Blitz Bureau
SEATTLE: Boeing has laid off hundreds of additional employees in Washington and California as part of planned cuts that will eventually reduce the company’s workforce by about 17,000.
Nearly 400 Boeing employees were laid off in Washington state and more than 500 in California, news outlets reported, according to Associated Press. The aerospace giant announced previously it would reduce its workforce by 10 per cent in the coming months as it tries to recover from financial and regulatory troubles and a strike by its machinists that lasted almost two months, said the AP report.
CEO Kelly Ortberg has said the strike did not cause the layoffs, which he said was the result of overstaffing. In November, the company started notifying workers who would be laid off. Notices showed the first round of cuts impacted about 3,500 people around the country, The Seattle Times reported.
Those cuts touched people in roles from engineers to recruiters to analysts and impacted Boeing’s commercial, defence and global services divisions. Boeing has said most laid-off employees remain on payroll for about two months and will receive severance pay, career transition services and subsidized health insurance benefits for up to three months.
