=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/07/18/s= tate0712EDT0047.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, July 18, 2003 (AP) Boeing to cut as many as 5,000 more jobs amid long aviation slump HELEN JUNG, AP Business Writer (07-18) 04:12 PDT (AP) -- seasetfffhjkmtk2-oa SEATTLE (AP) -- Despite some big orders from airlines and an expected $16 billion deal with the Air Force, The Boeing Co. is slashing its work force even further as it tries to weather the worst downturn in commercial aviation history. The Chicago-based aerospace manufacturer said it plans to cut 4,000 to 5,000 more jobs than it previously planned from its Commercial Airplanes division, headquartered in suburban Renton, by the end of the year. The cuts, which will come through attrition and layoffs, mean that by the end of 2003, Boeing will have slashed 40,000 positions in just over two years. Union leaders told The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer they were advised by company representatives that salaried personnel will bear the brunt of the next round of layoffs. In the next round of cuts, 10 percent to 11 percent will affect hourly production workers in the International Association of Machinists, Boeing's largest union, District Lodge 751 president Mark Blondin said. "They thought they were down about as far as they could go," Blondin sai= d. "We have gotten hammered in the past." Out of 660 workers being given 60-day layoff warning notices Friday, 600 are in the Seattle-area and of those 430 are salaried and 170 are hourly, Boeing spokesman Peter B. Conte told the Post-Intelligencer. The reductions continue the deepest two-year cut in employment for the aerospace manufacturer since the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a billboard in Seattle famously asked, "Will the last person leaving Seattle -- turn out the lights." Most of the jobs now being eliminated are in the Puget Sound region, where Boeing builds all but one of its commercial jets. "This is an unprecedented and very difficult time for all of us in the commercial aviation business," Alan R. Mulally, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, wrote in an e-mail to employees. Boeing's labor reductions first stemmed from the 2001 terrorist attacks, but have continued as airlines around the world have been struggling to stay afloat amid shaky economies, war and disease. Airlines have parked hundreds of jets, laid off thousands of workers, postponed deliveries of new planes and revamped their companies in a desperate quest to stay in business. Boeing has long said it would tie employment to its forecast production levels. But the company is not changing its forecast of delivering 280 airplanes in 2003, and 275-300 in 2004, Conte said. He said the airline slump, worsened by the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak this year and the Iraq war, has cut into airlines' demand for new jets and for maintenance services from Boeing. Boeing has won some big orders this year, including one from AirTran Airways for 50 737s and another from Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways for 45 737s. It also is working for congressional approval of a $16 billion deal with the U.S. Air Force to supply 100 converted 767 jets as refueling tankers. But the company has also been dealt setbacks, including Continental Airlines' decision this week to defer deliveries of 36 737s. The announcement was a blow to the unions that have already seen massive layoffs in the past few years and are frustrated that there's little hope for a quick recovery. "The economy is lagging, people aren't flying, carriers aren't buying, so we're losing jobs," Blondin said. "There's a leader in the White House who's done nothing on the economy." Bill Dugovich, spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, said Boeing is reducing its staff so much, it's jeopardizing the company's ability to develop its proposed new jet, the 7E7. "We don't think they know what they're doing," Dugovich said. Separately Thursday, Boeing said former Sen. Warren B. Rudman, R-N.H., will lead an independent review of the company's policies and procedures regarding ethics and the handling of competitive information. The Air Force and the Justice Department are reviewing whether Boeing employees misused information from Lockheed Martin in 1997 and 1998 during the competition for development of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. Two former Boeing employees have been charged in federal court with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and violating federal procurement integrity laws. In a statement, Boeing chairman and CEO Philip M. Condit said he hopes Rudman will be able to verify the incident "was an exceptional violation of company policy." On the Net: www.boeing.com =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP