{"id":358564,"date":"2024-09-17T10:45:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T14:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/?post_type=news&p=358564"},"modified":"2024-09-17T13:28:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T17:28:15","slug":"boeing-says-its-considering-temporary-layoffs-to-save-cash-during-the-strike-by-machinists","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/news\/boeing-says-its-considering-temporary-layoffs-to-save-cash-during-the-strike-by-machinists\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing\u00a0says it’s considering temporary layoffs to save cash during the strike by machinists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEATTLE (AP) \u2014 Boeing plans to freeze hiring and reduce travel and is considering temporary layoffs to save cash during a factory workers\u2019 strike<\/a> that began last week, the company told employees Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the moves, which include reduced spending on suppliers, were necessary because \u201cour business is in a difficult period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief Financial Officer Brian West detailed 10 immediate cutbacks in a memo to employees. They include a freeze on hiring across all levels, pausing pay increases for managers and executives who get promoted, and stopping all travel that isn\u2019t critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are also considering the difficult step of temporary furloughs for many employees, managers and executives in the coming weeks,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing’s business is in a difficult spot<\/a>, he said, adding: \u201cThis strike jeopardizes our recovery in a significant way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 33,000 workers<\/a> represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers began a strike early Friday. The walkout came after workers rejected an offer<\/a> of a 25% increase in pay over four years. The union originally sought a pay hike of at least 40%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representatives of the company and the union are scheduled to meet Tuesday with federal mediators. The union has started to survey its members to learn what they want most in a new contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Striking workers are picketing at several locations around Washington state<\/a>, Oregon and California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside Boeing’s huge factory in Everett, Washington, Nancie Browning, a materials-management specialist at Boeing for more than 17 years, said last week\u2019s offer<\/a> was worse than the one that prompted a two-month strike in 2008. She said that without annual bonuses that workers have come to depend on, the proposed pay increase was more like 9%, not 25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just want a piece of the pie like everybody else,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy should we work all this overtime and bust our backs while these guys (Boeing executives) are sitting sitting up in their suites just raking in the cash?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bonuses have emerged as a flash point for union members. Workers say they range from $3,000 to $5,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing says it is hard to calculate bonuses in a way that is fair to 33,000 people who perform different jobs. So instead, the company proposes to ditch the payouts and replace them with automatic contributions of $4,160 per year to each employee\u2019s 401(k) retirement account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workers are bitter that in contract extensions over the past 16 years, Boeing ended its traditional pension plan and lowered health care benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want our pension back,\u201d said Jacob Bustad, a machinist with Boeing for 14 years who was also on the picket line in Everett. \u201cWe just keep losing and we never gain, while the people at the top just get more and more money. Boeing has done really good for me and my family, but these last years have been hard.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019, and burned through $4.3 billion in the second quarter of 2024 alone as it stood poised to post another money-losing year<\/a>. The strike will delay deliveries of new planes, which are an important source of cash for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephanie Pope, the head of Boeing\u2019s commercial-airplanes division, cited the company\u2019s $60 billion in total debt in urging blue-collar workers to accept the contract offer last week. She called it the best offer Boeing had ever made \u2014 and endorsed by the union’s local president and negotiators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But workers rejected the recommendation of their own leaders, which\u00a0had not happened<\/a> since 1995<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional cost-cutting moves spelled out in the chief financial officer’s memo included eliminating first- and business-class service for anyone on travel that is deemed critical, and stopping spending on outside consultants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West also said Boeing plans to make \u201csignificant reductions in supplier expenditures\u201d and will stop most supplier purchase orders related to the 737, 767 and 777 airplane models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the strike started, Moody\u2019s put Boeing on review for a possible credit downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely. Both agencies rate Boeing debt one notch above non-investment or junk status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boeing\u00a0plans to freeze hiring and reduce travel and is considering temporary layoffs to save cash during a\u00a0factory workers\u2019 strike\u00a0that began last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":339394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[99318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358564","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oem","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/358564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}