BA Boeing Co

By Doug Cameron 

Over 1,800 Boeing Co. employees have accepted voluntary buyouts as the aerospace giant seeks to cut costs, two of the company's main unions said Thursday.

Boeing is trying to boost efficiency and profit margins as it works through a record backlog of jetliner orders amid a race for market share with rival Airbus SE. Alongside job cuts, Boeing has pressed suppliers for better terms and increased automation at its factories.

"I would imagine that without these investments in advanced technology we would have no company at all," Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said Thursday at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Boeing could yet ask the members of additional unions and nonunionized workers to depart voluntarily. Workers at Boeing's Charleston, S.C., facilities last month voted against joining a union.

"A little over 1,500 members were accepted into the voluntary layoff program for 2017," said a spokeswoman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents more than 35,000 Boeing staff nationwide. The company laid off around 2,100 of its members last year, and the union spokeswoman said she didn't know whether the latest round of layoffs had met Boeing's targets.

The union representing Boeing engineers said 305 of its members had accepted the buyouts and are due to start leaving in April. It expects there could be another 900 or so this year to match the total laid off in 2016.

Boeing declined to comment on the unions' numbers and said its work to increase efficiency is ongoing.

"Employment reductions will come through a combination of attrition, leaving open positions unfilled, voluntary layoff program and in some cases, involuntary layoffs," Boeing said.

The company last year cut employment at its Commercial Airplanes unit by around 8% compared with 2015 as it flagged what it called "hesitation" in buyers of its big twin-aisle jets. It is trimming output of its 777 and 747 planes but boosting production of its 737 single-aisle jets.

As of Feb. 23, the unit had 74,634 employees, around half the total Boeing workforce. Boeing's defense and space business unit, like many peers, has also shed thousands of jobs in recent years in the wake of Pentagon budget cuts.

Mr. Muilenburg on Thursday also described a planned center near Shanghai to paint and outfit some of its U.S.-built 737 jets with seats as "smart globalization,"

During his campaign last year, President Donald Trump said the plan would come at the expense of jobs in the U.S., a charge Boeing denied.

"This is an important part of the equation going forward," Mr. Muilenburg said Thursday, pointing to overseas markets that would stoke demand for its jets. "It also allows us to grow jobs in the U.S."

Boeing shares have climbed to record levels in recent weeks on its pledge to boost earnings and continue its share-buyback program.

Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 02, 2017 16:13 ET (21:13 GMT)

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