Boeing’s crisis: company failures could undermine U.S. dominance in the aviation industry

On October 9, 2024, the leader of the American Boeing union, which represents about 33,000 employees, said that union members were ready to continue strikes after the breakdown of negotiations on raising wages. On October 12, Boeing’s president also announced the layoff of 17,000 employees, 10% of the total workforce.

This follows a long-running investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration into the defects in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 171 737-9 MAX aircraft, culminating in a US Senate hearing.

The significant fall of Boeing and the Senate’s intervention in this process signals that the aviation industry is strategically important to the United States.