ST. LOUIS — The Boeing Co. will lay off nearly 600 additional workers across Missouri by mid-January, almost all in the St. Louis area, as the aerospace corporation suffers from deep financial troubles.
The company told Missouri’s workforce development department it would permanently lay off 692 employees by Jan. 17, according to a letter dated Friday from Boeing to the state. That includes 111 mechanics who were laid off last week, said company spokesman Kurt LaBelle.
The layoffs affect workers at the following locations:
* Berkeley: 363
* Hazelwood: 239
* St. Charles: 68
* St. Louis: 14
A handful of workers will also be laid off at locations in St. Ann, O’Fallon, Maryland Heights, Kansas City and Kingsville.
The workers perform a range of duties, according to the notice. In Berkeley, 100 assembly mechanics are on the layoff list.
Statewide, layoffs will affect engineers who specialize in design, software, electrophysics and product review. The layoffs also affect quality engineers, mechanics, human resource staffers and supply chain analysts, among other workers.
Boeing might not be finished laying off workers in the St. Louis region, said Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant for the Lexington Institute. In October, new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Boeing would cut 17,000 people from its total workforce, or about 10%.
Boeing claims about 16,700 workers in its defense business in the St. Louis area, including Illinois.
“Seven-hundred isn’t quite up to St. Louis’ share,” Thompson said.
The layoffs are “really about the company’s survival,” he added. No company wants to lay off experienced engineers, but Boeing doesn’t have a choice, he said. It has failed to win enough new business on its defense side since it acquired St. Louis-based aerospace company McDonnell Douglas in 1997.
“The company has not succeeded in replacing the McDonnell Douglas franchise that once was the pride of St. Louis,” Thompson said.
The Missouri Office of Workforce Development did not immediately post the layoff notice on its website last week because of an oversight. Staffers thought they hadn’t received the notice, said Meghan Maskery Luecke, general counsel for the department.
She provided the notice Wednesday in an email following an inquiry from the Post-Dispatch.
Boeing will provide severance pay, help finding a new job and subsidized health care benefits for up to three months after workers are laid off, the company said in a statement last week.
More senior workers whose positions are eliminated won’t be able to take jobs from less senior workers, a practice known as bumping rights, in this round of layoffs, according to the notice.
A lengthening list of problems has troubled the company recently.
Boeing delayed production on the long-range widebody 777X commercial jet, leading to some layoffs in the St. Louis region where workers build component parts for that plane.
In September, the company suffered from “significant reductions” in supplier spending and a halt to orders on the 737, 767 and 777 planes.
Then 33,000 machinists went on strike for seven weeks amid bitter labor negotiations.
And the company further delayed the launch of the new 777X, and discontinued the 767 cargo plane.
Boeing also reported a loss of more than $6 billion in its third quarter. And it faced scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration after a panel blew out of a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The state of Missouri gave Boeing $129 million over the past 10 years in exchange for the company maintaining and creating jobs here. St. Louis County last year approved a new set of tax breaks on a new $1.8 billion assembly plant in Berkeley.
Thompson, the defense industry consultant, said the future of that project is uncertain.
“It appears that some of that new business is simply never going to materialize,” Thompson said.
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View life in St. Louis the week of Nov. 10, 2024
View life in St. Louis through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
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