Boeing Co. said Friday that it had taken the first steps toward closing its sprawling C-17 assembly plant in Long Beach, a shutdown that is expected to be completed by the middle of 2009 unless substantial new orders are placed for the giant military aircraft.
Closing the plant, which employs about 5,500 workers, would deprive Long Beach of its largest private employer and deal a blow to hundreds of subcontractors in Southern California and around the nation that supply parts for the C-17. It also would bring to a close almost a century of airplane manufacturing in Southern California -- once a pillar of the region's economy.
Boeing began telling suppliers Friday to stop producing parts for the C-17. It also told employees of the decision during an all-hands meeting at the plant, which is adjacent to Long Beach airport.
"I wanted to retire here," information technician Mike Brown, 53, said as he left the meeting. "I'm sad. This is possibly the end of an era. But Boeing will go on, and I hope to go on with them."
The Chicago-based aerospace giant stressed that it would aggressively seek additional customers for the C-17 and continue to push Congress and the Air Force for orders that could keep the assembly line running beyond the expected closing date.
"We haven't given up," said Ron Marcotte, vice president of Boeing Global Mobility Systems.
Although the company has enough orders to keep the plant open for three years, many suppliers will quickly feel the pain of Boeing's stop-work directive.
About 700 contractors employing 25,000 workers, 5,700 of them in Southern California, make parts for the C-17, Boeing said, including landing gear, control surfaces and electronics.
Boeing is issuing the order now because lead times for parts can be as long as 34 months. Without additional buyers for the C-17, Boeing would be ordering parts for planes that might never be built.
"We are sorry to see the C-17 program come to an end," said Irv Freund, vice president of sales and marketing for M.C. Gill Corp. in El Monte, which makes crew seats and other components. "We supported it not just from our two Southern California facilities but also from our facility in Maryland."
Freund said his company, which also supplies Boeing's thriving commercial airliner business, should be able to avoid layoffs despite the loss of the C-17 work.
