700 Spirit AeroSystems employees went on three-week vacation

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Hundreds of workers at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita are starting a 21-day furlough Monday. This is the result of an ongoing strike nearly 2,000 miles from Wichita.

Boeing machinists in Washington state went on strike six weeks ago, delaying aircraft deliveries to Boeing. This means there is no room for aircraft supplies from Wichita.

Currently, 700 Boeing 767 and 777 program workers are off work for 21 days.

Last week, machinists in Washington rejected Boeing’s latest proposal to continue the strike. Spirit said that if the strike continues beyond November, the company will have to consider additional furloughs and even layoffs.

Dr. Larry Straub, an assistant professor of management at Newman University, has followed numerous strikes at Spirit and Boeing for decades. He said most of the economic impact of the holidays would be seen over time, but there would be some short-term financial hits.

“There will be an immediate effect just in the fact that as soon as someone knows that their income stream is sort of cut off and shut off, it has an immediate psychological effect,” Straub said. “This will have a psychological impact on individuals and families. There will be some people who will start to cut back on their discretionary spending, things that they don’t need to spend money on.”

Straub said this stems from the Boeing strike in 2014, when union members lost their pensions. He believes the union will push for these pensions as long as possible, but Boeing has already said this is a non-starter topic.

We don’t know when Boeing and the union will meet again to negotiate.

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