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Former Boeing plant in Spokane faces layoffs

By David Bowermaster
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

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Triumph Composite Systems, as the Spokane facility is now known, builds floor panels, air ducts and other components for airplane interiors.

Boeing is the plant's primary customer.

Jennifer MacKay, president of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) union and a worker at the Spokane plant, said she believed 25 production workers, three managers and four technical and engineering workers represented by SPEEA were targeted.

Machinists union spokeswoman Connie Kelliher confirmed members received notices but she did not know how many.

Triumph told the union it would provide a definitive count today.

A spokesman for Wayne, Pa.-based Triump did not return calls seeking comment.

The plant employed about 320 workers at the time of the January 2003 sale. Production workers agreed to a 15 percent pay cut at the time in exchange for Triumph's pledge there would be no immediate layoffs.

Three managers were laid off Wednesday night and escorted out of the plant, said Dave Van Tine, a SPEEA council representative in the factory.

Affected Machinists and SPEEA members were told individually yesterday their jobs were being cut, Van Tine said.

SPEEA is contesting Triumph's process for cutting its members, so those layoffs are on hold. The last day of work for laid-off Machinists will be March 19.
 
"(Boeing's) production rates have gone down, and we haven't gotten a lot of new work in here," Van Tine said, noting Triumph has been trying to secure contracts with Airbus and other manufacturers.

"It's getting to be slim pickings," he said.

Last year's sale of the Spokane plant was one of several deals in which Boeing sold component-making facilities to suppliers because it wanted to buy the parts rather than build them.

Boeing sold a military-aircraft parts plant in St. Louis to GKN Aerospace in 1997 and a wiring plant in Corinth, Texas, to France's Labinal a year ago.

A sale of a third facility in Irving, Texas, is expected to close in the coming weeks.

An even bigger spinoff could be in the works. Boeing is exploring a sale of its massive plant in Wichita, Kan., according to an internal strategic-planning document obtained by The Seattle Times.

That plant employs roughly 12,400 people who build parts for nearly every Boeing airplane, including the fuselages of narrowbody 737s and 757s.

David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com

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