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Showing posts with label counterfeit parts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label counterfeit parts. Show all posts
Boeing cutting 17,000 jobs to ‘adjust its workforce’
after labor union strike
Boeing said it is issuing layoff notices to employees who are included in the aerospace giant’s broader workforce reduction plan.
The approximately 17,000 employees included in the cuts were notified this week and are expected to leave the company in mid-January, Boeing said.
The cuts, which come after a labor union strike, equate to 10% of its workforce.
“We are adjusting our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and a more focused set of priorities,” Boeing said in a statement to FOX Business.
CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over in August, told staff in a memo last month that the job cuts would include executives, managers and employees.
“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” Ortberg told staff, saying that the situation “requires tough decisions, and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.”
The company has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in South Carolina and Washington state.
The company also announced the end of production of its 767 aircraft in 2027 after it completes the current orders for 29 jets.
Boeing workers in Seattle voted to strike on Sept. 12, rejecting a contract the embattled aviation giant characterized as a boon for staff given the company’s stressed financial condition.
AFP via Getty Images
Boeing also delayed the rollout of its new 777X to 2026, instead of 2025. The delay comes after the recent discovery of a defective part that grounded test flights earlier this year.
The aerospace company faced a strike involving 33,000 workers in the Seattle area.
The strike shut down production of the 737 Max, Boeing’s best-selling plane, and 777s and 767s.
The strike was prompted after workers overwhelmingly refused tentative contract negotiations provided by the company.
The approximate 17,000 employees included in the cuts were notified this week.
AFP via Getty Images
The Max is a key revenue generator for Boeing, which raised more than $24 billion in late October to shore up its shaky finances and protect its investment grade rating following concerns from rating agencies.
Boeing has lurched from crisis to crisis this year, kicking off on Jan. 5 when a door panel blew off a 737 Max jet in midair.
Since then, its CEO departed, its production has slowed as regulators investigated its safety culture and its largest union kicked off the strike on Sept. 13.
The strike’s end on Nov. 5 and the return of Boeing’s workers to the company’s Seattle-area assembly lines this week now support a slow revival of Max production.
Boeing’s U.S. West Coast factory workers stood in long lines on Thursday to vote on a much-criticized new contract, some loudly calling for a strike, piling pressure on the planemaker as it wrestles with chronic production delays and mounting debt.
A potential strike could start on Friday, which would be a big early blow to new CEO Kelly Ortberg, brought on last month to restore faith in the planemaker after a door panel blew off a near-new 737 MAX jet in mid-air in January.
Roughly 30,000 workers who produce Boeing’s 737 MAX, 767 and 777 jets in the Seattle and Portland areas are voting on their first full contract in 16 years.
Polling will close at 6 p.m. PT and the result will be announced this evening, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said. If a strike is sanctioned, it could start at midnight.
The proposed deal includes a general wage increase of 25%, a $3,000 signing bonus and a pledge to build Boeing’s next commercial jet in the Seattle area, provided the program is launched within the four years of the contract.
1:54
BIV: Boeing appoints new CEO
Although the IAM leadership recommended on Sunday that members accept the deal, some workers have responded angrily, with many calling for the originally demanded 40% pay rise and lamenting the loss of an annual bonus.
On Thursday, a line of workers waiting to vote snaked along the street outside the union’s offices in Renton, the Seattle suburb where Boeing makes its best-selling 737 jet. Some held signs and others chanted “strike”. All of several Boeing workers who spoke to Reuters said they were voting to strike, and were confident the bulk of union members would do the same, although more than 20 declined to say what they planned.
Under complicated union rules, two thirds must vote in favor of a strike for the action to begin. With anything less than that, the contract will go into effect.
“I’m ready to go on strike for as long as necessary to get everything that we deserve,” said Josh King, a 36-year-old quality inspector. “Normally, a strike doesn’t bring a worse offer, it always brings a better offer.”
In a sign some workers were already preparing for picket lines, one union member left the meeting on Wednesday carrying a placard under her arm that read: “On Strike Against Boeing.”
2:12
Boeing discloses new problem with popular 787 Dreamliner jets
Workers have been protesting all week in Boeing factories in the Seattle area that assemble Boeing’s MAX, 777 and 767 jets.
One member wearing a high-visibility vest shouted, “time to strike, baby!” as he exited the building after casting his vote.
Boeing shares closed up 0.9% on Thursday. They are down 36% this year on concerns over safety, production and a $60 billion debt burden. A strike would deepen the financial pain and add to delays in delivering planes to airlines already struggling with capacity shortages.
New CEO pleads for ratification
The duration of a potential strike isn’t clear. A long strike would weigh not only on Boeing’s financials, but on airlines which depend on the planemaker’s jets and suppliers who manufacture parts and components for its aircraft.
According to a note from TD Cowen, a 50-day strike could cost Boeing an estimated $3 billion to $3.5 billion of cash flow. The Boeing workers’ last strike in 2008 shuttered plants for 52 days and hit revenue by an estimated $100 million per day.
S&P Global Ratings said an extended strike could delay the planemaker’s recovery and hurt its overall rating. Both S&P and Moody’s rate Boeing one notch above junk status.
UBS analysts estimated in a note that a short-lived strike that does not disrupt plane deliveries would not impact Boeing’s cash usage. However, a one- to two-month strike resulting in a 50% cut to September to December deliveries would mean a $4 billion cash headwind for Boeing.
Michael O’Leary, CEO of Boeing customer Ryanair, said on Thursday that a strike could further delay aircraft deliveries, but added he believed that if it happened, it would be short. “We would like to see the labor agreement sorted.”
2:30
‘How can you sleep at night?’: Families, U.S. lawmakers confront Boeing CEO
A strike would present Boeing with multiple challenges: it will need to decide how to respond at the bargaining table, after saying it had offered everything it could. It also must find a way to secure factories full of extremely valuable, partially built planes, without union workers to do the job.
On Wednesday, Ortberg sent a letter to workers, urging them to approve the deal.
“A strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together,” the letter said.
Ortberg and Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Stephanie Pope hit the floor at the company’s jet assembly plants in Everett and Renton this week to talk with workers about the proposed deal, a source said. Boeing said the average worker pay of $75,608 would grow to $106,350 by the end of the contract, excluding overtime.
Boeing machine repair mechanic Harold Wilson said he had mixed emotions about the contract and wanted to see better pensions and higher wages for younger workers.
Boeing workers describe pressure to work too fast,
NTSB hears in testimony
By David Koenig and Wyatte Grantham-Philips The Associated Press
Posted August 6, 2024 5:54 am
Updated August 6, 2024 3:03 pm
5 min read
Boeing factory workers say they were pressured to work too fast and asked to perform jobs that they weren’t qualified for, including opening and closing the door plug that later blew off an Alaska Airlines jet.
Those accounts from inside the company were disclosed Tuesday, as federal investigators opened a two-day hearing into the blowout, which further tarnished Boeing’s safety reputation and left it facing new legal jeopardy.
A Boeing door installer said he was never told to take any shortcuts but everyone faced pressure to keep the assembly line moving.
“That’s how mistakes are made. People try to work too fast,” he told investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board. The installer, along with other workers, was not named in probe documents.
The panel that blew off the Boeing 737 Max in January was made and installed by a supplier, Spirit AeroSystems. It was removed at a Boeing factory so that workers could repair damaged rivets, but bolts that help secure the door plug weren’t replaced. It’s not clear who removed the panel.
Another member of the Boeing door crew said workers got no special training for door plugs and should not have been asked to open or close the panels.
1:44
Door which flew off Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight found in Oregon backyard
Boeing workers at the factory in Renton, Washington, have “been put in uncharted waters to do everybody’s dirty work because no one wants to touch it,” the second worker told investigators. He said Boeing’s safety culture is “garbage. Nobody’s accountable.”
The workers’ accounts were among more than 3,000 pages of documents released by the NTSB as it began a two-day hearing into the Jan. 5 accident, which left a gaping hole in the plane and created decompression so violent that it blew open the cockpit door and tore off the co-pilot’s headset.
“It was chaos,” the Alaska Airlines co-pilot told investigators.
The captain said it was so loud that he couldn’t communicate with flight attendants. On an intercom, he heard them talking about a hole in the plane. He decided to land the plane as quickly as possible.
The accident on flight 1282 occurred minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, as the plane flew at 16,000 feet (4,800 meters). Oxygen masks dropped during the rapid decompression, a few cell phones and other objects were swept through the hole in the plane, passengers were terrified by wind and roaring noise, but miraculously there were no major injuries.
“This was quite traumatic to the crew and passengers,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said as the hearing began. “We are so sorry for all that you experienced during this very traumatic event.”
The NTSB said in a preliminary report that four bolts that help secure the panel, which is call a door plug, were not replaced after a repair job in a Boeing factory, but the company has said the work was not documented. During the hearing, safety board members are expected to question Boeing officials about the lack of paperwork that might have explained how such a potentially tragic mistake occurred.
1:54
BIV: Boeing appoints new CEO
The safety board will not determine a probable cause after the hearing. That could take another year or longer. It is calling the unusually long hearing a “fact-finding” step.
Boeing and Spirit executives said turnover since the coronavirus pandemic has left the companies with less-experienced workforces.
Elizabeth Lund, who has served as Boeing’s senior vice president of quality — a new position — since February, said before the pandemic most new hires at Boeing factories had aerospace experience, often in the military. Now, she said, “considerably more of our employees did not have that aerospace experience.”
Spirit Senior Vice President Terry George said that five years ago, 95% of the company’s factory employees had worked with sheet metal, but now it is 5%. They company has increased training for tasks such as drilling holes and installing fasteners in aircraft bodies, he said.
A representative of the machinists’ union said Boeing cut back on inspections and training over the last several years. Lund said the company has significantly increased training since the Alaska Airlines blowout, and that the company is trying to improve quality as it focuses on “lean manufacturing.”
“Can I make one suggestion?” safety board member Todd Inman interjected.
“Sure, please,” Lund replied.
“Stop talking about leaner and quality and start talking about safer manufacturing,” Inman said.
0:34
Boeing accepts plea deal stemming from 737 MAX crashes
Lund also said Boeing is working on ways to prevent door plugs from being closed if they are not firmly secured, but she could not say when that redesign might be completed.
Boeing production of Max jets dropped below 10 per month after the blowout and remains under 30 per month, Lund said. The Federal Aviation Administration has set a limit of 38 per month until it is satisfied that Boeing’s manufacturing process is producing safe planes.
Later Tuesday, witnesses were expected to testify about the FAA’s oversight of Boeing. FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker has conceded that his agency’s oversight of the company “was too hands-off — too focused on paperwork audits and not focused enough on inspections.” He has said that is changing.
The accident led to several investigations of Boeing, most of which are still underway.
The FBI has told passengers on the Alaska Airlines flight that they might be victims of a crime. The Justice Department pushed Boeing to plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud after finding that it failed to live up to a previous settlement related to regulatory approval of the Max.
Boeing, which has yet to recover financially from two deadly crashes of Max jets in 2018 and 2019, has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019. Later this week, the company will get its third chief executive in 4 1/2 years.
