It's time for Boeing CEO to go straight to union leadership | Gautam Mukunda

Boeing was in tremendous trouble long before the machinist strike, which is in its second month and costing the company $1 billion per month. Since the strike started, things have gone from bad to worse, and it’s not all strike related.

On Friday, Oct. 18, the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new safety review into Boeing as part of its “aggressive oversight to ensure Boeing has the right tools to sustain lasting changes to its safety culture.” The announcement comes after the Transportation Department criticized the FAA’s oversight of the company.

And while Boeing is bleeding cash from the strike, the company secured a $10 billion credit line from banks and told the Securities and Exchange Commission it is considering raising more funds through a stock sale. The company’s credit rating is at risk of becoming “junk.”

But Boeing and its employees, many of whom are facing furloughs or layoffs, aren’t the only ones cut deep from the absence of 33,000 machinists. On Friday, the downstream effect of the strike became clear when Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems announced it would furlough 700 workers for 21 days as the strike eats into its cash and inventory space.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg is only about two months into the job and inherited most of Boeing’s troubles. But the strike negotiations since he took the reins have backfired and further driven a wedge between the company and its workers.

“It’s fair to say, I’m concerned. I don’t think this is Ortberg so much as Boeing operating the way that it has always operated for the last generation or so, but it may be time for him to step in,” said Gautam Mukunda, leadership expert and author of “Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter.”

Mukunda previously detailed the longstanding cultural issues and leadership failures at Boeing in an extended interview with Straight Arrow News after Boeing hired Ortberg. A month after that conversation, SAN followed back up with Mukunda.

“Things are not going better so far for them, and that’s tough,” he said. “Ortberg [has] the opportunity to change the culture. That doesn’t mean that he will. It just means that he could, if he wanted to, and that’s going to be a multi-year process, and this will be the first step.”

While he says it is not typical for CEOs to take center stage in labor negotiations – “He’s got plenty of things that he’s got to manage, including Boeing’s horrific legal difficulties, which they’re still going through” – this might be an instance where that would be beneficial.

“He should meet with the union leaders directly,” Mukunda said. “It’s time for him to go past the negotiators and say, ‘I’m the CEO of Boeing but I’m new, right? I wasn’t here. All the awful things that my predecessors did to you, I didn’t do them. Give me a chance, and we’re going to make this happen.’ Even if that doesn’t resolve the strike immediately, it will at least indicate the seriousness and start to repair the cultural damage.”

But that’s just step one, Mukunda said. For what Ortberg needs to do next, watch the full interview in the video above.

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[kajuta]

Boeing 2019: Lays off over 900 QA's
Boeing 2024: We have more QA's today than we have had since 2019

That spin sums up the state of things at Boeing.
It's been ground to ash by the practices that ran Douglas into the ground.
Anything to cut costs, then cut more, then cut more and more and
Doubling down everytime you fail with expectation the next gamble will be the winning stroke.

[jamesmooney]

History: Westinghouse was a high tech Co. Started in the 1800's, it invented airbrakes for trains, made TV, Radios, washing machines, made the nuclear power for the 1st nuclear powered Submarine.
It was major company in America.
Until, they got a CEO from Freto Lay. When ask whether he was qualified to run Westinghouse, he said Westinghouse makes micro chips, and Freto Lay makes potatoes chips, chips are chips are chips.
Westinghouse is no longer a major company. The CEO walked away with millions.

[Marcos-rihe]

Its not only Boeing. This is a trend among big corps that the only thing that matters is upper management and bonuses!

[hoffrun]

Boeing is not investable in standard terms. Either the US Government decides it needs it or not.

[davidminns]

The loss of the pension was a huge cut in pay and also a loss of guaranteed wages for retirement. The 401K is very volitile and when the dollar crashes so does the retirement, not a good situation for a person in retirement. When the 401K was invented it was sold as a suplimental income to retirement, not your dedicated retirement account - not reliable!!!

[IRONFOX-fyse]

He needs to go to prison. Boeing is unsafe. It cannot grow unless safety is taken seriously.
Unless the U.S. government does not intervene immediately this will turn into a national security problem for the U.S.A. Accountability and transparency are key to performance.
Replace the CEO and the Board today.

[BlkZenith]

The problem is we can't give him a chance.

We've given every person over the last 25 years a chance, and that chance has, pun intended, crashed and burned, with doors coming off mid cataclysm.

Boeing wants to fix their shit? Yes, listen to the people who are ACTUALLY working on the air craft, but PAY them what they're worth.
because lagging behind a decade pay increase wise along with shiester tactics for negotiation and expecting to be given a chance is the definition of a no faith situation.

No chances. We will get what we're worth. Union strong.

[mrpoolplayer]

Maybe Mr. Yaley...., needs to mind his "own Bidness", as Dennis would say, , , , He may be "smart - smart", but his Logic & Common Sense may be "SKEWED"...! Attitudes are Everything.... Fear doesn't work, when they are no longer afraid of you. Money doesn't work, when they have a few bucks in their pocket, everything revolves around motivation, , , if they aren't motivated, forget it....

[ivanteo]

let Union leadership take over CEO, then the workers will be able to get millions of dollars pay increment every month.

[jdiwkall]

If a company is owned by labor, labor doesnt get paid enough to run the company into the ground and the ride off into the sunset with a golden parachutes, unlike executives and CEOs

[TETSUYOSHIUCHIYAMA-brsn]

It’s time to refresh Boeing management their our problem

[saulruiz]

New offer isn’t bad 35% 100% match and other perks pension is some kinda dumb to rely on. Just invest 70 a week into snp let the compound interest take over till retirement

[drzrider]

The only way I would vote for this is if we get to vote out our union leaders at the same time. So give us a pension or give us 40% . one or the other. Ill.be waiting yntil February and then u will just quite after 17 years here

[davefox]

Interesting that Boeing LOW BALLED the Machinists again today.
And by the way, every Major Trade Union in the country still has PENSIONS!

[AbdulAli-cimz]

The company is too big
Split it into smaller companies

[bunk]

Im not voting for a contract until it says we get our pension back after 2-3 years of a reaaonable profit margin. It incentivises workers to make the business profitable and puts one more chip in DBP staying alive. No pension no wrenchin

[ryans]

I am a yes on this new contract they offered today

[PatamaGomutbutra]

Silent majority just wait to vote ACCEPT and back to their passionated career - recover the national aerospace brand. There is no scenario for reinstate pension, increase contribute for vested pensioned employee is fair enought.

[waynedrummond]

Unions do not negotiate. They take kickbacks based on bullying.

[calvinful]

How can you build a new air plane when most of your engineering are new hire…straight out from college or university 😂😂😂
Look at Tesla, why did Elon successful because he’s value skill (experiences over a piece of paper.