WASHINGTON, USA — Boeing notified the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) that they plan to lay off over 2,000 employees within the state before the end of this year.
ESD received a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification that 2,199 employees will be permanently laid off from the company, with the expected beginning date of separations to be Dec. 20.
In general, Boeing has been tight-lipped about the layoff plans after announcing earlier this fall that it would be cutting 10% of its workforce. The company did say both union and nonunion employees, managers and executives are included.
SPEEA, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, announced 438 of their unionized employees had been laid off from Boeing, but it's unclear how many, if any, of those jobs are in Washington.
The layoff announcement came during a months-long strike of unionized machinists with the IAM District 751. Over 33,000 employees hit the picket lines beginning in September, after the contract agreement lapsed between the union and the company.
Boeing has specified that employees who went on strike are not currently impacted by the job cuts. They represent workers on some of Boeing's most profitable jet models, including the 737 Max 8 and 9.
Boeing has faced steep financial losses since 2018, when two fatal jet crashes were linked to the company's autopilot system. A door plug blowout from earlier this year has also contributed to the company's money troubles. The machinists' strike itself was costly - the company could have lost as much as $1 billion a month while their production lines were largely brought to a halt.
Machinists have now returned to work, but it will be weeks before the company is able to ramp up productivity. Machinists must be re-trained and the Federal Aviation Administration is lending its oversight to the process. It's unlikely that Boeing will reach its previous goal of producing 38 Max planes a month by the end of 2024.
