
Thousands of workers jobs cut as former boss walks away with $62M - soapboxrocket
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/01/boeing-workers-spirit-layoffs-future-unsure
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jonex
The previous chief executive was "contractually entitled to receive $62.2m in
stock and pension awards" that was accrued over 35 years at the company, but
"he did not receive any severance pay or a 2019 annual bonus".

How this is relevant in connection to the loss of jobs due to production
interruptions is not at all clear. My impressions is that it's only made as
clickbait in the hope that the reader would believe that he got it as
severance or bonus payment.

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TaylorAlexander
The question is whether these contracts make sense. Why are the people who
fabricate the aircraft treated as expendable while the executives get a golden
parachute? Why was this contract considered sound in the first place while
some workers can get fired with immediate closure of their health care?

It makes one wonder if the workers should unionize. I do understand multiple
companies (Boeing and several suppliers) are mentioned here, so maybe some of
them have some kind of union. But the story is a microcosm of our times. A CEO
who seems complicit in an episode that killed many and lost the company $13B
gets paid enough to relax in luxury forever while the regular people who had
nothing to do with the problem or actively fought against it suffer.

To me, the fact that the CEOs contract was agreed upon in advance does not
suddenly make this situation fine. Perhaps we need to reformulate massive
companies like this as worker owned cooperatives. Certainly in my mind we need
to end the huge unequal privilege that executives have, however that should
work out.

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bobbob1921
bc we live in a free labor market , and that is what it takes to attract
talent at the c level (+ supply/demand).

not sure why this same scrutiny does not apply to pro athletes or
actors/recording artists.

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InTheArena
Spirit Aerosystems has been a consistent problem for Boeing. Quality problems
there are so great that people are flying planes from Kansas to Washington to
get their safety and quality check out. Boeing, the union, and the workers all
have turned a blind eye to quality and safety, and that’s why people - the CEO
and the workers - are entitled to what they have in a contact. That does not
cover future employment. the ultimate outcome here was easily predictable by
anyone watching Boeing on the last 10 years, and by no means is the problem
only at the top.

Boeing is heading towards a government bail out very rapidly.

~~~
mroche
> Boeing is heading towards a government bail out very rapidly.

If this situation comes into reality and the government or another institution
does not bail Boeing out, what kind of impact would we expect to see on the
aerospace industry and community?

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InTheArena
It’s happened in the past - most notably when Rolls Royce screwed up the
engine for the Lockheed L-1011, taking both companies down. Both were bailed
out by their respective governments( RR was government owned, Lockheed
received loans with government backing) but Lockheed left the commercial
sector despite easily having the best plane in the market.

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lotsofpulp
>“I’m going through the struggle of finding a job, which is hard enough here
in Wichita without 2,800 others also looking.”

This is why people put up with the high cost of living cities.

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superbrane
CEO was rewarded for increasing artificially the stock price, through stock
buy backs. He did a good job at that and a bad job at managing an industrial
company. That s how big companies start to fail, they lose sight of what
matters.

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purplezooey
_" I’m going through the struggle of finding a job, which is hard enough here
in Wichita without 2,800 others also looking.”_

This is like being a software engineer and living somewhere outside the BA.

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Pfhreak
This is what capitalism looks like. This is happening all over, and shouldn't
come as any particular surprise to anyone.

We've been on this neoliberal track for the past 40-50 years and it's
consistently been to the benefit of the bosses at the top and none of the
workers below.

I'd love to see more coops, more unions, heck, even nationalizing some
companies (like Boeing in particular) and putting different objectives in
place than purely capital gain.

Unions aren't a silver bullet. Some unions are bad. Coops aren't a silver
bullet, and some coops are bad. But we're clearly much too far in the
neoliberal capitalist sphere now.

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egdod
That’s nothing. Look at the numbers for WeWork and Adam Neumann.

