In the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the horrific attacks that brought down the World Trade Center buildings, Boeing decided to take certain measures to ensure their financial stability and competitiveness in the aerospace and commercial airline sales market. The Boeing Company decided to reduce its overall workforce.

According to official reports released by Boeing, there were two major factors or forces of influence in which prompted Boeing to decide in reductions. One of the reasons was due to recent cutbacks by the United States Government in their Delta satellite launch program. The other was the sudden drop in the amount of air travel by people in general because of the September 11th tragedy. Many believed that perhaps this could be considered a move in self-preservation of the whole as opposed to the needs of the few. The problem now was to announce a lay-off plan to all personnel and a time

Layoffs of this magnitude are not uncommon in the aircraft industry when sales are slow. The initial phase was with 18,000 personnel sent to the unemployment office or early retirement from their aerospace divisions. It was only a matter of time before the layoffs would reach our facility due to the fact that we are a major supplier of military related hardware to the United States government. When the lay-off announcement reached out and touched us, it reduced our work force from 1800 to just under 300 total personnel. During the last phases of the initial lay-off process in our plant, there were a small group of technicians, engineers and managers who were informed that they would be reassigned to the manufacturing line as assemblers. This was done, they say, to save their jobs. This, however, would come at a great cost. On the average, these employees would have to take close to a 50 percent cut in salary if they decided to accept the new positions as assemblers. This was completely unacceptable due to various financial commitments such as mortgages, student loans and life expenses in general that most of them have incurred. Not one of them accepted the job extensions and as a result, opted for an accelerated lay-off. Needless to say, these employees were rather insulted by the offer.

What thought processes went into the decision to ask these people who were accustomed to an average salary of between 30 to 60 thousand dollars a year and expect them to survive on a mere 20 to 25 thousand year? This was a ludicrous assumption on Boeing’s behalf. It was as if they knew that these employees would rather quit and find employment elsewhere rather than face inevitable bankruptcy. To describe this type of influence as being persuasive would be sadly understated. To surmise that these employees were singled out as to gender, race, religion or background would not be correct. There has been no evidence that they were chosen as to those criteria. Numbering around 100, they made up a fairly diverse cross section of the workforce that was employed at our facility at the time. They were also very productive workers in their in

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