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Boeing plans to lay off 800 machinists
Boeing said Friday it will lay off some 800 machinists by the end of this year as workforce needs on its newest jet programs, the 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 jumbo jet, are reduced. The layoffs will affect chiefly employees who refurbish and do modifications on jets that have rolled off the assembly line in need of rework...Company spokesman Doug Alder said other reductions will be made through attrition so that the total number of positions cut this year will be between 2,000 and 2,300. Another… (seattletimes.com) More...
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What caught my eye was the jobs are fixing the problems that zero-defect missed and that the older workers aren't shuffling off to that (somewhat tarnished) golden years sunset as expected.
Not so much at what Zero defects missed, but there are always little additions and changes that come up between production and delivery. These are done there until they re-engineer the assembly line to incorporate it, BUT, you are entirely correct about older workers not riding off into the sunset. These young folks must endure the strikes and layoffs over the years as the rest of them have. I'm not a union guy, but in that respect, the older folks have paid their dues.
The 787 wing attachment redesign/mod was/is the biggest chunk of it, the planes rolling out now have it done already and the battery issue probably wont take very long to complete once all the approvals and such are done. Boeing has been on a huge hiring frenzy the past 5-6 years because they are fixing to have a lot of people retiring soon, hence the rest of the cuts will be made through attrition.
(Disclaimer: I am safely retired.) I fear the economic model has changed. That lot of 'retiring soon' people may not retire on schedule after all. The etymology of attrition is an abrading away. People who might have considered retiring at an earlier time, may become resistant to the rather intransitive 'abrasion'. At that point, attrition may become more transitive, sort of like 'chainsaw cutting'. At least Boeing has not been a target of a leveraged buy-out... so far.
What is being missed here is the dismal performance of the D-Liner. That is the real reason for the lay offs. Had conception, design and production of the D-Liner not be based on a frantic need to "better" the Airbus, then Boeing may not have made such a horse's ass of itself. All the US carriers that refused to buy Airbus are sitting there with egg on their faces right now hoping that Boeing will pull themselves together. It is embarrassing for us to know the Europeans have done it across us again.
