By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
Boeing Co. workers laid off after Feb. 25 are eligible for up to two years of job training and unemployment benefits, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Thursday.
The announcement came as Boeing prepared to cut 970 workers from its Puget Sound payroll today, and also to give 60-day layoff warnings to 1,800 others at local plants, part of the company’s continuing job cuts in the wake of Sept. 11.
The Labor Department has determined that Boeing workers qualify for federal Trade Act assistance, which provides extra money to workers who lose their jobs because of foreign competition.
Workers laid off before Feb. 25 already were eligible for the extra benefits, the department said. The new announcement makes up to 18,000 former Boeing workers in Washington eligible as well. Another 5,000 each in Portland, Ore., and Wichita, Kan., will be able to participate.
The laid-off workers will get a variety of additional assistance, said Jeannine Lupton, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department’s Seattle office. The amount varies by individual, and it can include weekly payments, training money, child support payments and cash to help unemployed workers move to take new jobs, she said.
The program is administered through local offices of the state’s Employment Security Program.
The International Association of Machinists, which pressed for the extra assistance, said its workers would qualify for up to $495 a week in unemployment payments, depending on how much they earned while working.
The payments will kick in after workers exhaust their other jobless benefits.
Benefits for Machinists would last up to 113 weeks if workers enroll in job training programs and if the state unemployment rate remains above certain levels, union officials said.
Workers who don’t enroll in retraining programs will receive payments for up to 65 weeks, again if the jobless rate remains high.
Politicians praised the announcement.
"This is great news during tough times for Boeing workers," said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, who helped secure the assistance from the Labor Department. "This announcement gives people more certainty about their future."
The announcement follows another federal decision to award $15 million in emergency funds to help retrain displaced aerospace workers who lost jobs in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, said U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, a Republican. Congress also recently extended their jobless benefits by up to 26 weeks.
"It is my hope that … dislocated workers will have the resources they need to find good jobs again," Dunn said.
While praising the assistance, Machinists union district president Mark Blondin said it highlights a problem: Boeing imports foreign-made parts, and airlines buy foreign-built Airbus planes.
"If domestic airlines would just buy American, buy Boeing aircraft, there would be enough work to keep all our members employed for a good long time," he said. "We’re working hard to preserve jobs and stop Boeing from sending our work overseas. … Job security will be a top priority in our contract negotiations this fall."
The people being laid off today received their 60-day notices Jan. 18. Their departure raises the total job losses around Puget Sound to about 10,900 workers.
Boeing has cut about 18,300 workers companywide since the layoffs started in December, a spokesman said.
People who get 60-day notices today will be cut from the payroll May 24. So far, 23,050 Boeing workers nationwide have received the notices, of whom 14,800 are around Puget Sound.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Alan Mulally said Wednesday that layoff notices will continue to go out through June as the company slows production to match the drop-off in orders following Sept. 11.
The total will be close to the original estimate of 30,000 people companywide, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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