EVERETT — The Boeing Co.’s production work force took an unexpected hit when the company handed out layoff notices Friday.
Although Boeing previously revealed plans to slash 10,000 positions this year because of the economy, it had said it would focus on “overhead” positions. But 452 area Machinists who build Boeing planes got 60-day layoff notices. The move came a day after Airbus said it will slow production rates in October, triggering questions about whether Boeing intends to follow in its rival’s footsteps.
“It’s simply a matter of identifying the critical skills to accomplish what’s ahead of us,” said Tim Healy, Boeing spokesman.
But Tom Wroblewski, district Machinists president, believes the skills of those 452 members are invaluable if Boeing wants to deliver the 480 jets scheduled this year. Many Machinists who received notice that their jobs end April 24 work in final assembly on the 767 and 777 jet lines, he said.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Wroblewski said.
Overall Boeing handed out 1,100 notices — 700 to workers in the Puget Sound region. Roughly 40 members of Boeing’s engineering union here received notices. The company already has given pink slips to 668 Puget Sound area workers in other divisions. And roughly 200 of its non-union, salaried employees here also got 60-day notices Friday.
More notices are expected, with Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division expected to lose 4,500 jobs through attrition, layoffs, hiring freezes and the release of contractors.
“This is a process. We do expect to issue additional 60-day notices on a monthly basis,” Healy said in an earlier interview.
The downturn in air traffic, combined with the global financial ruckus, has forced some airlines to defer jet deliveries and, in some cases, cancel orders. With 2009 “significantly overbooked,” Boeing has maintained its production rates.
Analyst Scott Hamilton, with Issaquah-based Leeham Co., also found the number of Machinists layoffs “puzzling” in light of Boeing’s earlier statements. But he believes the union should be more worried about production cuts next year.
“It’s possible you could see some fourth-quarter reductions,” he said.
Hamilton noted that Boeing’s Scott Carson, president of Commercial Airplanes, has said publicly the company may have to slow production by as much as 10 percent next year and will make that decision in May. The company needs to give key supplier Spirit AeroSystems at least six months’ notice for a rate reduction, meaning it could decide this spring to put the brakes on rates by November, Hamilton said.
On Thursday, Airbus said it would freeze, rather than increase, rates for its A330 line and would slow its rates for its single-aisle A320 from 36 to 34 monthly in October. Analyst Hamilton sees Boeing’s single-aisle 737 as the most vulnerable to production cuts.
Airbus, however, doesn’t plan to lay off workers, said Bill Dugovich, communications director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. The union questions why Boeing is slashing its work force while the company is financially prosperous and while Boeing struggles to get delayed jet programs on track.
The reduction in Machinists and SPEEA labor is not significant compared to layoffs that Boeing has suffered previously, Healy said. Boeing is letting go “hundreds” of contractors and has frozen about 1,000 open positions, he said. And workers who receive notices don’t always end up losing their jobs, sometimes transferring to open positions.
Boeing will assist workers who received notices in finding employment within the company or elsewhere in the industry. Machinists who got pink slips are entitled to certain layoff benefits under the union’s contract.
For more information, go to www.heraldnet.com/joblosses.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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