Recovering from coronavirus and 737 Max woes, Spirit AeroSystems calls back workers
Spirit AeroSystems, ordinarily Wichita’s largest employer, on Monday is expected to bring back about 2,100 workers it furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a union official and numbers obtained by The Eagle.
The company also is planning to phase in a return to work for a little more than 1,700 other workers in Wichita over the next three weeks, documents show.
“Boeing’s saying that they’re going to go ahead and fire back up on the triple-seven, ‘87, ‘67, ‘47 (aircraft), so everybody that works those programs, they’re going to try and get (them) back,” said Cornell Beard, president of Machinists District Lodge 70, which represents about 9,300 Spirit workers.
Plans shared with employees indicate that the company is also bringing workers back on the 737 Max, a project deeply troubled before the coronavirus pandemic shut down other factory production lines.
Beard said the returning union workers are still a fraction of the plant’s full workforce, “but anything’s better than nothing.”
In an e-mail, Spirit spokeswoman Keturah Austin said: “As our customer, Boeing, begins to resume production, Spirit AeroSystems will work with our employees, customers and suppliers to begin a phased-in return to work for some furloughed employees.
She cautioned “This will be a slow process as we work to continue to support our customer’s operations in a manner that is safe for all involved.”
The report indicates about 2,100 workers, hourly and salaried, are scheduled to return to various production lines in Wichita on Monday. They’ll be joined by another 200 workers on April 27; an additional 1,100 on April 29 and nearly 400 on May 4.
It was unclear how many of those workers were idled by 21-day furloughs announced by the company in response to coronavirus concerns and how many are callbacks related to prior cuts in 737 production.
Spirit is considered an essential industry and exempt from Gov. Laura Kelly’s stay-at-home order that has shuttered thousands of businesses during the pandemic.
However, the company furloughed thousands of workers, shortened workweeks for others and instituted salary cuts for executives after Boeing, its major customer, shut down plane assembly lines in suburban Seattle.
During the pandemic, Spirit has turned some of its manufacturing capacity to making protective medical face shields for health workers and local emergency response personnel. Some furloughed workers were offered the opportunity to train in California on production of medical protective equipment.
The end of the coronavirus furloughs “is kind of dependent on when you went out and it won’t be the same for everybody,” Beard said.
Boeing announced a major production restart in a news release Thursday.
“Approximately 27,000 people in the Puget Sound area will return to production of the 747, 767, 777 and 787 programs, supporting critical global transportation infrastructure, cargo services and national defense and security missions,” the company said. “The 737 program will resume working toward restarting production of the 737 MAX.”
Spirit makes fuselages for the 737 Max, which was grounded by aviation authorities worldwide after two crashes blamed on a design defect killed 346 passengers and crew overseas. Boeing has been struggling for the past year to correct problems with the plane and get it flying again.
Spirit has dozens of near-complete 737 fuselages shrink-wrapped in storage on the tarmac at Air Capital Flight Line. The company has previously announced plans to restart production at a reduced level designed to produce new fuselages while drawing down the stockpile.
Beard said the callbacks of workers, and prospects for future callbacks, will be largely dependent on Boeing’s performance in getting the 737 Max back in the air.
“If another mistake is found, or another defect, or if we just encounter another problem, those projections will change again (and) we’re going to be right back in this pickle,” he said.
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 4:41 PM.
