Boeing hands out pink slips to Oregon workers

Associated Press

GRESHAM, Ore. — Nearly 300 employees at Boeing’s Gresham plant will be laid off in the coming months under a cost-cutting campaign by the Chicago-based commercial aircraft company.

The workers here got their pink slips Friday, just two days before an Employee Appreciation Day that had been scheduled long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that threw the industry into turmoil.

Boeing has said a drop in aircraft deliveries will mean 30,000 employees could lose their jobs by the end of 2002.

In Gresham, 297 of the plant’s 1,657 workers will be the first to go — some as early as Dec. 14. Managers said the local plant, which makes aircraft parts later assembled at Boeing plants in the Puget Sound area, may suffer another round of 200 to 300 layoffs next year.

Union officials urged members to hammer federal lawmakers with letters and phone calls supporting proposed aid to airline and aircraft workers, said Robert Petroff of the International Association of Machinists &Aerospace Workers.

The union supports a plan that would extend unemployment payments from 26 to 78 weeks, provide 26 weeks of unemployment payments to workers who would not otherwise qualify, extend subsidized job training from 52 to 78 weeks and provide 78 weeks of federally subsidized health insurance.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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