“The corporate cure is always the same—lay off workers,” said one critic. “Stock buybacks and layoffs are joined at the hip. It’s time they were outlawed entirely.”
The manufacturing giant Boeing, under the leadership of new CEO Kelly Ortberg, announced Friday that it will axe roughly 10% of its total workforce in the coming months, a move that drew attention to the company’s massive spending on stock buybacks in recent years.
Boeing, which is currently facing a machinist strike, spent an estimated $68 billion on executive-enriching share repurchases and dividends between 2010 and 2019—spending that critics say refutes the company’s claim that layoffs and inadequate worker compensation are necessary.