Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, traveled to Wichita on Monday to tour Spirit AeroSystems at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran. It was just his third day on the job.
Moran said he secured a commitment from Boeing to keep as much of Spirit’s defense work as possible in south central Kansas after a deal is finalized for Boeing to buy back Spirit .
In addition to the Wichita plant that Boeing plans to take over within the next year, Moran walked Ortberg and chair of the company board Steven Mollenkopf through WSU Tech’s National Center for Aviation Training.
“I want him, the new Boeing CEO, the chairman of the board and other Boeing officials, to know the importance of Wichita and what it can mean to them if they treat Wichita as a community and Wichita employees in a respectful way that rewards their work ethic and technical, extreme capabilities,” Moran told The Eagle after the tour.
Boeing officials were not made available for comment, but Moran said the chairman gave him permission to pass on his takeaway from the visit: “I am incredibly impressed with the workforce, and we are here to stay,” Moran said in the relayed message.
The senator said he pressed Ortberg and Mollenkopf on their commitment to preserve the size of Spirit’s current Wichita workforce, specifically the employees whose focus is on defense work instead of commercial programs.
“I personally have been on a mission to make certain that the 1,500 to 2,000 employees at Spirit who work in the defense world — and almost none of that work is for Boeing — it’s for Lockheed Martin, it’s for Northrop Grumman, it’s for General Atomics, it’s for Textron,” Moran said. “The list is long, and what a sad circumstance it would be if those 1,500 and future employees in Kansas lost the opportunity.
“They indicated to me, they want to keep all that defense work that’s at Spirit at Boeing. That’s their goal,” Moran said. “I asked them, if there are circumstances where companies are unable or unwilling to do that, then would you support our efforts to make sure that workforce stays in Wichita or in Kansas? And they committed to doing that as well.”
Moran said he was also heartened by what he heard from Spirit employees while touring the plant with their future boss.
“When I asked them if they had any nervousness about Boeing’s acquisition, ‘Are you nervous about Boeing becoming your employer?’ All of those without exception, everyone said ‘No’. In fact, most said ‘I think it’s a good thing’,” Moran said.
According to a message Ortberg shared with employees upon taking over as CEO, his core focus is on restoring trust in Boeing. Moran said Monday was an important step in the right direction.
“To me, building trust is when you know somebody, you know them well. You treat them with respect,” Moran said. “And what I saw today is the suggestion that that is the case with the new CEO.”
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