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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Boeing to lay off 800 workers due to increased 787 line efficiency
Increased productivity on Everett's 787 line is reducing the demand for
people there, a key cause of the planned layoffs.
Steve Wilhelm
Boeing plans to lay off about 800 commercial jet workers this year, as
demand diminishes for employees to complete 787s and 747-8s.
The reduction was announced Friday by managers at Puget Sound-area Boeing
plants.
“We wanted our employees to know as soon as possible,” said Boeing
spokesman Doug Alder. “We wanted it to come from our managers, so they had
special employee team meetings throughout the day.”
The layoffs will be just part of the 2,000 to 2,300 positions that will be
eliminated, but Boeing expects to absorb the balance from transferring
people to other areas or from attrition, Alder said, adding that 500 people
have been transferred internally this year.
Alder said the reductions reflect increased efficiency on the 747-8 and 787
assembly line.
“We always expressed that as 747 and 787 matured, production would
stabilize, and we’d have to come down in employment levels, and that’s
what’s happening now, unfortunately,” he said.
Staffing cuts are coming despite the fact that production of the 787 is
increasing to 10 planes monthly by the end of 2013, by using a combination
of the Everett and South Carolina production lines.
The layoffs will be conducted according to union rules.
People are laid off by seniority within a job classification, said Connie
Kelliher, spokeswoman for International Association of Machinists, District
Lodge 751.
"If members have held another job, they may have what are known as "bump
rights" into that previous job if they have seniority in that classification
, she said, adding that workers also can be offered a downgrade to another
position, also by seniority.
Kelliher said these layoffs have to do with productivity, not with a
decrease of demand for aircraft.
"This is not the start of a Boeing down-cycle," she said. "Unlike past
layoffs, there are no production rate decreases on any airplane line.
Production rates remain high, and there is a seven-year backlog."
The company employed 86,198 workers in Washington as of Feb. 28, the most
recent numbers available on Boeing’s website. |
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