Boeing to cut up to 90 jobs this week

Boeing will cut up to 90 jobs this week in the latest round of job losses in the
aviation company.
In a statement on Tuesday, Boeing said the workers, mainly from its Brisbane
operations, would receive 60 days notice of their redundancy.
"Boeing Defence Australia notified its employees this week that due to current
business conditions, up to 90 of its workforce (mainly Brisbane-based) will receive
60-day notices that their position is being made redundant," the statement said.
"While difficult, this action is necessary to secure the future of the business."
Boeing, which employs up to 2,300 workers in Australia, said it will attempt to
retrain or re-employ workers who were given notice.
Those who cannot be re-employed would be given a redundancy payout, Boeing said.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary Andrew Dettmer said workers
had feared for their jobs for the past eight months.
Although Boeing had promised redundancies, he said it wasn't a case of one size fits
all when companies handed out redundancies.
Boeing had not told the union of its re-employment plans, he said.
"There's a lot of fear and a lot of concern that in the absence of information,
workers there are left in the dark," he told AAP.
Premier Anna Bligh said her government had invested heavily to bring aviation to
Queensland.
"The investment in aviation here in Queensland has delivered literally thousands of
jobs," Ms Bligh told reporters.
Since July 2007, Boeing have cut its Amberley workforce from 800 to 470, and the
company says this week's job cuts are unrelated to its Amberley operations.
A spokesperson for Queensland Industry Minister Desley Boyle said Boeing had met its
employment and economic obligations for the $20 million in funding it had received.
The aviation industry has taken a battering in recent weeks with Qantas cutting
capacity and Virgin Blue suggesting it may cut jobs in the months to come, while
Queensland regional airline Macair was wound up last month leaving 180 staff out of
a job.
Virgin said in February it would try to save money by reducing the equivalent of up
to 400 full time jobs, with options including leave without pay, job sharing and
transfers to other units within the group being considered to avoid redundancies.
Boeing has also had its fair share of troubles with 27,000 US workers striking for
57 days last year.