ST. LOUIS — The Boeing Corp. will cut 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 jobs, the company reported on Friday.
The news comes as Boeing reports preliminary third-quarter losses of almost $10 per share, and operating cash flow of negative $1.3 billion, as the company continues to face a machinist strike of 33,000 workers that has hobbled West Coast operations.
“Our business is in a difficult position and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” new CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a letter sent to employees.
Moreover, the company said it would further delay the launch of the new 777X long-range widebody jet, and discontinue the 767 cargo plane.
They are the biggest moves so far by Ortberg, who took over the company in August, to revamp a company struggling with production issues and burning through cash, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Boeing’s St. Louis spokesman, Kurt LaBelle, said Friday afternoon he didn’t yet know how the cuts would affect the company’s employment in the St. Louis region. Workers here build components for the 777X program.
Boeing claims 16,700 workers at its regional facilities in north St. Louis County, St. Charles and Mascoutah. Most of the company’s local work is for its defense business.
Boeing had already imposed rolling temporary furloughs, but Ortberg said those will be suspended because of the impending layoffs.
Ortberg is the troubled company’s third CEO in less than five years. He is a longtime aerospace-industry executive but an outsider to Boeing and faces many challenges to turn the company around.
The Federal Aviation Administration increased scrutiny of the company after a panel blew out of a Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Boeing has agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine for conspiracy to commit fraud tied to the Max, but relatives of the 346 people who died in two Max crashes want tougher punishment.
And Boeing got attention for all the wrong reasons when NASA decided that a Boeing spacecraft wasn’t safe enough to carry two astronauts home from the International Space Station.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
