Boeing, the aerospace giant that has long dominated the Seattle-area economy, recently announced a large new round of planned layoffs — some 4,000 workers are expected to receive their pink slips by June, followed by another similar-sized workforce reduction by the end of the year.
Amidst all this anxiety and confusion, a credit union long affiliated with the company is attempting to alleviate the concerns of some of its members who may lose their jobs.
Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU), a $14.5 billion institution based in Tukwila, Wash., located just south of Seattle, has about 941,000 members — and estimates that less than 10% are current Boeing employees, according to Tom Berquist, BECU's SVP of marketing and cooperative affairs.
In 2002, BECU opened up its field of membership to include anyone who lives, works, or attends school in the state of Washington (including, of course, Boeing employees and their families).
According to local media reports, the first stage of job cuts at Boeing will impact "hundreds of executives and managers," including a process of "normal attrition" and a voluntary buyout package.
Ray Conner, the chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a unit of the Boeing Co., reportedly told employees in an internal webcast that the company needed to dramatically reduce costs partly due to competitive challenges and pricing pressures from its European rival, Airbus.
But this round of layoffs is only the latest in a series of job eliminations at the airplane manufacturer — tens of thousands of other positions have vanished from the company in the past few decades. In September 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Boeing laid off some 31,000 workers. A few years before that, in 1998, the company eliminated 28,000 jobs from its workforce.
At the beginning of this year, Boeing had a workforce of about 79,000 in Washington — meaning the impending array of job cuts will lead to about a 10% slashing of its workforce in the state. (The company has about 160,000 workers globally).
Berquist said that while the CU does not have a specific program targeted to Boeing employees who may lose their jobs, "we do have a member assistance department that works with any member that is currently facing or anticipates that they will experience a financial hardship."
For example, BECU partners with the non-profit debt management consulting firm BALANCE, through which members can receive free assistance. Such services may include credit counseling, putting together a budget, or, if necessary, a formal debt management plan.
BECU operates branches and ATMs within some Boeing facilities and also has a co-branded debit card for the employees, Berquist added.
"Where appropriate, we are in direct contact with the senior management over these areas," he noted, although BECU does not have direct contact with the unions that represent Boeing employees.
During prior job cuts at Boeing, BECU "responded in a similar fashion as what we are doing now," he added.
For instance, in the wake of the historic layoffs following 9/11, one of the largest such job culls in U.S. corporate history, BECU responded by offering ex-workers free services, including a "Surviving A Layoff" seminar, which offered help on topics like budgeting, unemployment benefit options and coping with creditors. The seminars even featured psychological assistance to affected employees on how to handle the stress that accompanies job loss.
In addition, BECU's former president and CEO Gary Oakland — who held that position from 1986 to 2012 — convinced the board of directors at the credit union to eliminate its "wage-assignment" program, under which the final paychecks of laid off workers would have been applied to their outstanding credit union loans.
Now, in 2016, the shrinking workforce at Boeing — as well as BECU's diversification in membership — reflects a longstanding trend in the overall U.S. economy, namely, the decline of manufacturing jobs and the rise of technology and service positions.
Dr. Anneliese Vance-Sherman, regional labor economist at Washington state's Employment Security Department, noted that in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metropolitan area, the share of jobs in manufacturing dropped from 19% of total nonfarm employment in 1990 to less than 11% in 2015-16. "This relative decline is also documented in levels of employment over the same time period," she said.
