Boeing will lay off more than 2,500 workers in Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and Missouri as part of the debt-laden plane maker’s plan, according to a federally required filing posted Monday and a union official. 17,000 jobs cutOr 10% of its global workforce.
About 2,200 layoff notices were sent to workers in Washington and another 220 in South Carolina, both states where Boeing makes commercial airliners. Boeing declined to comment on the layoffs on Monday.
The aerospace giant on Wednesday began telling affected U.S. workers they will remain on Boeing’s payroll until Jan. 17 to comply with federal requirements to notify employees at least 60 days before terminating their employment.
There were reports that Boeing would send a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) in mid-November, which was widely expected. Another round is expected in December. Boeing may also use workforce reduction, selective hiring, and sales of subsidiaries to reduce its workforce.
Boeing shares closed 2.6% higher at $143.87 on Monday.
In October, Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg The company does not intend to “remove people from production or out of engineering laboratories.” Industry watchers were waiting for the warning for some indication of how the layoffs might affect workers at the company’s major manufacturing centers.
However, several hundred engineers and production staff were among those receiving pink slips last week.
The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) said 438 union members at Boeing received layoff notices last week, including 218 engineers and 220 technicians.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 837 in St. Louis said Boeing sent notices to 111 members, most of whom made wing components for the 777X.
The breakdown of who is being fired appears to vary between different sections of Boeing, multiple non-union workers who received the warnings told Reuters.
One engineer at Boeing Defense, Space and Security said all but two or three members of her 12-person team were let go, while another said she was the only one of her approximately 20-person team to receive a warning . Both said they provide vital support to production and design engineers, but are not considered to work in production.
The notices come as Boeing tries to restart production of its best-selling 737 Max Week-long strike of more than 33,000 West Coast workers Production of most of its commercial jets was halted.
