By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
The union for engineers at the Boeing Co. will try to raise $2 million to provide holiday paychecks for those members who receive layoff notices today.
The goal is to provide enough cash to "get people to the other side of the holidays," said Charles Bofferding, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
"The company should have done this," added union president Craig Buckham. "But they didn’t."
Boeing today will give layoff notices to about 10 percent of the workforce in its commercial airplane and shared services divisions, which employ more than 70,000 people around Puget Sound.
The exact number of the cuts and where they will come wasn’t known Thursday. Bofferding said it was likely Boeing officials will continue wrestling with those issues right up until the layoffs actually take effect on Dec. 14.
"This is a process in motion," he said.
But based on what company officials have told him, Bofferding said workers in parts fabrication and airplane assembly jobs will be among those getting pink slips in the first wave of layoffs. Workers in research areas — such as those working on Sonic Cruiser development in Everett — will be somewhat protected.
As many as 30,000 workers could be laid off in three waves by the end of 2002 because of the severe downturn in the airline industry following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Boeing officials say.
About 2,000 engineers and technicians will get the bad news today, Bofferding said. The union estimates about half of those people will be contract workers, the rest regular employees represented by SPEEA.
Union officials say they’re aghast at the timing of the layoffs. Those who receive notices today will be out of work on Dec. 14 — just five working days before Boeing breaks for a seven-day paid holiday.
"What kind of corporation lays people off just before the holidays?" asked SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich. "This is something employees will never forget."
Bofferding said SPEEA made several proposals to reduce the number of layoffs and their effect on individuals: early retirements, job sharing, voluntary layoff buyouts and calling back work farmed out to subcontractors. The proposals were similar to those the International Association of Machinists proposed for its membership.
SPEEA officials say they urged Boeing to at least not lay people off before the holidays. Boeing rejected that and all other mitigation proposals, union officials said.
That’s what sparked the fund-raising idea, Bofferding said Thursday. The goal is to raise enough money to give SPEEA’s estimated 1,000 laid-off workers a gift equivalent to the work and holiday pay they would have drawn through Jan. 1. The total would be about $2 million, or about $2,000 apiece for those union members laid off.
To reach the goal, the union is asking members to donate $100 each to the fund. That’s about a half-day’s pay per person, Bofferding said.
Donations will be accepted from anyone — even top Boeing management, he quipped.
"This is what unions do for people," Bofferding said. "This is pretty unique, but for us it underscores what SPEEA is all about."
If the union falls short of its $2 million goal, it will divide the money it does raise among those being laid off, Bofferding said. If it exceeds the goal, any leftover money will be kept to help those laid off next year.
SPEEA employees will be laid off based on their retention ratings, which combine skill, performance and seniority. Mechanics represented by the Machinists union will be laid off based on seniority. Nonunion workers will be laid off based on performance ratings given by supervisors.
About 60,000 of Boeing’s 93,000 commercial airplane employees work in the Puget Sound area, along with 11,000 of the company’s 18,000 shared services workers, who provide support functions to all divisions.
The Everett factory, where Boeing builds wide-body jets, is the largest single facility, with a workforce of more than 25,000.
On a strictly percentage basis, that could mean about 2,500 Everett workers will receive layoff notices today.
To donate to the fund to benefit laid-off members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, send a check to KCLA/SPEEA Cares Fund, 2800 First Ave., Room 126, Seattle, WA 98121. The King County Labor Agency, a nonprofit arm of the King County Labor Council, is assisting with collecting and processing donations.
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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