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Job Cuts at Boeing
What are your thoughts on the job cuts at Boeing?
HUNTSVILLE, AL -
Budget cuts made in the nation's capital are leading to job cuts in the Rocket City.
Boeing has announced it will cut approximately 250 workers at various sites involved in missile defense work. The workers are at sites in Alabama, Alaska, California and Colorado.
A Boeing official in Huntsville told WHNT NEWS 19, 130 employees in Huntsville are scheduled to lose their jobs.
Tony Jones is Boeing's Vice President for Site Operations in Huntsville. He'll deliver orders Friday morning telling 130 members of his team they will be laid off.
"Anytime you have to notify employees, even if it's one, it's unfortunate," said Boeing Vice President of Huntsville Site Operations.
Jones' unfortunate situation comes from President Barack Obama's budget for 2010. The president outlined a 35% reduction in funding for missile defense programs.
Jones says his company's Ground-based Midcourse Defense program was hit the hardest.
"We didn't expect to have such a drop in the 2010 budget more focused on the GMD program as we saw," added Jones.
He's been talking to all of his employees for the last couple of months, vowing to continue working with all of them, even after the the lay off notices go out.
Jones wants to keep as many as he can by reassigning them to other positions.
"We've been working with them, working with other programs in huntsville, and other sites to try to mitigate this," added Jones.
Jones says the news of pending layoffs should not come as a surprise to his employees. They don't seem to shock Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle either.
"It's a sign of the times. We as a city are going through tough times also. We're seeing revenues a little bit lower than before, so everybody is having to make some adjustments," said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.
The cuts hit 4% of the employees based in Huntsville.
Jones told WHNT NEWS 19 all of people given lay off notices on Friday will have about 60 days to get things in order before their last day. He says that also means the number of those getting laid off could go up, or go down. He's hoping they go down.
"The president's budget request for 2010 being considered by Congress includes a significant reduction in program funding from the 2009 levels, and Boeing is not able to support the current work force with such a substantial reduction in funding," said a Boeing spokesperson.
"Boeing is committed to preserving as many jobs as possible for these valued, highly skilled employees, and the company has taken aggressive steps to lessen the impact of the funding reductions. These steps include redeploying GMD personnel to other programs, evaluating contract labor requirements, and offering career services and related assistance.
"Boeing is proud to support the only defense the United States has against long-range ballistic missiles. GMD has a proven track record of success, and Boeing is committed to maintaining this capability in the face of evolving threats."
Boeing has announced it will cut approximately 250 workers at various sites involved in missile defense work. The workers are at sites in Alabama, Alaska, California and Colorado.
A Boeing official in Huntsville told WHNT NEWS 19, 130 employees in Huntsville are scheduled to lose their jobs.
Tony Jones is Boeing's Vice President for Site Operations in Huntsville. He'll deliver orders Friday morning telling 130 members of his team they will be laid off.
"Anytime you have to notify employees, even if it's one, it's unfortunate," said Boeing Vice President of Huntsville Site Operations.
Jones' unfortunate situation comes from President Barack Obama's budget for 2010. The president outlined a 35% reduction in funding for missile defense programs.
Jones says his company's Ground-based Midcourse Defense program was hit the hardest.
"We didn't expect to have such a drop in the 2010 budget more focused on the GMD program as we saw," added Jones.
He's been talking to all of his employees for the last couple of months, vowing to continue working with all of them, even after the the lay off notices go out.
Jones wants to keep as many as he can by reassigning them to other positions.
"We've been working with them, working with other programs in huntsville, and other sites to try to mitigate this," added Jones.
Jones says the news of pending layoffs should not come as a surprise to his employees. They don't seem to shock Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle either.
"It's a sign of the times. We as a city are going through tough times also. We're seeing revenues a little bit lower than before, so everybody is having to make some adjustments," said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.
The cuts hit 4% of the employees based in Huntsville.
Jones told WHNT NEWS 19 all of people given lay off notices on Friday will have about 60 days to get things in order before their last day. He says that also means the number of those getting laid off could go up, or go down. He's hoping they go down.
"The president's budget request for 2010 being considered by Congress includes a significant reduction in program funding from the 2009 levels, and Boeing is not able to support the current work force with such a substantial reduction in funding," said a Boeing spokesperson.
"Boeing is committed to preserving as many jobs as possible for these valued, highly skilled employees, and the company has taken aggressive steps to lessen the impact of the funding reductions. These steps include redeploying GMD personnel to other programs, evaluating contract labor requirements, and offering career services and related assistance.
"Boeing is proud to support the only defense the United States has against long-range ballistic missiles. GMD has a proven track record of success, and Boeing is committed to maintaining this capability in the face of evolving threats."
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Are there people working on the Program at Boeing? I heard that they just run around trying to look busy.
_ @ 4:30 PM CDT, Jul 20, 2010
THE GMD MISSILE DOES NOT WORK. Althought it has been a great "SHAM" to shelter jobs and rob the tax payers. But then it provided meaningless jobs for the INEPT.
Ananamous @ 4:07 PM CDT, Jul 20, 2010
GMD is a focal program in our small engineering business--many hours have been dedicated to doing the very best job--too bad we weren't in some other funded pet project say like building tunnels for turtles--we were only contributing to the defense of our country
Kelly @ 3:05 PM CDT, Jul 22, 2009
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