Boeing shares fell 1% after reporting a $6.2 billion loss as it awaits a vote to end the strike.

Boeing reported a quarterly loss of $6.2 billion on Wednesday as a nearly six-week labor strike weighed on its commercial plane division and costly problems dragged down its defense and space businesses.

The embattled aviation giant, which is under scrutiny from regulators following safety problems, will learn later in the day whether Seattle-area workers will accept the company’s latest proposal, which would end a bruising work stoppage.

Quarterly results were telegraphed to the market on October 11, when newly installed Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg announced that the company was cutting 10 percent of its workforce.

In a message to employees, Ortberg said the turnaround will require a “fundamental culture change” as well as steps to stabilize financials, improve operations and craft a future vision for Boeing that allows it to once again become an iconic company and aerospace leader.

Ortberg said the most difficult issue is ending the nearly six-week strike.

About 33,000 workers in the Seattle area are scheduled to vote Wednesday on Boeing’s latest proposal, which includes a 35 percent pay increase over four years.

A Seattle union chief said Tuesday that the vote is expected to be “tight.”

To bolster liquidity, Boeing has announced plans to raise up to $15 billion in securities. Analysts have also said that the company may divest some assets to raise cash.

Ortberg told CNBC that the company has begun a portfolio review that could streamline some assets.

“I would rather err on the side of doing less and doing well than doing more and not doing it well,” Ortberg said in his first media interview as CEO.

He said the job cuts were unrelated to the strike, but necessary because the company was “overstaffed” for its business mission in the coming period.

Even before the strike, Boeing had slowed production at its commercial plane division so much so that a 737 MAX flown by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing in January when a fuselage panel blew off mid-flight.

The near disaster — which comes after two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people — put Boeing under increased regulatory scrutiny.

– Long road ahead –

The company’s recent results were weighed down by $3 billion in one-time cost cuts to its 777X and 767 programs, as well as an ongoing strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

In its defense and space business, Boeing’s results included a $2 billion reduction in costs for a number of programs, including the KC-46A Pegasus Air Force refueling aircraft that had been flagged as problematic in the previous quarter.

Boeing reported a one percent drop in revenue to $17.8 billion.

In the memo, Ortberg called for better management of defense, where the company has seen repeated profits in recent years due to cost overruns on fixed-price contracts.

In September, Boeing defense chief Ted Colbert left the company.

Other key priorities include maintaining Boeing’s investment-grade credit rating and, going forward, beginning to engineer new aircraft.

“But before that we have a lot of work to do,” he added.

In a CNBC interview, Ortberg said the company’s liquidity position is adequate regardless of the outcome of the strike vote.

But he told CNBC that the vote was “important,” adding, “We’ve worked really hard to find that overlap, where we’ve got a deal that employees feel good about and the company can be successful going forward.”

Although he did not suggest plans to scale back Boeing’s space program, Ortberg pointed to commercial aircraft and defense as “core” products that “will always be with the Boeing Company.”

Third Bridge analyst Peter McNally predicted that Boeing’s recovery would not be quick.

“Even if the strike is settled today, Third Bridge experts believe the impact on Boeing will extend beyond the fourth quarter,” McNally wrote, adding that it would take a week to get workers back in place and “at least” another three weeks. Return to normal productivity.

Between that and other problems with operations and the Boeing supply chain, “Third Bridge experts see very little recovery in Boeing deliveries in the coming years.”

Shares fell 1.0 percent in morning trade.

jmb/sst