Aerostructures supplier Spirt AeroSystems is furloughing 700 workers as a machinist strike at partner Boeing has hobbled aircraft production.
Workers on Spirit’s 767 and 777 fuselage programmes are being sent home for 21 days, the company announced on 18 October.
Notably, the move was driven not by financial concerns, but physical storage space, with Spirit saying it has built up a “significant inventory buffer” of 767 and 777 fuselages and does not have room for additional inventory.
Boeing has halted production on 737, 767 and 777 aircraft as a result of the five-week strike. With the company haemorrhaging cash, Boeing has also stopped accepting deliveries from suppliers, such as Spirit AeroSystems.
“This difficult step was necessary given our limited storage capacity for 767 and 777 units,” Spirit chief executive Pat Shanahan says of the worker furloughs.
While excess inventory prompted the temporary work stoppage, Spirit says financial concerns may prompt further measures, including permanent job cuts.
“If the strike continues beyond November, financial pressures may require the company to implement additional cost-savings measures, including lay-offs and additional furloughs,” Spirit AeroSystems says.
The company notes it has already taken steps to reduce expenditures in the near-term, including a hiring freeze and restricting overtime.
Boeing has thus far made little progress toward resolving the crippling labour strike. The company on 11 October announced drastic changes to its operations, including laying off some 17,000 workers, ending 767 freighter production and delaying the first 777-9 delivery.
Spirit has also endured a challenging year, starting when the Alaska Airlines door-plug incident in January was traced back to factory errors within Spirit’s assembly line.
That prompted Boeing in March to express interest in taking over Spirit, which began life as a sub-unit of the airframer before being spun off in 2005. An $8.3 billion agreement announced in July would see Boeing re-acquire the critical supplier, minus sections of Spirit AeroSystems that supply rival airframer Airbus.
Helicopter manufacturer Bell recently dropped Spirit as a supplier on its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft programme with the US Army, set to generate tens of billions of dollars over the coming decades.
Boeing’s acquisition of Spirit is set to close in mid-2025.
