The Boeing Company’s decision to lay off employees with key programs behind schedule is another indication corporate leaders are disconnected from the reality of the workplace, according to the union representing engineers and technical workers.
“These announced layoffs are puzzling,” said Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001. “With the company struggling to overcome problems from its failed outsourcing business model, these types of prophylactic layoffs seem counterproductive.”
It was just December 10, when the Boeing board of directors increased the quarterly stock dividend 14 percent. The company press release announcing the increase quoted Boeing chairman, president and chief executive Jim McNerney: “This dividend increase reflects our strong financial performance, record backlog and significant liquidity.”
“We wonder what has changed since December 10,” said Goforth. “The company doesn’t have any financial reason for layoffs.”
The announcement on January 9 comes as more than 23 percent of union engineers are working 12 or more hours of overtime each week to get the 787 and 747-8 programs complete. The 787 is now nearly two years behind schedule. Boeing outsourced unprecedented amounts of each program as well as relying on contract labor.
It is unclear how many, if any, of the 4,500 layoffs announced for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 2009 will impact employees represented by SPEEA. Union contracts require all contractor labor to be released before SPEEA-represented employees are laid off. The most recent numbers show more than 2,560 contractors are working jobs that could be performed by SPEEA members.
“Unlike previous layoffs where Boeing was responding to downturns in aerospace, these layoffs have no clear business rationale,” said Goforth. “The company should staff up to fix the self-inflicted wounds of its outsourcing model, not lay off employees to prop up the stock price.”
On Tuesday, January 13, SPEEA returns to contract negotiations with Boeing for 700 represented engineers at Wichita Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). Before Boeing halted negotiations before the holidays, company negotiators proposed salary increases in only the first year of a four-year contract. Union leaders called the offer “completely disrespectful for the engineers who work on key programs for Boeing IDS”. In December, 20,740 SPEEA members at Boeing in Puget Sound bargaining units agreed to contracts that included wage improvements of 20 percent over five years.
A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents more than 24,500 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan.; Triumph Composite Systems Inc. in Spokane, Wash.; and at BAE Systems Inc. in Irving, Texas.
