Boeing’s largest plant in ‘panic mode’ amid safety crisis, say workers and union officials

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theguardian.com

Managers in Washington accused of hounding staff to keep quiet over quality concerns, as employees point to union-busting

Boeing’s largest factory is in “panic mode”, according to workers and union officials, with managers accused of hounding staff to keep quiet over quality concerns.

The US plane maker has been grappling with a safety crisis sparked by a cabin panel blowout during a flight in January, and intense scrutiny of its production line as regulators launched a string of investigations.

Its site at Everett, Washington – hailed as the world’s biggest manufacturing building – is at the heart of Boeing’s operation, responsible for building planes like the 747 and 767, and fixing the 787 Dreamliner.

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until companies aren't incentivized by capitalist greed this will continue happening

You'd think that it would be in the best interest of capitalism to keep everybody alive to maximize profits through the course of each victim's life, but the shortsighted goal of lining a couple pockets and avoiding disruption was chosen. A predictably lazy approach.. and why we will deal with asbestos, cigarettes, pesticide, pfas damages for years to come

Would love to see some corporate heads roll, fuck these disgusting pieces of shit. I hope their business practices and families suffer for years to come! May the winds of climate change wipe out their children before them, in their lifetime.

One mechanic at the complex, who has worked for Boeing for more than three decades, has claimed it is “full of” faulty 787 jets that need fixing.

Many of these jets are flown from Boeing’s site in South Carolina, where the company shifted final assembly of the 787 in 2021 in what was characterized as a cost-cutting measure.

Keep management scared

I was never treated better than when I was actively communicating with HR.

And at the other end of Boeing, they're having extreme difficulty getting Starliner launched again (part 2: human boogaloo, endless problems, even while years behind SpaceX). It's like they're being sabotaged, only it's probably just mismanagement, incompetence, and demoralization.

You heard about the mission scrub weekend I take it. Absolute insanity how the company that went to the moon can't put two people into LEO.

I happened to catch NASA on YouTube for a few hours that morning. There were a few problems, but they got through it. At about T-10 min, everyone seemed to feel this was the one, clear to launch. Even a few speeches ('MURICA!). I left for a minute and came back to the crew access arm being extended... It was difficult to watch them have to painstakingly evacuate the crew again instead of sending it to space.

Union workers should be mandatory in the aviation industry. It make a huge difference when the time comes to tell a manager that a part will not be delivered on time.

Has any airline cancelled their Boeing contracts yet?

Yes.

https://apnews.com/article/boeing-sales-cancellations-crisis-674375bc711c299cac19b6df09443d4a

The problem with cancelling is that Airbus is the only other large airline manufacturer and they're facing supply chain and labour issues, and have a massive backlog of orders already.

Mainly because of Boeing. When Boeing had their 737MAX issues, Airbus's books filled up with orders.

Sounds like they could hire more well paid unionized labor to help with the backlog and make bank.

This is now a national security concern. Nationalize Boeing

Bold of you to suggest the government could do better

This is such a low bar, literally anyone could do better that wasn't personally given the elite jack welch business programming

Sadly airbus is more backed up and they plus Boeing are the only two viable producers in the world unless you want to buy questionable planes from China.

Regardless of your thoughts on Comac, they just don't produce anything that competes with anything bigger than an A320 / 737. The only company that does is Ilyushin, and they make roughly one per year

They are trying to ramp up production, but that's a very hard thing to do given the sheer amount of suppliers (over 1000) and the general labor shortage in aviation. They are actively sending their own engineers to suppliers to help out where possible, but there is only so much they can do.

Even with ramped up production the backlog (8500+ planes) will take almost a decade to clear (735 planes produced in 2023). So yea, I could imagine some airlines with a strong cash position will simply buy other airlines just to take over their planes and orders instead of putting in a new order.

Move corporate back to Everett. The company I work for is far from perfect but I do see the CEO take a full walk across the facility every day.