Boeing to Accelerate Division’s Job Cuts

Boeing Co. said it will accelerate job cuts in its commercial-airplane division this year because it is making more progress in cutting factory costs.

The 111,400-worker division expects to have 93,700 employees by year’s end, fewer than an earlier target of 96,500, said Boeing spokesman Larry McCracken. He said the cuts, to be achieved through layoffs and attrition, will not lead to any change in the Seattle-based aircraft maker’s plan to cut 48,000 jobs, or 20% of its work force, by the end of 2000.

Susan Bradley, another Boeing spokesperson, declined to specify how many of the accelerated cuts would affect Boeing’s operations in Long Beach or whether Southern California would bear a disproportionate share of the cuts. Bradley added, however, that “three of the four programs we are phasing out are in Long Beach, so you have to factor that in.”

Alan Mulally, a Boeing senior vice president in charge of the commercial airline group, reiterated last week that the MD-80 and MD-90 will be taken out of production next year and that the MD-11 is scheduled to stop production in 2001.

Bradley pointed out that production plans call for 620 airplanes to be produced this year and only 490 next year. “The more you do now the better off you are, instead of waiting to the year 2000 for even bigger cuts.”

Boeing has made steady progress in cutting overtime pay and reducing assembly-line snarls that hurt its jetliner factories in late 1997 and early ’98. The plans also reflect declining business: Boeing expects to deliver about 480 commercial jets next year after a record 620 in 1999, reducing the need to make some parts.

“It’s a combination of better efficiency in the factory and fewer deliveries in 2000,” said CS First Boston aerospace analyst Peter Aseritis, who has a “hold” rating on Boeing stock. “It’s clearly not a big difference when you’re going to lay off 48,000 people.”

Boeing stock closed at $34.69 in New York Stock Exchange trading on Monday, off 44 cents.

Many investors and analysts are waiting until talks with Boeing’s largest union end. The four-year contract reached with the International Assn. of Machinists expires in September.