Following up on Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner’s announcement last month that the company would cut jobs, the Boeing Co. has confirmed plans to eliminate about 4,000 jobs in its Commercial Airplanes division, likely this summer.
The cuts — planned for “midyear” — include hundreds of executive and manager positions, Boeing spokesman Doug Alder Jr. said in an emailed statement. None of the positions are expected to be involuntary layoffs.
“We’ve been able to reduce staffing levels through attrition, leaving open positions unfilled, and voluntary layoffs. We’ll only use involuntary layoffs as a last resort,” Alder said. “We continue to follow our plan announced last month to make fundamental changes for the long term to win in the market, fund our growth and operate as a healthy business.”
In the company's latest earnings call, Conner said intense competition from Airbus was forcing Boeing to reduce costs in plane production.
The Boeing Commercial Airplanes division includes the 787 Dreamliner program in North Charleston and Everett, Wash. Boeing South Carolina employs about 7,500 people across all of its divisions, including the 787 campus, interiors facility, propulsion center, and research and technology operations.
“We do not anticipate reducing the number of direct Boeing employees at BSC (Boeing South Carolina),” Boeing spokeswoman Elizabeth Merida said. “We can ease any impact and cover our business needs through natural attrition and having temporary and contract workers.”
Regarding the job cuts, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that Boeing’s Test and Evaluation division, which conducts flight, ground and lab tests in the Puget Sound area, plans to reduce its workforce by 10%, according to an internal Boeing document obtained by the newspaper.
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