Boeing set to announce significant US job cuts this week: Union

Boeing Co is expected to announce US job cuts this week after disclosing last month it planned to shed 10% of its worldwide workforce of 160,000 employees, people briefed on the plans and a union said.

A spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) union that represents 17,600 Boeing employees told Reuters the company informed the union it should expect layoff notices on Friday.

Boeing declined to comment. In April, Boeing chief executive Dave Calhoun said the company had "begun taking action to lower our number of employees by roughly 10% through a combination of voluntary layoffs, natural turnover and involuntary layoffs as necessary."

Calhoun said in April Boeing will need to make "even deeper reductions in areas that are most exposed to the condition of our commercial customers — more than 15% across our commercial airplanes and services businesses, as well as our corporate functions."

SPEEA said about 1,300 of its members applied to take voluntary layoffs.

The Puget Sound Business Journal reported earlier that Boeing planned to lay off thousands of workers.

A union official confirmed the newspaper's report that Boeing had told union leaders to expect cuts of between 15 to 20% of its membership, which represents engineers and technical workers in Washington State and southern California.