Boeing Co. said Thursday it will lay off fewer than 200 workers at its 787 Dreamliner campus in North Charleston, S.C., a plant that President Trump visited earlier this year, where he promoted his “Buy America” pledge.
The Post and Courier reported that the job cuts are part of a companywide effort to reduce costs in Boeing's commercial airplane division to compete with its French rival Airbus.
“We are all aware of the need to be more competitive in a relentlessly challenging industry,” Joan Robinson-Berry, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, said in an employee memo. “While we understand the business need, it doesn't make this action any easier.”
Trump visited the South Carolina plant in February for the debut of Boeing’s 787-10. While there, he touted his efforts to save American jobs and threatened a “substantial penalty” on companies that shift their operations overseas.
“As your president, I’m going to do everything I can to unleash the power of the American spirit and to put our great people back to work,” Trump said at the time. “It has to be much easier for manufacturers in our country, and much harder [for them] to leave.”
Boeing is the second business that Trump has visited to later announce layoffs.
The Carrier plant in Indianapolis, which Trump convinced to stay open late last year, will lay off more than 600 employees beginning next month.