Boeing to cut 17,000 jobs as losses deepen during factory strike

Boeing will cut 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 people, as the company’s losses mount and a machinist strike that has idled its aircraft factories enters its fifth week. It will also delay the launch of its new wide-body airplane.

The manufacturer will not deliver its still-uncertified 777X wide-body plane until 2026, putting it some six years behind schedule, and will stop making commercial 767 freighters in 2027 after it fulfills remaining orders, CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a staff memo Friday afternoon.

Boeing expects to report a loss of $9.97 a share in the third quarter, the company said in a surprise release Friday. It expects to report a pretax charge of $3 billion in the commercial airplane unit and $2 billion for its defense business.

In preliminary financial results, Boeing said it expects to have an operating cash outflow of $1.3 billion for the third quarter.

“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” Ortberg said. “Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company 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.”

The job and cost cuts are the most dramatic moves to date from Ortberg, who is just more than two months into his tenure in the top job.

He was tasked with restoring Boeing after safety and manufacturing crises, but the labor strike has been the biggest challenge yet for Ortberg. Credit ratings agencies have warned the company is at risk of losing its investment-grade rating, and Boeing has been burning through cash in what company leaders hoped would be a turnaround year.

S&P Global Ratings said earlier this week that Boeing is losing more than $1 billion a month from the strike, which began Sept. 13 after machinists overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement the company reached with the union. Tensions have been rising between the manufacturer and the union, and Boeing withdrew a contract offer earlier this week.

On Thursday, Boeing said it filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board that accused the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers of negotiating in bad faith and misrepresenting the plane makers’ proposals. The union had blasted Boeing for a sweetened offer that it argued was not negotiated with the union and said workers would not vote on it.

The job cuts, which Ortberg said would occur “over the coming months,” would hit just after Boeing and its hundreds of suppliers have been scrambling to staff up in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, when demand cratered.