Boeing hands out 2,900 layoff notices

By ALLISON LINN

Associated Press

SEATTLE – Boeing Co. gave 2,900 workers layoff notices today as part of the company’s already announced plan to lay off as many as 30,000 workers by the end of 2002.

About 1,900 workers in the Puget Sound area and 1,000 workers elsewhere in the country received the 60-day notices, spokesman Tom Ryan said. All those affected will lose their jobs by Jan. 25, he said.

The majority of the layoffs are in the company’s commercial airplane division, which has been hard hit by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. About 700 are in shared services, Boeing’s administrative arm.

Of the 2,900, 2,140 are hourly workers and 760 are salaried, Ryan said.

Mark Blondin, president of Boeing’s Machinsts Union, its largest organized-labor group, said 1,141 of its workers received notices today. The majority of those workers are in commercial airplane assembly at Boeing’s Puget Sound plants, he said.

“We knew it’d be a significant number so I guess I could say there’s no surprise, but it’s still very disturbing that that many people will all be without a job in 60 days,” Blondin said. “It’s not an easy time for them.”

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union representing Boeing engineering and technical workers, said less than 500 of its workers received notices today, including about 300 in Puget Sound’s commercial division, about 60 in shared services and about 100 in other locations.

Boeing had originally planned the layoff notices for Wednesday, but elected to wait until after the Thanksgiving holiday. The move didn’t impress SPEEA’s executive director, Charles Bofferding. He noted that, while the workers received notice a few days later, their last day of work was not pushed forward.

“I’m sorry, but they don’t get any bonus points from me for delaying telling people when they’re not going to delay when peole have to go,” Bofferding said.

Boeing will release its next round of layoff notices Dec. 21, Ryan said. The company plans to have the layoffs mostly completed by by the mid-2002.

In October, Boeing announced a first round of about 12,000 job cuts to be completed by Dec. 14. About 9,000 people were given layoff notices, and an additional 3,000 jobs were to be cut through attrition and laying off contract workers.

Boeing and union officials have set up a number of programs to help laid off workers apply for unemployment benefits and search for new jobs.

Despite the weak economy, Blondin hoped the measures would help Boeing workers find work – and that Boeing will rebound quickly from the losses.

The services, he said, are “to get them by until we can get them back to work at the Boeing Co.”