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Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement to employees Friday afternoon that the company will lay off about 10% of its staff “over the coming months.”

“We must also reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities,” Ortberg said in the statement.

The CEO added the reductions will include executives, managers and employees. The statement sent to employees was forwarded to members of the media by a company spokesperson, including ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, Friday.

“As we move through this process, we will maintain our steadfast focus on safety, quality and delivering for our customers,” Ortberg’s letter to employees states. “We know these decisions will cause difficulty for you, your families and our team, and I sincerely wish we could avoid taking them. However, the state of our business and our future recovery require tough actions.”

In its coverage of the development, did the math and reported 10% of jobs translates to about 17,000 jobs. the company has about 170,000 employees worldwide, many of them working in manufacturing facilities in the states of Washington and South Carolina.

Ortberg added that leadership will share “more tailored information” with their teams about what this means for organizations across the company.

The CEO’s letter added in the announcement that, given the layoff decision, the company won’t proceed with the next cycle of furloughs it had previously instituted. 

Looking at other key aspects of Ortberg’s letter to employees, he said the timeline of the 777X program has been changed and delayed. The company has notified customers it now expects first delivery of those products in 2026. The CEO cited “challenges we have faced in development, as well as from the flight test pause and ongoing work stoppage” as reasons for the delay.

Ortberg also reported Boeing will build and deliver the remaining 767 freight planes customers ordered and “then conclude production of the commercial program in 2027.” Production for the KC-46A Tanker will go on, however.

Announcement comes as machinist strike drags on

Aside from a passing mention of an “ongoing work stoppage,” Ortberg did not mention the strike by 33,000 machinists currently impacting the company’s business in his statement.

Boeing officially withdrew its latest contract offer that would have given striking workers 30% raises over four years after talks broke down.

Previous coverage: Boeing withdraws latest contract offer from striking workers

In response, the union, International Association of Machinists (IAM) and Aerospace Workers District 751, said their members “will remain united and defiant of one of the most powerful companies in the world.” The union previously surveyed its members after receiving Boeing’s most recent offer, who overwhelmingly rejected it.

Going further, Boeing filed a complaint Thursday over what it calls unfair labor practices against the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Boeing in its complaint with the National Labor Relations Board said that the union’s public narrative is misleading and has made it difficult to reach a resolution.

Members of the union, which represents the factory workers who assemble some of the company’s planes, have been striking since Sept. 13. The union rejected Boeing’s first proposal that included 25% raises, lower than the union’s original demand of a 40% salary increase over three years.

‘Airlines have long memories:’ Analyst weighs in on Boeing

Aviation analyst Mike Dunlop told ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio Friday he isn’t surprised by this development, given that Boeing has been spending a large amount of money recently.

“The company is burning through cash. Their main cash airlines is the 737 and that’s ground to a halt,” Dunlop said.

Citing a time when Boeing angered American Airlines and the airline didn’t buy Boeing planes for about a decade, Dunlop noted this level of upheaval could impact the airplane manufacturer down the line.

“The airlines do have long memories,” Dunlop said to ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. “So, even though there isn’t an immediate alternative, the airlines can not survive an unreliable supplier because of the impact on them.”

Dunlop also said Boeing needs to make its workers happy or airlines will seek different supplier elsewhere.

“They have to break the back of this from a standpoint of having the workers feeling satisfied, they’re being compensated the way that they want to be compensated, Dunlop said. “Otherwise, they’re just pushing the can down the road.”

From Feliks Banel: Summoning Boeing history to help restore the company culture

Boeing deals with multiple other issues

The strike is stretching on as Boeing deals with . It has shut down production of 737s, 777s and 767s. Work on 787s continues with nonunion workers in South Carolina.

While not in Ortberg’s letter to employees, Boeing also gave a preliminary report on its third-quarter financial results — and the news is not good for the company.

Boeing said it burned through $1.3 billion in cash during the quarter and lost $9.97 per share. Industry analysts had been expecting the company to lose $1.61 per share in the quarter, according to a FactSet survey, but analysts were likely unaware of some large write-downs that Boeing announced Friday — a $2.6 billion charge related to delays of the 777X, $400 million for the 767, and $2 billion for defense and space programs including new Air Force One jets, a space capsule for NASA and a military refueling tanker.

Also this week, S&P Global Ratings put Boeing Co. on its “CreditWatch Negative” list, citing increased financial risk because of the strike.

“We estimate the company will incur a cash outflow of approximately $10 billion in 2024, due in part to working capital buildup to support manufacturing process overhaul and costs associated with the strike,” S&P wrote.

The addition to S&P’s CreditWatch means there is an increased likelihood of a credit downgrade, which could make it more expensive for the company to borrow money.

‘I remain concerned:’ FAA needs to take rudder issues on Boeing 737 MAX more seriously, NTSB says

Also on Friday, relatives of passengers who died in two crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes came to a federal court in Texas on Friday to listen as their lawyers asked a judge to throw out a plea agreement that the aircraft manufacturer struck with prosecutors and put the company on trial.

Their lawyers argued that Boeing’s punishment — mainly a fine amounting to about $244 million — would be too light for misleading regulators about a flight-control system that malfunctioned before the crashes. They accused Boeing and the Justice Department of airbrushing facts and ignoring that 346 people died in the crashes.

Boeing also got attention for all the wrong reasons when  that a Boeing spacecraft wasn’t safe enough to carry two astronauts home from the International Space Station.

Contributing: Sam Campbell, ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio; The Associated Press

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on , or email him here.