Boeing’s Brutal Year Ending With Mass Layoffs

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It’s hard to imagine 2024 going any worse for crony capitalist aerospace engineering firm Boeing. In addition to ongoing fallout from its passenger jet failures, the suicide of a high-profile whistleblower, a space capsule debacle and a potentially disastrous satellite breakup, the company has been dealing with a crippling strike and a cratering bottom line.

“Everybody is tired of the drumbeat of what’s wrong with Boeing,” the company’s new chief executive office Kelly Ortberg told employees last week, per recordings obtained by The Wall Street Journal. “I’m tired of it and I haven’t been here that long.”

Ortberg should probably get used to that feeling…

Boeing’s stock has shed 43.04% of its value since the beginning of the year – and the company announced earlier this year its intention to axe a tenth of its workforce (or 17,000 jobs) in a desperate bid to shore up available cash. Those layoffs began in earnest this week as pink slips landed for 3,500 employees in seven states. The purge included several hundred positions here in job-starved South Carolina, where taxpayers shelled out $1 billion (and counting) in 2009 for the company to locate a much-maligned 787 Dreamliner manufacturing facility in North Charleston.

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RELATED | THE CASE AGAINST BOEING

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According to The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier – a legacy media crony capitalist cheerleader – 220 jobs will be cut from Boeing’s Palmetto State operations.

More job losses are coming, however. Several economic development officials familiar with the situation indicated Boeing could eventually cut as many as 1,500 Palmetto State jobs as part of its ongoing reduction in force. Spillover impacts will be felt among Boeing’s network of South Carolina suppliers.

Obviously, this isn’t the first time Boeing jobs have been slashed in South Carolina… nor is it likely to be the last.

As FITSNews has previously reported, Boeing’s problems began with the company’s 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas. This merger – cheered on by the administration of former president Bill Clinton – brought with it a number of cultural changes. Whereas Boeing had always prided itself on the quality of its products, the McDonnell Douglas culture focused on the bottom line – on quickly producing returns for investors.

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While Boeing was focused on pleasing stockholders and subordinating its engineers to the new “culture of speed,” its rival Airbus was unveiling more fuel-efficient passenger jet designs that would revolutionize the global air travel industry.  As Boeing rushed to bridge the innovation gap, its quality control suffered – especially at its Charleston facility.

“I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I would consider safe and airworthy,” the late whistleblower John Barnett told reporter Nadia Daly of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in January of 2020.

Obviously, far worse issues befell Boeing’s 737 Max program… issues the company covered up.

FITSNews has been one of Boeing’s most consistent critics since the company was paid so handsomely by taxpayers to build its planes in the Palmetto State fifteen years ago. Count on us to continue holding them accountable for the money they received… and the product they are putting out.

Also, count on us to continue to warn political leaders against making similarly unwise investments…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.

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