Boeing strike hurts partner's plant

CHARLESTON, S.C., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A Boeing machinists strike that recently ended has led to layoffs at Vought, one of the aircraft manufacturer's production partners, a company official said.

Vought Aircraft builds the rear fuselage of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner in a new assembly plant in Charleston, S.C. The plant's production lines will likely remain mostly idle into 2009, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday.

This week, about 170 Vought workers and about 20 contract workers in Charleston will be temporarily laid off. The newspaper reported just 30 to 40 production workers will remain at the plant, along with about 150 other staff -- down from about 325 Vought employees and 300 contractors this past summer.

"It feels like we are tearing apart our work force," Joy Romero, Vought's vice president for the 787 program and head of the Charleston facility, told the newspaper. "Our employees were starting to get the learning curve going. We were starting to make progress."

Romero said the cuts were forced by the 58-day Boeing machinist strike that ended early this month.

"Boeing cannot simply 'turn the switch on' and be back up to speed instantaneously. It will take them time to ramp back up," Romero told employees in a memo Monday. "Obviously, Boeing cannot absorb our 787 fuselage sections beyond the capacity of their own assembly line -- which has not been moving."