SEATTLE (AP) -- Boeing Co. said it will need to cut another 5,000 jobs next year in its commercial airplane division as the global aviation slump continues to exact a harsh financial toll on the world's airlines.þþThe job reductions would bring to nearly 35,000 the company has eliminated since last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.þþAlan Mulally, chief executive of Boeing's commercial airplanes told workers the company expects half the cuts to come through attrition and the rest through layoffs. He spoke Wednesday at Boeing's widebody jetliner assembly plant in Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle.þþSince the attacks, Boeing has deferred deliveries of more than 500 jets as struggling airlines pared back -- dropping routes, parking planes and rescheduling new orders.þþBy the end of 2003, Boeing's commercial division based in south suburban Renton expects to have a work force of 60,000, down from the current 65,000, spokesman Bill Cogswell said. The first in this round of layoff notices will go out on Friday and take effect Jan. 24, he said.þþFor the Machinists union, whose workers have been hard hit by this year's cuts, the prospect of additional losses comes hard.þþ``We've been cut pretty bare bones,'' said Mark Blondin, president of the union's Puget Sound-area District 751, which lost its contract fight for increased job security. ``We kind of assumed this was leveling out right now.''þþMany Machinists are working mandatory overtime shifts, he said: ``I still feel we're understaffed out there.''þþBoeing's engineering and technical workers union, which is voting now on contract proposals from Boeing, said it also was dismayed by the news.þþ``One more layoff is one more too many,'' said Bill Dugovich, a spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. ``We had certainly hoped we were done laying off people and had shifted the focus to start preparing for recovering in the future.''þþThe job reductions are in addition to the 1,200 to 1,500 announced last month by Boeing's Bellevue-based Shared Services division, which handles computing, telecommunications, building maintenance and other in-house work.þþChicago-based Boeing has spent several weeks trying to determine how many people it will need in the coming year to match employment with production levels, Cogswell said.þþThe company expects to deliver between 275 and 285 jets in 2003, down from the 380 expected for this year.þþMost of the new reductions will come in the Puget Sound area, Cogswell said, where Boeing builds jetliners in Everett and Renton factories.þþThe number of layoffs will depend on whether the company maintains its typical 4 percent to 5 percent attrition rate.þþ``We believe the employment reductions will impact all of our areas, all of our employees, nonsalaried members and executives across the board,'' Cogswell said.þþ
Source: NY Times
