement being reached between the International Association of Machinists and Boeing, their jobs are safe for now. After engaging in an 8-week long labour strike and countless negotiation meetings, Boeing finally agreed to a 38% wage increase over the next four years combined with a ratification bonus. Machinists who participated in the strike will not have their jobs at risk of termination for the next quarter Boeing reports.
What do you think of these large-scale layoffs? Comment down below.
