Boeing layoffs to include 3,600 local Machinists

Associated Press

SEATTLE – As many as 3,600 Boeing Co. production workers in the Puget Sound area will receive 60-day layoff notices next Friday, union leaders say.

The notices, part of the first phase in what could be as many as 30,000 layoffs in Boeing’s commercial jet manufacturing sector by the end of next year, hit unexpectedly early and hard, said Mark Blondin president of International Association of Machinists District Lodge 751.

“It’s going to be devastating to a lot of working families in this area,” Blondin said. “What can you say? You feel a lot of compassion for people who will be losing their paychecks.”

Blondin said Boeing officials told the union those receiving the first round of notices include 3,300 to 3,600 hourly workers represented by the Machinists in the Puget Sound area, about 15 percent of the 24,500-member total. Those receiving the notices face loss of their jobs Dec. 14.

The cuts reflect postponed and canceled orders from airlines because of the drastic decline in passenger travel since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11. Boeing Commercial Airplanes employs 93,700 workers, including 60,000 in and around Seattle.

Boeing rejected proposals by the Machinists to minimize the number of layoffs with incentives for early retirees, bringing back work that had been subcontracted and allowing workers to take voluntary leaves while remaining on a recall list.

Boeing spokeswoman Cris McHugh would not comment on the job cuts.

Representatives of the 20,000-member Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace said they had been given no firm indication how many of their workers would be in the first round of layoffs, but they expect a proportionately smaller hit as the Machinists.

Machinists being laid off in the first round include fabrication workers in Auburn and Harbor Pointe, near Everett, and assembly workers at the 737 and 757 factory in Renton and the 747-767-777 plant in Everett.

Boeing previously notified its 10,000 fabrication workers in plants from Canada to Gresham, Ore., that 1,800 to 1,900 of them would receive layoff notices next Friday.