After a tumultuous year, the last thing Boeing needed was a union strike. Shares of the aircraft manufacturing giant touched new 52-week lows on Friday as a labor dispute involving its largest unionized workforce — the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) — was set to enter into a second week.

Boeing said furloughs began on Friday for thousands of employees in Washington State and Oregon, after more than 32,000 workers went on strike last week, halting production of the U.S. planemaker's best-selling 737 MAX and other jets.

Boeing employees still working received a notice on the furloughs Wednesday, which noted that it will encompass tens of thousands of nonunion employees for the duration of strike.

Boeing said furloughs began on Friday for thousands of employees in Washington State and Oregon, after more than 32,000 workers went on strike last week, halting production of the U.S. planemaker's best-selling 737 MAX and other jets.

Boeing said Wednesday it would start furloughs of professional and white-collar staff as it seeks to conserve cash amid a labor strike that shuttered Seattle manufacturing plants -- while talks with a union stalled.

Boeing said furloughs began today for thousands of employees in Washington State and Oregon, after more than 32,000 workers went on strike last week, halting production of the U.S. planemaker’s best-selling 737 MAX and other jets.

Boeing’s CEO says the company will begin furloughing a large number of employees to save cash during a strike by union machinists.

Boeing has started rolling furloughs of nonunion employees as the labor strike by 33,000 union machinists continues.

Boeing said today the head of its troubled space and defense unit is leaving the company immediately, in the first management change under new CEO Kelly Ortberg.

The planemaker finds itself in an increasingly untenable situation with its finances so dire that it can ill afford a drawn-out paralysis.