Boeing layoffs: 2,200 workers to lose jobs in WA

Boeing laying off over 2k workers in WA

Boeing notified the state of Washington that it is laying off just below 2,200 people starting December 20.

SEATTLE - Boeing notified the state of Washington that it is laying off 2,199 people on Dec. 20, part of thousands of cuts planned as the company struggles to recover from financial and regulatory trouble as well as an eight-week strike by its machinists' union.

The news came in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining (WARN) announcement filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department.

Last week, Boeing delivered layoff notices to more than 400 members of its professional aerospace labor union. The pink slips went out last week to members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA. The workers will remain on the payroll through mid-January.

Boeing announced in October that it planned to cut 10% of its workforce, about 17,000 jobs, in the coming months. CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees the company must "reset its workforce levels to align with our financial reality."

The planned cuts include workers at Boeing facilities across the country, from Washington to Missouri to Arizona to South Carolina, The Seattle Times reported. They also appeared to impact workers in all three of Boeing’s divisions: commercial airplanes, defense and global services.

Before the layoff notices delivered last week, Boeing had 66,000 workers in Washington.

Among the layoffs so far are notices that went out last week to more than 400 members of Boeing's professional aerospace labor union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA. The workers will remain on the payroll through mid-January.

A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is assembled at the Boeing Renton Factory in Renton, Wash., on June 25, 2024. (Jennifer Buchanan / POOL / AFP / Getty Images)

Boeing’s unionized Machinists began returning to work earlier this month following the strike.

The strike strained Boeing’s finances. But Ortberg said on an October call with analysts that it did not cause the layoffs, which he described as a result of overstaffing.

Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, has been in financial and regulatory trouble since a panel blew off the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines plane in January. Production rates slowed to a crawl, and the Federal Aviation Administration capped production of the 737 MAX at 38 planes per month, a threshold Boeing has yet to reach.

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