Boeing Suspends Jobs Of Thousands Of Workers And Executives Over Strike

Boeing is temporarily furloughing executives and other nonunion workers to save cash during the strike by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists, CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees in an email on Wednesday, 18th of September, 2024.

The furloughed employees will keep their benefits and they will be off work for one week out of every four on a rolling basis for the duration of the strike in order to limit the impact on each individual, according to the note. But the furloughs “will impact a large number of US-based executives, managers and employees,” the memo said.

But the furloughs, which will start “over the coming days,” will not interrupt production of 787 Dreamliner jets at the company’s nonunion factory in South Carolina, which continues to operate. “All activities critical to our safety, quality, customer support and key certification programs will be prioritized and continue,” said Ortberg.

Ortberg, who started the CEO job on August 8, said he and the company’s leadership team will also take a “commensurate pay reduction for the duration of the strike.”

“We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our represented employees and continuing discussions with the union to reach a new agreement that is good for all of our teammates and our company as soon as possible,” he wrote.

The strike started early on Friday morning. Most commercial plane production at the company has been halted. It is the first strike at Boeing in 16 years. The union agreed to concessions in two rounds of bargaining since then, including the loss of traditional pension plans, which an evenly-split membership eventually agreed to for fear that the work on Boeing’s next plane would be shifted to a nonunion factory in another state, CNN reports.