Long Beach Press Telegram

Friday, August 17, 2001 Boeing to cut 600 more jobs By Keith Higginbotham and Ian Hanigan Staff writers LONG BEACH Workers at the Boeing Co.'s Long Beach 717 jetliner plant were informed Thursday that another 600 employees would be laid off by early next year. Boeing, citing sluggish sales of its 717 aircraft, announced it was cutting another 600 Long Beach jobs. Leo Hetzel / PT The cuts bring to 1,200 the number of announced layoffs since May, when the aerospace giant said that Long Beach's commercial jet work force would be slashed by 600. The total cuts represent an almost 45 percent reduction in the 717 manufacturing work force, according to a union official. Jim Phillips, general manager of the 717 jetliner assembly plant on Lakewood Boulevard, told workers Thursday that two of the three shifts that assemble the $37 million, 100-seat planes would be eliminated.

Boeing said the layoffs were necessary because of a sluggish market for airplanes in the same class as the 717.

"If we see our business going in a certain direction, we have to orient our resources to those expected levels," Boeing spokesman John Thom said. "And we have a lot of resources, which include the workers."

But, said Richard Alonzo, vice president of UAW Local 148, the company isn't yet saying which workers will lose their jobs.

"They never tell us how it's going to be done," he said.

City Manager Henry Taboada said he was informed earlier this year that Boeing planned to cut 600 jobs in 2001 and 400 jobs next year. He said he learned Tuesday that the cuts announced Thursday had been increased to 600.

"The surprise wasn't as big of a surprise, but it wasn't great news," the city manager said. "We had been hopeful that their orders would stabilize at some point and in fact grow."

"Anytime you lose 600 workers in any year, that's significant because we work very hard to bring businesses to the city," Taboada said.

The layoffs announced Thursday will be completed within six to nine months, Thom said. The first 600 layoffs will be completed by the end of the year.

By the end of next year, Boeing expects to employ approximately 11,300 people in Long Beach.

Despite dwindling orders and multiple layoff notices, Taboada said, Boeing has maintained that it has no plans to cease production of the 717, the last commercial jetliner built in Southern California.

"They have said that they're in for the long haul," he said.

If the company keeps up its current assembly rate 32 717s were delivered to airlines in 2000, the first full year of production the local plant should be churning out planes through 2004. Boeing executives, however, are counting on additional orders and have staggered their scheduled 717 deliveries though 2006.

Designed to replace the DC-9 before Boeing acquired the McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1997, the 717 is the smallest jet in Boeing's commercial fleet and the only commercial plane built at Boeing's plant in Long Beach, where the C-17 military cargo jet is also assembled. The 717 retails for about $37 million.

Back in March, Boeing also cited a slow market for short-range jets when it told city officials it was looking at slashing its employment during the second half of the year. At the time, 717 orders had slowed to a trickle, with only 39 coming within a two-year period.

But the program has since rebounded with several well-publicized successes. In April, Midwest Express Airlines placed an order for 20 717s with options for 30 more, handing the locally built jet a big victory in its head-to-head battle with the A318, a similar-sized aircraft being developed by Boeing's European rival, Airbus Industrie.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), August 17, 2001