Southwest blames Boeing for US employee cuts
SEATTLE - Southwest Airlines is offering buyouts to ground workers at many of its airports, and it's blaming Boeing for the reductions.
Southwest said Monday that it will offer buyouts and extended leaves of absence to avoid what it calls "overstaffing in certain locations."
Southwest is getting fewer new planes than it expected from Boeing because of the manufacturer's own problems. Southwest wants to reduce the number of baggage handlers, customer-service agents and other ground-operations employees.
Southwest started the year with about 75,000 employees, and hopes to cut that by 2,000 by year end.
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