This story has been updated.
The roughly 3,000 Boeing employees who work at the company’s Port San Antonio location are not among the 33,000 unionized workers who walked off the job in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week.
But all of the company’s employees now face the prospect of temporary furloughs, according to a letter sent Wednesday to employees from CEO Robert “Kelly” Ortberg. A “large number of US-based executives, managers and employees” will be affected.
Boeing employs approximately 145,000 employees in the U.S.
“We are planning for selected employees to take one week of furlough every four weeks on a rolling basis for the duration of the strike,” Ortberg wrote in the letter, which a Boeing spokeswoman shared with the San Antonio Report. “Your leaders will be in touch today to share more detail on your team’s specific approach.”
Ortberg said he and his leadership team will also “take a commensurate pay reduction for the duration of the strike.”
The company’s new CEO made headlines earlier in the week for closing on a $4.1 million on a home in Seattle, fueling workers’ anger at the company, which has wrung concessions from the union in recent years while continuing to fund hefty executive pay packages.
The furlough announcement follows Monday’s memo from Boeing’s Chief Financial Officer Brian West that the company would freeze hiring, pause pay increases and cut non-essential capital, contractor and supplier spending to cut costs.
“This strike jeopardizes our recovery in a significant way and we must take necessary actions to preserve cash and safeguard our shared future,” West wrote.
Boeing is the largest aerospace employer in San Antonio. Its Global Services and Support business unit here operates one of the largest military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul — known in the industry as MRO — facilities in the world at Kelly Field.
The company also provides “a significant proportion of aircraft products and parts manufacturing jobs” in the San Antonio, according to the Port’s webpage devoted to Boeing. The company currently lists roughly 40 open positions in San Antonio, including mechanics, technicians and engineers.
As Port San Antonio’s anchor tenant, Boeing’s operations encompass more than 1.6 million square feet of enclosed area plus 3.5 million square feet of aircraft ramps and parking pads. The San Antonio location supports the C-17, F-15 and B-52, service to the U.S. Executive Fleet, and commercial aircraft.
The company has also been an active corporate citizen at the Port, investing in STEM educational initiatives directly and via the Kelly Heritage Foundation, which receives the proceeds from the Boeing Center at Tech Port, a concert and e-gaming center sponsored by Boeing.
Safety concerns
Boeing’s San Antonio location made news this spring after three former employees accused the company of firing them for raising onsite safety concerns. Boeing denied the allegations, which were filed with the National Labor Relations Board in March.
Boeing has faced a number of safety concerns over its commercial airplanes in recent years. In 2021, Boeing agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion in a legal settlement after two deadly crashes of the 737 Max killed hundreds of people in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
In January, a door plug blew out of a Boeing 737-9 Max while in flight. The Federal Aviation Administration immediately grounded 171 737-9 Max aircraft and halted further production.
A subsequent FAA audit of Boeing and a subcontractor found “multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.”
The last time workers struck, in 2008, it cost the company $100 million a day in revenue; analysts estimate the impact of this strike could reach $3 billion. Boeing stock is down almost 40% since the beginning of the year, and its operating loss in Q2 rose to $1.4 billion.
The Seattle Times reported Monday that layoffs have already begun, with engineering contractors and retirees who had returned to work for the company.
