On Wednesday, Boeing announced it would begin issuing layoff notices to its employees as part of its plan to trim 17,000 jobs or 10 percent of its global workforce.
This story was first reported in the magazine named “Duh”.
Hmm, it’s ironic that Boeing’s machinists, who just finished striking for better pay and security, now face potential layoffs.
I believe this is what you call Karma
Complete mismanagement by management for decades. Yes, this is Karma and as others would like you to believe, it’s not transitory.
If layoffs lead to labor unrest or another strike, the financial damage—like the $1 billion-per-month loss during the last strike—could far outweigh the savings. In other words, this would prove Tommy’s point about poor management decisions causing long-term harm.
Businesses cannot just print money.
Putting a business several billion dollars in the hole and then not expecting cost cutting afterwards is not ironic, it’s economics 101. I am really sorry layoffs will happen but everyone should have seen that one coming.
Boeing’s problems go much deeper than employee and union issues, and they share these problems with many other companies and business sectors.
Businesses were built by entrepreneurs and run by businessmen (and women) who’s purpose in life was to make their mark in the world and their money by building a better product or delivering a better service to a customer base they knew and understood. We have long ago shifted the global economy to one who’s religion is greed not some mutual respect between producer and customers. I suggest looking at how GE led the way in Jack’s day. When you see a company scooping up other companies using capital to play M&A games instead of product and production, you know the boardroom is being run by financiers, not business people.
Boeing is just a very large and extremely visible version of the rot that has set into corporate America…and the world. What their unions are doing to it is something we will see more of - while the employees actually doing productive work look at a boardroom full who cash in on golden parachutes by the tens of millions EACH with every acquisition or sale. If you want to get employees to be loyal, faithful, productive, conscientious and produce consistently high quality work, you need to set that example.
Boeing has a huge back order of aircraft, especially the 737. Trimming production jobs right now is going to affect their ability to build and deliver airplanes which is going to affect their balance sheet which is having the knock-on effect of keeping airlines from hiring more flight crew. This is just a shit sammich no matter how you look at it.
I own a metal lathe, a milling machine, grinders, bandsaws, precision measuring tools, micron surface plates, collet indexers, gage pins, precision reamers, full axis DRO’s, TIG and MIG welders, etc etc. I make parts from raw stock like a machinist would. I always wondered why rivet poppers and assemblers get to be called machinists, and make more money than them.
So, I researched the situation, and here’s a breakdown of the factors contributing to Boeing’s current struggles:
Boeing’s challenges are systemic and require leadership to address mismanagement, rebuild trust, and improve operations across the board.
Boeing losses over the years:
2020: - $11.9B
2021: - $4.3B
2022: - $5.1B
2023: - $2.2B
2024: - $6.0B (before the strike)
Yeah, the strike is why Boeing is doing so poorly… /s
KirkW, Correct!
Boeing was probably laying off in Q4/Q1 anyway and this just expanded the cuts. But hey, Boeing loses, more employees lose, and only the Union keeps it’s money stream going at current or better levels. Union bosses are not stupid.
Arthur J Foyt: Organizational dysfunction did it! The strike didn’t help, it’s just one chapter in a much larger story of systemic mismanagement and missed opportunities. To recover, Boeing must tackle the root causes of its struggles, rather than relying on workforce cuts as a band-aid solution.
RAF, Absolutely.
My point was that the union bosses knew that as well.
Every action the union took was was not to correct problems but to maximize their money income on the way down. Same and the management at Boeing.
So goes Detroit, So goes Seattle…
I doubt there will be many machinists that get the chop. That’s where the shortage s are within the company right now. I look to see more cuts in admin and other more white collar areas. If Boeing wants to ramp up production they need bodies to put the parts together… I agree that it’s greed and classic mismanagement that got them where they are.
Gee, cant imagine why this happened. Boeing hires all the MacD managers that drove the MD11 into financial ruin. These “managers” design and build the 787 using the MD11 business model. They start loosing money, so use the same management technique to redesign the 737. And decide they need to update the management of the 737 production to their new “method” .
They say stupidity is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results.
Boeing needs to return to the engineering company who occasionally happens to make money. Engineering and quality first. And the world will pay for a quality product. Ask Toyota.
Care to post your sources? Who assigns the percentages, and how?