Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 15, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  John Welsh, Employment Security Department. 360-902-9316

Locke hails federal grant for laid-off Boeing workers

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke today hailed the award of a $20.4 million National Reserve Grant to help thousands of laid-off Boeing Company workers return to work in jobs paying a living wage.

President Bill Clinton and U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman announced the award of the grant from the U.S. Department of Labor this afternoon.

"We need to help workers in our state adjust to the new economy and to keep family wage jobs in our state," Locke said. "While our economy is prospering, employers cannot find the workers with the skills they need to perform the jobs of today and in the next millennium. This federal grant will help workers get the training they need to fill the jobs in Washington's new economy."

Clinton and Herman also announced a grant of up to $4 million to assist approximately 375 workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the closure of Packard Bell/NEC in Fife, Intel Corporation in Dupont, and Matsushita Semiconductor in Puyallup.

A Joint Labor Management Committee, The Boeing Company, and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) and Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association (SPEEA) unions have collaborated to provide reemployment services to help laid-off Boeing employees get back to work with the skills for which employers are looking.

The funds from the National Reserve Grant will be administered by the Washington State Employment Security Department and operated primarily through the Private Industry Councils covering King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.

"The cooperation of The Boeing Company, union representatives, and the service providers in putting the proposal together was the key to a favorable decision," commented Al Starr, director of the Seattle-King County Private Industry Council. "That same level of collaboration will make the operation of the program equally successful."

Some of the layoffs will be handled through attrition, retirement, and moving skilled workers into other positions within the company.

"The current Boeing reemployment effort applies lessons learned from a pilot project we used during the last downturn in the 1993-95 time frame," said Jim Dagnon, senior vice president of the People organization at Boeing. "This time, we're able to reach out and offer enhanced services to Boeing people throughout Washington State."

In addition to the grant resources, partners have contributed staff and other resources and will continue to do so during the reemployment project activities. These partners include The Boeing Company, IAM, SPEEA, IAM/Boeing Quality Through Training Program, SPEEA/Boeing Ed Wells Initiative, the community college system, Private Industrial Councils, and the Employment Security Department.

"The layoffs predicted by Boeing for 1999 and 2000 will affect SPEEA-represented employees to a much greater extent than five years ago," said Charles Bofferding, executive director of SPEEA. "I'm pleased that the grant's scope and administration policy will give engineers and technical workers assistance for their specific needs."

Over a 26-month period, funds from the grant will serve Boeing workers, mostly in aerospace occupations. Individual service strategies will be developed for each worker with an assessment of services needed to get back to work.

"The services provided by this grant will supplement other types of training already in operation through the Union's cooperation with Boeing," said Bill Johnson, president of IAM District 751. "There will be opportunities for workers to prepare resumes, attend job search workshops, use the Internet to find jobs, and, if needed, access resources for retraining if they don't already have marketable skills."

The service providers will be looking at the skills of these workers to develop services that enable them to reenter the workforce as soon as possible. A new web page at Reaching Out has been set up especially to help Boeing workers.

"We've put together a tremendous partnership to make these services successful," said Employment Security Commissioner Carver Gayton. "For example, special curriculum at the community colleges will help provide laid-off employees with marketable occupations. Also, apprenticeships will allow unions and employers to give people an opportunity to learn new skills through experience."

Many of the laid-off workers will be eligible for help in finding new jobs or getting training for new careers. A total of $1.5 million will be awarded immediately to the Tacoma Pierce County Private Industry Council and Thurston County Job Development and Training which will jointly operate the project in Grays Harbor, King, Mason, Pierce, and Thurston counties.

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