Tag Archives: Layoffs

Boeing and Alaska Airlines AnnounceD Layoffs

Both Boeing and Alaska Airlines announced layoffs due, in large part, to the downturn in air travel as a result of the pandemic.

Boeing Layoffs

We wrote a prior article about the initial rounds of layoffs and incentivized early retirements at Boeing. Now, a new round of layoffs has been announced.

Boeing notified Washington State through its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) system of the upcoming layoffs. Effective October 2, 2020, it is reported that another 940 employees will face permanent layoff.

These additional layoffs coincided with the news that the FAA is finalizing its plan for the return of Boeing’s 737 MAX to service.

The Aerospace Machinists union, IAM 751, states that about 1/3 of their members that received WARN letters were reWARNs, meaning the member was already holding a WARN notice, effectively extending their layoff date to October 2nd from their earlier notice.

Alaska Airlines Layoffs

The Hill reported on the recent WARN notice from Alaska Airlines, excerpted below. Read the full post, here.

Alaska Airlines warned that almost 1,600 Washington state employees could be permanently laid off in the fall. The airline plans to begin letting a portion of its employees go, starting on Oct. 1, the day after the government’s Payroll Support Program terminates.

The expected layoffs in Washington state represent 20 percent of Alaska Airlines’s workforce in the area, including customer service agents, maintenance technicians and flight attendants. 

The Seattle Times also reported on the fact that Boeing and Alaska Airlines announced layoffs. Read the full report about Alaska Airlines, excerpted below, here.

Alaska avoided layoffs among its pilots when it offered incentives including half pay to take voluntary leave. More than 1,000 of Alaska’s 3,000 pilots took the incentives. The flight attendants were offered a voluntary-leave option that included health care but was unpaid.

Prior Posts on Related Topics

Boeing Lay-Offs Hit WA State – Round One

The Boeing Company began a planned series of lay-offs last week in Washington State. The Boeing lay-offs will effect primarily engineers and machinists, eliminating many union jobs.

Engineers and technical professionals at Boeing are represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA). Machinists are represented by The International Association of Machinists (IAM).

Photo by mag3737 on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

IAM Local 751 has posted a list of 3,792 jobs included in the initial round of Boeing lay-offs. The list is broken down by job positions and includes the seniority cut-off dates, as they were known on the date of posting, in an effort to help their members anticipate the impact on their individual jobs.

SPEEA Local 2001 writes that The Boeing Company last week notified 1,239 SPEEA-represented employees that they are being laid off. The break down shows 697 employees in the Professional unit and 542 employees in the Technical unit are being released. 

Boeing lay-offs will be combined with voluntary separations, such as buy-outs or early retirements. In total, the initial round of job cuts will reduce Boeings employee roster by approximately 10,000 people.

Through the combination of buy-outs and lay-offs, SPEEA will lose about 1,500 engineers (12%) and 1,000 technical staff (21%). IAM will lose about 5,000 machinists (16%). In addition, about 2,500 nonunion employees will also lose their jobs.

The Seattle Times published an article by aerospace reporter Dominic Gates, on May 29th, which outlines the distribution of job cuts across the region, and provides a detailed analysis of the Boeing programs impacted. Mr. Gates reports that the cuts will impact the commercial airplanes division. Boeing’s defense programs continue to do well.

CNBC also published an article about the Boeing job cuts, on May 28th, by Leslie Josephs. Ms. Josephs noted that the Coronavirus has driven down demand for air travel, hurting the airline and leasing customers Boeing relies on. 

The CNBC article also notes that The Boeing Company had already been struggling with the aftermath of two crashes of its 737 Max planes, grounding the planes worldwide. Cancellations of orders are now piling up. Boeing posts updates on the 737 Max program and the latest information on Boeing’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic on it’s website.

Boeing has indicated it’s need to reduce it’s workforce, reported to be roughly 160,000 people, by about 10%. This and other steps to reduce expenditures are needed as it deals with an unprecedented downturn in business combined with it’s struggle to gain approval for flight of the 737 Max planes after repairs were made to the systems involved in the crashes.

Prior Posts on Related Topics:

Seattle Times Closing North Creek Facility

The Seattle Times,  the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, is closing its North Creek Facility in Bothell, WA. The Seattle Times closing of this facility has led to a reported layoff of 42 employees, as noted in a recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing with Washington State.

Expected beginning date of separations is March 2, 2020. Staff from the local rapid response team and WorkSource center will perform outreach to employees of the organization to ease the transition.

Production activities at the North Creek Plant in Bothell included newsprint roll storage and conveyance, printing, packaging, and truck loading. Printing operations previously performed at the site have moved to another Seattle Times-owned facility in Kent, WA.

The Seattle Times North Creek Facility property is listed for sale, with an asking price of $45,000,000. As of this writing, the property is listed as Pending on the Windermere Commercial Real Estate site. It is not yet known the amount of the actual sale.

In a detailed article from April, 2019 by Seattle Times real estate reporter Mike Rosenberg, The Seatte Times explained that proceeds from this sale would be put towards funding news operations, as well as paying down debt at the Bothell, WA facility and funding pension obligations.

Photo credit: Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times

Prior post about Snohomish County layoffs: MCKESSON CLOSING EVERETT SHOP IN JUNE