Boeing’s standoff with over 33,000 striking workers is already taking a toll. On Wednesday, the company told executives and other nonunion workers they would be temporarily furloughed to save cash. The company confirmed the move would affect tens of thousands of employees, who will keep their benefits but will be off one week every four without pay on a rolling basis.
“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” new CEO Kelly Ortberg wrote in an email to employees. “We will continue to transparently communicate as this dynamic situation evolves and do all we can to limit this hardship.”
The company’s stock held steady around the $155 mark Thursday morning as stocks surged broadly following the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a hefty half-point rate cut on Wednesday. The plane maker’s shares are down roughly 38% from the start of a year that began with a panel of one its 737 Max planes famously blowing off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The stock has declined almost 65% from its all-time high of $440.62 in March 2019.
More pressing, however, is the possibility of the company’s debt being downgraded to junk. Boeing’s bonds currently sit at the precipice of speculative status, which would substantially raise borrowing costs at a time when the company is hemorrhaging cash. The company may choose to prevent that by issuing more stock—most analysts say $10 billion should be enough, according to The Economist—which would deal another blow to shareholders by diluting the value of their current holdings.
Boeing strike could last months
Boeing’s cost-cutting measures amid the strike are already being felt across the industry. Earlier the week, CFO Brian West said the company would significantly reduce supplier spending and stop most purchase orders on its major commercial jetliners.
The company has negotiated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers over the last two days in the presence of federal mediators, but the union said late Wednesday that both sides hadn’t made meaningful progress.
Union representatives thought they had reached a deal last week that Boeing hailed as “historic.” Roughly 95% of voting workers rejected the deal, however, which would have raised pay 25% over five years. Workers are now calling for a 40% wage increase after years in which their pay hikes lagged well behind most of the industry, while former CEO Dave Calhoun’s compensation and the cost of living surged.
The strike’s first week has already cost Boeing $572 million, according to an estimate from the Anderson Economic Group cited by CNN. TD Cowen aerospace analyst Cai von Rumohr told the Associated Press the strike could last until mid-November, which he estimates would cost Boeing $3.5 billion in cash flow.
Over the last eight decades, strikes at Boeing have lasted just short of 60 days on average, according to a recent note from Bank of America senior analyst Ronald Epstein.
