Boeing employees gather on a picket line near the entrance to a Boeing facility during an ongoing strike on October 24, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
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boeingThe machinists’ strike, which has lasted more than seven weeks, is set to impact Friday’s U.S. jobs report. The statistics are expected to be released before the Nov. 5 presidential election and next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. However, the company’s impending job cuts are expected to take several more months to take effect.
Approximately 44,000 U.S. workers were on strike when the Labor Department conducted its survey in mid-October. About 33,000 of them were Boeing machinists, who on Sept. 13 voted overwhelmingly against a union-approved labor contract and in favor of the first strike since 2008. I retired in .
Economists expect the U.S. to add 100,000 jobs in October. Bank of America this week predicted that payrolls would be at least 50,000 fewer than usual due to the impact and impacts of Hurricane Helen and Hurricane Milton.
Federal Reserve President Christopher Waller said in an Oct. 14 speech that these factors could affect 100,000 jobs in the October report, calling the cuts “significant but temporary job losses.” “It’s a loss,” he said. He said they “may have a small impact on the unemployment rate, but I don’t know if it will be that noticeable.”
Boeing’s machinists’ strike adds to already difficult times for the aircraft maker as new CEO Kelly Ortberg tries to guide the U.S. manufacturing and export giant out of safety, quality and financial crises. This complicates the situation. The Seattle-area machine workers union last week voted 64% against the new proposal, which includes a 35% wage increase, compared to a previous tentative agreement that called for a 25% wage increase. Ta.
An aerial photograph of a Boeing 737 Max on a rail car during the ongoing strike by Boeing factory workers in Seattle on October 24, 2024.
David Rider Getty Images
The Biden administration also got involved and urged both sides to reach an agreement.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 issued a statement late Tuesday saying, “With the continued support of Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, your union bargaining committee is working productively with the company to address key bargaining issues.” We had a face-to-face meeting.”
Suh met with both sides before the final proposal was voted on on October 23rd.
Boeing’s impact on U.S. employment will continue. Chief Executive Officer Ortberg announced earlier this month that the company would cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global workforce, but unemployment letters are not expected to be issued until mid-November. There is.
Ortberg, who took over as CEO in early August, said Boeing needs to slim down and focus on its core business.
“One of the things we hear from a lot of our employees is that they have too many overhead costs, and it slows them down,” he said on the Oct. 23 quarterly conference call. he said. “So we’re going to focus this reduction in headcount on streamlining these overhead costs and consolidating those that can be consolidated.”
Bank of America economist Stephen Juneau noted that layoffs and their announcements are more complicated to factor into federal employment surveys than strikes.
The impact of the Boeing strike could lead to further cuts to the fragile aerospace industry’s supply chain.
boeing aircraft manufacturer Spirit Aero Systems Earlier this week, the company furloughed about 700 workers in Wichita, Kansas, for 21 days. A spokesperson for the company Boeing is in the process of acquiring told CNBC last week that Spirit is considering furloughing or laying off hundreds of additional workers if the Boeing strike continues beyond Nov. 25. spoke.
