Boeing lays off 10% of workforce as strike enters fifth week

A month into the strike of 33,000 Boeing machinists with no end in sight , Boeing's issues are piling on. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Friday, Oct. 11, the company will lay off 17,000 employees, which accounts for roughly 10% of its staff.

"Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together," Ortberg wrote in a memo . "Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term."

Ortberg, who took over the position in August , said the layoffs will include executives, managers and employees. He added the layoffs will take effect in the coming months.

On the same day, Boeing announced preliminary results for the third quarter of 2024. Those preliminary estimates included write-downs of $2.6 billion due to the delay of the 777x, $400 million on the 767, and $2 billion related to defense and space programs.

Boeing explored the option of raising $10 billion by selling new stock to make up for the losses, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this month. It’s not expected Boeing would make a move until the strike is resolved.

Analysis from S&P has further bad news for the company, saying that the ongoing strike could cost Boeing more than $1 billion per month. Jon Holden, the chief union negotiator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the workers are in it for the " long haul. "

Meanwhile, Boeing continues to face regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration after a panel blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. At the same time, relatives of the 346 people who died in the 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 asked a federal judge on Friday to throw out a proposed settlement from the company.

Boeing would pay a fine of up to $487.2 million as part of the proposal, but it would be cut in half with credit from a 2021 $2.5 billion settlement that allowed the company to avoid prosecution, which the Justice Department has since said it violated .

In August, NASA ruled that a Boeing spacecraft wasn’t safe enough to bring back two astronauts from the International Space Station. Those passengers are now slated to return home in February in a SpaceX capsule .

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