More than 400 employees of Boeing have received pink slips. They are all members of Boeing’s professional aerospace labour union. The company has been fighting a financial crisis for some time now. To add to that the employees went on strike for eight weeks stalling production.
Notices were reportedly issued to over 200 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA.
The layoff doesn’t come as a shock because Boeing had announced plans to cut 17,000 jobs even while 33,000 workers were on strike demanding a 40 per cent wage hike among other things. That means, it will let go about ten per cent of its global workforce in the coming months.
Eligible employees will be provided support with career transition along with subsidised healthcare benefits for up to three months. Severance pay of a week’s pay for each year of service will also be provided.
These are tough times for Boeing because the strike has adversely affected the production of the 737 MAX and 777 models among other jets. The loss incurred by the company due to work stoppage was reportedly about $ 5 billion in Q3. In fact, while the strike was on, it was reported that Boeing was losing about a billion dollars every month.
The strike came to an end only in early November when the workers accepted a contract offer—of 38 per cent pay hike over four years. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had already rejected two earlier offers.
In early November, Boeing had also dissolved its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team), as part of the revamp happening at the company under Kelly Ortberg, the new CEO of Boeing.
