Boeing Laying Off 600 Long Beach Workers

Reuters

SEATTLE--Boeing Corp. (BA.N) said on Friday it will lay off 600 workers at its commercial airplane operation in Long Beach, California as part of the aerospace giant's ongoing drive to trim costs. The cuts make up about 12 percent of the 5,000 people employed at the Long Beach commercial operation, which makes the 717, the smallest jet in Boeing's lineup, which has seen lackluster sales in recent years. Boeing had said in March it planned to scale back those operations, but had not revealed a specific number of layoffs, spokesman Warren Lamb said. "We informed our managers at the end of April that the expected downsizing that we announced will be about 600 jobs by the end of this year," Lamb said. The cuts would affect all job categories, Lamb said. Boeing inherited the 717 in 1997 when it bought rival McDonnell Douglas, which originally launched it as the MD-95, successor to the DC-9. It is the only commercial jet still built at the old McDonnell Douglas facility in Long Beach. Long Beach is also home to Boeing's C-17 heavy-duty military transport factory, which is unaffected by this round of layoffs, Lamb said. The Seattle-based company, which is moving its headquarters to Chicago this year, employs a total of 14,000 people in Long Beach. Boeing has pared its company-wide payroll to 198,100 as of May 1, down from a peak of 238,600 in 1998.

-- pho (owennos@bigfoot.com), May 26, 2001