a Boeing supplier can no longer deliver parts

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One of Boeing’s main partners, Spirit AeroSystems, has just put 700 employees on leave, unable to deliver more plane parts to the airline manufacturer hit by an unprecedented strike.

Since September 13, Boeing has been experiencing an unprecedented strike by its employees. The work stoppage of more than 35,000 employees of the aircraft manufacturer has particularly weakened its financial situation, already threatened by the reliability problems of its planes, and its management is currently seeking historic financing, of more than 52 billion of dollars.

In one month, the strike would have already cost Boeing more than $3 billion, which had to significantly slow down its production rate. Its order book, like that of its competitor Airbus, is however full. And faced with such discordance, one of Boeing’s main suppliers, Spirit AeroSystems, has just made the decision to put 700 of its employees on leave for lack of work.

The importance of Spirit AeroSystems to Boeing

Spirit AeroSystems is not an unknown name, in the Boeing file. It is even one of the key players in the aircraft manufacturer’s activity, while this company supplies it with most of the fuselages of its planes, and in particular that of the 737. Belonging to Boeing until 2005, the company has become a simple supplier, also working with Airbus (for the wings of its A220), before Boeing sought to bring its production back in-house for better supervision.

With 700 employees on leave, Spirit Aerosystems has therefore temporarily released 5% of its payroll, according to the company’s latest annual report. A share which could be expected to increase, according to a company spokesperson who told CNBC that “If the strike continues beyond November, we should make additional layoffs and furloughs”. The employees currently on leave would be those from programs 777 and 767.

With these two Boeing aircraft models, the company spokesperson declared that it had formed “a large stock”which would confirm that Spirit AeroSystems had to slow down its production rate following… a sharp slowdown in assemblies on the Boeing side. In its schedule, the aircraft manufacturer has also postponed, once again, the arrival of the 777X to the year 2026. For the moment, Spirit AeroSystems employees in charge of parts for the 737 Max program would not be affected.

During negotiations, Boeing employees and management could finally find common ground; the aircraft manufacturer agreeing to increase salaries by around 35% over four years, compared to the 30% in the last proposal.

On the social network X, the main workers’ union, International Association of Machinists (IAM), wrote: “we have received a negotiated strike resolution proposal that deserves to be considered and presented to our members”. Representing 33,000 strikers, the union will weigh heavily in the final decision, with a vote scheduled for October 23.