Boeing to slash 17,000 jobs - 10% of its workforce

 Boeing to slash 17,000 jobs - 10% of its workforce - as factory strike enters its fifth week following safety controversies

By James Gordon For Dailymail.com  and Associated Press

Published: 05:08, 12 October 2024 | Updated: 05:15, 12 October 2024

Boeing plans to lay off about 10% of its workers in the coming months, about 17,000 people, as it continues to lose money and tries to deal with a strike that is crippling production of the company's best-selling airline planes.

New CEO Kelly Ortberg told staff in a memo Friday that the job cuts will include executives, managers and employees.

The company has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in the states of Washington and South Carolina.

The nearly month-long strike of 33,000 workers has only added to the company's litany of problems meaning it will now have to undergo another round of belt-tightening. 

Boeing factory workers and supporters gather on a picket line during the strike
near the entrance to a Boeing production facility in Renton, Washington

Among the recent issues facing the company, the Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of the company after a panel blew out of a Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. 

Boeing has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $243.6 million fine to avoid a criminal trial for conspiracy to commit fraud tied to the Max, but relatives of the 346 people who died in two Max crashes want tougher punishments.

And Boeing got attention for all the wrong reasons when NASA decided that a Boeing spacecraft wasn't safe enough to carry two astronauts home from the International Space Station.

Boeing staff with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers walked off the job on September 13 after overwhelmingly rejecting a contract offer. 

Boeing had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but Ortberg said those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.

The Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of the company after a
panel blew out of a Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024

The company will further delay the rollout of a new plane, the 777X, to 2026 instead of 2025. 

It will also stop building the cargo version of its 767 jet in 2027 after finishing current orders.

Boeing has lost more than $25 billion since the start of 2019.

About 33,000 union machinists have been on strike since September 14.

Two days of talks this week failed to produce a deal, and Boeing filed an unfair-labor-practices charge against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

As it announced layoffs, Boeing also gave a preliminary report on its third-quarter financial results - and the news is not good for the company.

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Boeing said it burned through $1.3 billion in cash during the quarter and lost $9.97 per share. 

Industry analysts had been expecting the company to lose $1.61 per share in the quarter, according to a FactSet survey.

Boeing announced some large write-downs on Friday - a $2.6 billion charge related to delays of the 777X, $400 million for the 767, and $2 billion for defense and space programs including new Air Force One jets, a space capsule for NASA and a military refueling tanker.

The company based in Arlington, Virginia, said it had $10.5 billion in cash and marketable securities on September 30. Boeing is scheduled to release full third-quarter numbers on October 23.

The strike has a direct bearing on cash burn because Boeing gets half or more of the price of planes when it delivers them to airline customers. 

The strike has shut down production of the 737 Max, Boeing's best-selling plane, and 777s and 767s. 

The company is still making 787s at a nonunion plant in South Carolina.

The new CEO faces many challenges to turn the company around.

'Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,' Ortberg told staff. 

He said the situation 'requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.' 

'While our business is facing near-term challenges, we are making important strategic decisions for our future and have a clear view on the work we must do to restore our company,' Ortberg said.

Ortberg also vowed to take 'additional oversight' of Boeing's troubled defense and space businesses, which will experience 'substantial new losses' in the third quarter, he said in the message to employes. 

Ortberg took over at Boeing in August, becoming the troubled company's third CEO in less than five years. He is a longtime aerospace-industry executive but an outsiders to Boeing.

U.S. officials believe Israel will target military and energy sites in Iran, NBC reports

 🔶U.S. officials believe Israel will target military and energy sites in Iran, NBC reports

By Amina Ismail and Ahmed Tolba October 13, 202

BEIRUT/CAIRO, Oct 13 (Reuters) - U.S. officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets in its potential response to Iran's attack this month to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reported on Saturday.

The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in a year of war as Israel battles Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has repeatedly said it will respond to Iran's missile barrage on Oct. 1, which was launched in retaliation for Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the killings of a string of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, the NBC report said, citing unnamed U.S. officials and adding that Israel has not made final decisions about how and when to act.

Thick smoke rises over Beirut's southern suburbs from a generator that caught fire, according to residents,
as seen from Baabda, Beirut, Lebanon, October 12, 2024. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki

U.S. and Israeli officials said a response could come during the current Yom Kippur holiday, according to the report.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants erupted a year ago when Hezbollah began launching rockets at northern Israel at the start of the Gaza war, and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.

Hezbollah said on Sunday it was fighting Israeli forces trying to infiltrate Ramya village in southern Lebanon.

Israel's military said it continues to operate in southern Lebanon to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure".

"Over the past day, the IAF (air force) has struck approximately 200 Hezbollah targets deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon, including terrorist cells, launchers, anti-tank missile posts, and terrorist infrastructure sites," it said.

Israel also said five launches that crossed from Lebanon were intercepted by the air force.

UN PEACEKEEPERS

Israel has intensified its military operations in recent weeks, bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hezbollah's top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border.

Hezbollah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel.

Israel's expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to Lebanon's government, which says more than 2,100 people have been killed and 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but includes scores of women and children.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday, expressed "deep concern" about reports that Israeli forces had fired on U.N. peacekeeping positions in Lebanon in recent days and urged Israel to ensure safety for them and the Lebanese military, the Pentagon said.

Five peacekeepers have been injured in three separate incidents since Thursday, the peacekeeping mission UNIFIL has said.

The fighting in the region which includes all of Tehran's allied militant groups -- Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and armed groups in Iraq -- has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be sucked into a full-scale conflict in the oil-producing Middle East.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement on Sunday it had targeted a military site in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with drones as part of its support of the Palestinian people and Lebanon. It said it would continue escalating attacks against Israeli strongholds.

The war in Gaza began after a Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, on southern Israeli communities in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the militant group Hamas, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and has laid waste to the enclave.⍐