‘The only ones not paying for Boeing’s mistakes is Boeing': laid-off supply workers voice their anger

We’ll get through it,” Boeing’s new CE, Dave Calhoun, told investors this week after the aerospace giant announced its biggest losses in 20 years. The thousands of workers reliant on the company are not so sure. With production of its bestselling plane, the 737 Max jet, on hold after two deadly airline crashes, thousands of workers in Boeing’s US supply chain are have suffered layoffs and loss of hours. The cost to Boeing of the grounding is now estimated at close to $19b. The impact of the grounding is so severe it is holding back the wider economy, according to government figures, and hurting companies and their employees. Spirit, Boeing’s largest parts supplier, employed about 13,000 workers in Wichita prior to the layoffs. The company also laid off about 130 workers at its plant in McAlester, Oklahoma, and several other workers at its Tulsa plant. A spokesperson for Spirit attributed the layoffs to the suspension of 737 Max production and “ongoing uncertainty regarding the timing of when production will resume and the level of production when it does resume”. Laid-off employees will receive severance pay until 10 March, but workers who survived the layoffs are still concerned more job cuts are coming. Other laid-off workers at Spirit also blamed Boeing and criticized the company’s former CE Dennis Muilenburg, who left with a $62m payout when he resigned shortly after the company announced 737 Max production would be suspended. A Boeing spokesperson noted Muilenburg received no severance or 2019 annual bonus, only the benefits he was contractually entitled to receive.<br/>