-- Kelly Ortberg’s earnings debut as Boeing Co. chief executive officer has gained an element of suspense as workers vote on the same day whether to accept the planemaker’s latest proposal and end a five-week-long strike.One City’s Plan to Re-Link a Neighborhood That Robert Moses Divided
The outcome of the vote, which needs a simple majority to pass, won’t be known until late in the day in Seattle, Boeing’s main manufacturing hub. That means investors, employees and executives will be left hanging for hours after the earnings, uncertain as to whether Boeing can finally start on the path to recovery — or be forced to keep muddling through with anemic production and dwindling cash reserves.
Ortberg’s efforts to reset Boeing’s culture and relations with employees have been hurt by the strike. The announcement of job cuts, alongside a wide range of other measures, threatens to drive a wedge into the already fragile rapport between senior management and the shop floor. The strike has exposed fault lines inside a company where senior executives long focused on returns, while Machinists saw their wages eaten up by inflation and their pension plan evaporate under a controversial 2014 contract. Many employees have therefore vowed hold out for a significantly better deal.
With the main results already out, Ortberg will have more leeway to address his plans for Boeing. The turnaround effort will be easier once the main commercial factories restart around Seattle, ending a walkout that has cost it about $100 million a day in lost revenue, by some estimates. “Boeing is not going away,” Harned wrote in an Oct. 17 report. “But, it is not clear today what the company will look like in five years.”Sub-postmaster wrongfully jailed in Horizon IT scandal rejects £600k compensation