Boeing to lay off 700 engineers in 2013

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Gail Hanusa

Boeing will need up to 1,700 fewer engineers this year, partly because design work on the 787-9 is winding down.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes plans to layoff up to 700 engineers this year, as part of an overall engineering reduction of up to 1,700 people.
The news was broken Thursday in a message sent to managers by Mike Delaney, vice president of engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
It follows the announcement, in late March, that Boeing is laying off up to 800 workers on the assembly lines, because efficiency gains mean those workers are no longer needed.
In his message Thursday, Delaney said the engineering layoffs are necessary because design work is diminishing for its 747-8, 787-9 and the KC-46 Tanker programs, and the company has not yet launched the 787-10 nor the 777X.
He said Boeing has been trying to cut workforce by attrition and by cutting 700 contract employees, but that hasn’t been enough.
“Unfortunately and unavoidably we must take additional actions that will impact some direct employees,” he said. “This has been a difficult decision. We know layoffs impact individuals and families.”
The letter said that 100 employees in manufacturing engineering will receive 60-day layoff notices on Friday, followed by 600 more over the course of the year.
The two series of layoffs, and the attrition, raise questions about the aerospace training programs the state has been vigorously pursuing as its key strategy for retaining Boeing in Washington. If Boeing is laying off workers, why train more?
Delaney addressed an aspect of this issue in Thursday’s message about the layoffs.
“I realize this news may be surprising. Commercial Airplanes has been on an upswing for several years. We continue to ramp up production on our major programs, and the prospect for future development work is very positive,” he wrote. “The challenge we are facing is that those yet-to-be-launched programs are too far out for us to maintain present levels of employment.”
A related issue for engineers is that Boeing is cutting engineering jobs in the Puget Sound region while increasing its use of engineers in Moscow, said Ray Goforth, executive director of Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA).
“Something new is happening, where the company is accelerating work to the Moscow Design Center, and handing layoff notices to people who would otherwise be doing that work. This is a fundamental change,” Goforth said. “You’re supposed to be pulling work from the Moscow Design Center, not accelerating it.”
Goforth was unable to cite any specific packages of work being moved to Moscow, but said it’s widely known within the union that this is happening. He contended this trend is exacerbating the problem of job cuts here.
Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said employees at the Moscow Design Center are a mix of full-time employees and contractors. He declined to respond to the questions about work being moved to Russia, or whether those transfers are increasing the reduction here.
He said on a “company-wide” basis, the goal is for the head count to be “flat or slightly down,” by the end of 2013.
“We’re doing everything we can as far as redeployment to other parts of the company,” he said. “These development programs are stabilizing, we always knew employment would have to come down, because of that.”

Steve Wilhelm covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal.