Boeing Cuts include Macon Facility

Boeing announced today 1,100 production jobs are being cut nationwide as it slows production of its C-17 aircraft. A company spokesman says 90 positions will be eliminated from Macon’s plant, with the first round of layoffs beginning tomorrow.

“We hope to redeploy employees on other programs or to other Boeing locations,” Boeing Spokesman Fernando Vivanco said by phone.

Al Stewart, a spokesman for Macon’s Boeing facility says the number of current employees expected to lose their job will be “minimal.” He says  many of the positions are already unfilled or going to be because of retirement.  

Demand for C-17s has lagged since the US Air Force and other nations stopped ordering the aircraft. Vivanco said Boeing is trying to reduce the number of planes produced each year from 15 down to 10 to extend the production line beyond 2012.·

Boeing anticipates that the work force reduction will primarily impact Long Beach, where approximately 900 of the 1,100 reductions will take place at the program’s final assembly site. The cuts will also impact plants in Arizona and St. Louis.