Utopia Talk / Politics / Boeing is imploding

Rugian Member	Sun Oct 13 07:26:43 Boeing to cut 17,000 jobs as losses deepen during factory strike Published Fri, Oct 11 2024 4:32 PM EDT Boeing will cut 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 people, as the company's losses mount and a machinist strike that has idled its aircraft factories enters its fifth week. It will also push back the long-delayed launch of its new wide-body airplane. The manufacturer will not deliver its still-uncertified 777X wide-body plane, which has customers that include Lufthansa and Emirates, until 2026, putting it some six years behind schedule. The company in August paused flight tests of the aircraft when it discovered structural damage in one of them. It will stop making commercial 767 freighters in 2027 after it fulfills remaining orders, CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a staff memo Friday afternoon. Boeing expects to report a loss of $9.97 a share in the third quarter, the company said in a surprise release Friday. It expects to report a pretax charge of $3 billion in the commercial airplane unit and $2 billion for its defense business. In preliminary financial results, Boeing said it expects to have an operating cash outflow of $1.3 billion for the third quarter. The union late Friday called Boeing's announcement to cease 767 freighter production "very troubling" and said it would review the implications. The job and cost cuts are the most dramatic moves to date from Ortberg, who is just over two months into his tenure in the top job, tasked with returning Boeing to stability after safety and manufacturing crises, including a near-catastrophic midair door-plug blow out earlier this year. The machinist strike is yet another challenge for Ortberg. Credit ratings agencies have warned the company is at risk of losing its investment-grade rating, and Boeing has been burning through cash in what company leaders hoped would be a turnaround year. S&P Global Ratings said earlier this week that Boeing is losing more than $1 billion a month from the strike of more than 30,000 machinists, which began Sept. 13 after machinists overwhelmingly voted down a tentative agreement the company reached with the union. Tensions have been rising between the manufacturer and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and Boeing withdrew a newer contract offer earlier this week. http://www...ng-layoffs-factory-strike.html
Sam Adams Member	Sun Oct 13 08:00:51 Don't go woke and don't hire mbas
murder Member	Sun Oct 13 09:01:53 The height of absurdity has to be employees going on strike for higher wages as the company they work for collapses due to the shitty products they produce.
Sam Adams Member	Sun Oct 13 12:45:00 Maybe the point is to collapse enough so that the layers of incompetent managers/directors all get fired during the government takeover? Seriously the company needs riveters. It doesnt need mbas.
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 15 08:05:10 "Boeing to Sell at Least $10 Billion in Shares to Plug Cash Drain Jet maker moves to raise much needed cash and secures new credit line amid paralyzing machinist strike" http://www...es-to-sell-new-shares-fce4c116
Seb Member	Tue Oct 15 09:08:18 Should just sell up to Airbus at this point, who know how to make airplanes.
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 15 09:20:45 The US government would never let that happen. Boeing is Too Big To Fail on steroids.
jergul large member	Tue Oct 15 10:02:42 If too big to fail, then why not strike?
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 15 13:42:59 Jergul That's no doubt been factored in the union's reasoning, yes. Pretty much any other company would have declared bankruptcy by now. It hasn't had a profitable year since 2018, its production line is in complete shambles, and its debt is likely about to be reduced to junk. But its military contracts + status as the only remaining domestic large commercial airline manufacturer means that bailouts are virtually guaranteed if things ever get too bad. So why should the union care if they're helping to drive Boeing into the ground? Either way they get paid. And if Democrats are still in control of the government, they'll likely get pro-union requirements attached to that bailout money. Win-win from their perspective.
Sam Adams Member	Tue Oct 15 14:40:24 I mean getting rid of boeings current board and upper management might be win win for everyone. A government functionary posted by the military industrial complex might do a better job.
jergul large member	Tue Oct 15 15:20:56 Ruggy Indeed. Why should the union care? It is responsible to its stakeholders.
Rugian Member	Tue Oct 15 15:54:59 Jergul You want the serious answer? At some point Boeing could decide it's less of a headache to just shutter their West Coast plants and build new ones in right-to-work states.
Seb Member	Wed Oct 16 02:32:11 Rugian: I'm sure the will do wonders for their productivity and quality, swapping out to an entirely new workforce hired fresh in another state. It's not like unskilled inexperienced workers are a factor in the current crisis. I think the real issue is what happens if Boeing goes bust to all their stock of planes - maintenance and airworthiness certification etc. - who would manage all that? MBA brain fucked that company into the ground by sacking the workforce as keeping costs down. I'm not sure doubling down on the tenets of MBA brain is a great strategy so much as a fundamental misdiagnosis of everything Boeing's decline tells you about how an aerospace company can't be run like McDonald's or Unilever. Perhaps part of the solution is providing higher wages to retain the human capital that actually matters (designers, engineers, factory staff), and getting rid of the useless identikit financial engineer layer, of whom there are a steady and interchangeable supply coming out of HBS and the big 3's up or out policy? Sure, this may be a problem for shareholders in the short term, but seems a more likely return to profitability: start making good planes again. Alternatively, Sam's idea: nationalise it and stick the military in control. However, that's probably going to start a trade war that fucks their order book. But I guess it can keep going as an expensive low quality producer of commercial jets to the US domestic market and any major economy that doesn't have its own manufacturer.
Paramount Member	Wed Oct 16 08:51:47 "Boeing is imploding" Good.
Sam Adams Member	Wed Oct 16 09:55:34 Nah, government saving boeing from the mbas would be far less government intervention than starting airbus.
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