Boeing announces 1,000 layoffs

Boeing has announced 1,000 layoffs nationwide from its Integrated Defense Systems department, with many of the cuts expected to come in Huntington Beach.

Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems employs 4,545 people at its Huntington Beach plant. The company didn’t have details as to exactly how many jobs will be eliminated at that site.

“At this point, we don’t have a whole lot of details,” said Dan Beck, a Boeing spokesman.

Affected employees should be notified in the coming days, Beck said. Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, attributed the layoffs to, among other things, budget cuts and a shifting in customer priorities, in a letter he sent out to nearly 70,000 employees July 13.

“I know that our workforce is one of the most talented aerospace teams in the world and every effort will be made to keep as many of the affected employees as possible,” Albaugh wrote in the letter. “To that end, Human Resources will be working with impacted employees to identify open positions and to move work packages.”

Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems, which just signed a contract for $42 million with the Navy to improve its internal communications, employs just under 70,000 nationwide. Other affected sites include Anaheim, Long Beach, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Houston, Texas.

Albaugh expressed his sympathies to the employees who will be notified of their job losses.

“I remain committed to do everything possible to minimize these head count impacts and it is painful to send you this information,” he wrote. “I know that is of little solace to those of you ultimately affected.”