Just what does a worker do after Boeing says, ‘Bye-bye’?

BY DIDI BOYINGTON

Is there life after Boeing?

On Jan. 25, after 11 years with the Boeing Co., I will be answering that question myself.

I spent 10 years in engineering as a technical designer, and the last year as a quality assurance investigator on the Boeing 767.

Didi Boyington

I earned a certificate, with high honors, in electro-mechanical drafting from Everett Community College in 1990. Boeing offered me a job two months before I finished and held the position for me.

A year ago, I decided to change jobs. At that time, I was working for a supervisor who was less than ethical, and it ruined my enthusiasm for engineering.

I had two options: Leave Boeing or leave engineering. Well, I’m a single mom and need the medical and dental benefits, so I decided to stay and became a quality assurance investigator.

Now I work for a wonderful supervisor and I’m happier and more productive.

But because of the cutoff of overtime within days of the World Trade Center bombings, I’ve had to deplete my savings to make ends meet.

My daughter and I live in a small house that I bought in 1994, using savings bonds for the down payment. I’m afraid of losing it now.

After taxes, I still don’t bring home much more than a teacher. In fact, I think they do better. So all of those news reports that everyone heard during the strike of 2000 about the average salary of Boeing workers being $50,000 a year was misleading.

I know folks here who need to subsidize their food budgets with food stamps. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs when employed by the biggest aircraft manufacturer on the planet.

I was lucky to have survived past layoffs. I figured that if I just kept my head down and my nose to the grindstone, as I had before, then maybe I would make it through this one as well.

But the powers that be have decided to gut this company and turn it into a nothing more than an assembly plant, with the eventuality of moving it out of the region. It’s insidious.

Tens of thousands of people who have given their lives and worked faithfully for Boeing are finding out that wasn’t enough. They’re pawns in a corporate board game, and it makes me sick.

At 43, I’m still young enough to start over, but there are folks who won’t be able to. They’re closer to retirement and therefore considered not as employable.

Collectively, they’ve given hundreds of years to this company, and this is the thanks they get. "Sorry, you’re no longer needed. Bye-bye, now."

Some could lose their homes, their savings and their livelihoods because of a token few who have decided to keep their collective finger on the button of our financial security and are blatantly catering to stockholders.

I’m sorry. I wish I could sound more positive, but this is not a positive thing that Boeing is doing.

So what are my plans for life after Boeing?

I’ve been the public affairs officer for the Washington Wing of the Civil Air Patrol for the past year and a half and have gotten pretty good at journalism. Reporter, photographer, editor, publisher, spokewoman — I have been the entire team.

I’ve always loved to write, and with my media connections I have begun sending out articles in hopes of garnering some business. Maybe I could even be a staff writer on a local publication.

It’s going to be tough going, and I’m sure that I’ll be working more than one job for a while. I’ve done that before, but at least it will be something that I will enjoy doing.

As the saying goes, "Do what you love and the money will follow."

I had hoped that that would be with Boeing.

Didi Boyington is a single mother who wants to be a freelance writer now that she is losing her job at Boeing.