USA 
United Kingdom
Boeing plans to lay off about 10% of its global workforce in the coming months, blaming a strike that is crippling production, including the roll-out of its new 777X aircraft.
New CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff in a memo Friday that the job cuts will include executives, managers and employees, amounting to 17,000 people in total. It had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.
It means a delay to the launch of the 777X to 2026 instead of 2025. It will also stop building the cargo version of its 767 jet in 2027 after finishing current orders.
The aircraft giant has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019. Union machinists have been on strike since September and recent talks failed to secure a deal to end it.
Workers went on strike after voting against a deal which included a 25% pay increase over a four-year period, lower employee healthcare contributions, and a return to a traditional pension plan—but fell short of the 40% pay increase demanded by factory workers.
Of the 33,000 unionized US Boeing workers who are a part of the International Associate of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 94.6% voted against the agreement, and 96% voted in favor of a strike.
The walkout comes after months of negotiation, with Boeing and the IAM attempting to thrash out a new agreement for the first time in 16 years.
Boeing's safety issues
Boeing’s weak financial position is seen by some as an opportunity. “We’ve got a lot of leverage — why waste that?”, said one worker.
“Boeing has manipulated the narrative to make it seem like we don’t really have any other option other than ending the strike,” said another.
“The petty moves, like the 10 percent layoffs, the company does not need to do that. I mean, they’re worth what, $93 billion? They have a lot of worthless assets worth liquidating over this.”
Boeing’s financial woes, while not helped by the strike, are largely down to quality and safety issues that have plagued it in recent years.
They include two fatal crashes, one in Indonesia in 2018 and another in Ethiopia in 2019, that killed a total of 346 people. Both involved the Boeing 737 Max, leading to a 20-month grounding of the company’s best-selling jets at a cost to the firm of more than $21 billion.
It was also fined $487.2 million by the US Justice Department for fraud, for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration over the two crashes, and ordered to invest at least $455 million to improve safety.
