Boeing to reorganise commercial aircraft operations and production units - Brief Article

Airline Industry Information, Feb 9, 2000

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The Boeing Company has announced its intention to consolidate its commercial aircraft operations and will integrate the currently separate jet aircraft production units to allow its salespeople to focus on customers.

A spokesperson for Boeing said that the reorganisation stemmed from feedback that criticised the company for being too inwardly focussed, the company has now got its `house in order` however and is now looking ahead and outwards.

In other news, Boeing is currently involved in federally mediated talks with representatives from the Society of Professional Employees in Engineering and Aerospace (SPEEA) in an attempt to avert industrial action.

SPEEA has indicated that its members are preparing for strike action with the possibility of walkout action commencing today (9 February), though a strike deadline has not been set. Members have already been protesting during lunch hours and conducting `work to rule` action by taking all allocated breaks and refusing to work overtime as a means of slowing production.

For its part, Boeing has apparently stopped collecting union dues from SPEEA`s members and has rejected several applications for holidays lodged by SPEEA workers, claiming that `we`re not going to pay people for going on strike` according to Reuters.

The unrest at Boeing results from a two-month-long contract dispute during which SPEEA members have rejected two offers from the company, one in December 1999 and one in January 2000,

Finally, Boeing employees got a surprise on 8 February when the suspect of a bank robbery fled from police and hid in a Boeing jet aircraft factory in Seattle for about ten hours.

The man disguised himself as an employee by donning a hard hat and coveralls and was found hidden in a crawl space by a police dog.

The incident caused Boeing to evacuate the building and all but shut down the plant, telling some employees not to come to work, but production was resumed soon after the arrest was made according to the Associated Press.

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