OCT. 16, 2009:NWLP
10/13/09
10:21 AM
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Boeing dangles jobs to try to get concessions
By Don McINTOSH
Associate Editor
The Boeing Company has become a
repeat offender in using siting decisions
to get what it wants. But the company
may have exhausted its ability to wring
concessions from its unions and the
State of Washington.
In a 32-page report released Sept.
28, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire
outlined why the aerospace giant should
choose Washington as the site of its sec-
ond 787 “Dreamliner” assembly line,
but offered no new incentives for the
company to do so. Meanwhile, the In-
ternational Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has held
firm in the face of a demand that work-
ers give up the right to strike in return
for Boeing picking Washington over a
nonunion locale like South Carolina.
In 2001, the company decided to
sever corporate leaders’ personal ties to
Puget Sound and move its headquarters
closer to customers. Boeing held a sort
of “auction” between Chicago, Denver,
and Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Chicago won
the contest, getting 500 jobs in return for
$56 million in state and local incentives.
That seemed only to whet the com-
pany’s appetite. In 2003, Boeing an-
nounced with great fanfare that its new
7E7 Dreamliner would be a globalized
operation, with 50 suppliers in eight
countries. The site of final assembly
would be left to an “open and fair com-
petition,” i.e., a bidding war.
To win the assembly line, the Wash-
ington Legislature approved an extraor-
dinary package of incentives: a special-
ized tax break, targeted at Boeing alone,
that would reduce the company’s tax
bill an estimated $3.2 billion over 20
years; changes to the unemployment in-
surance system that would reduce what
Boeing pays; funding for aerospace-re-
lated training programs at the Univer-
sity of Washington and community col-
leges in Edmonds and Everett; and road
and infrastructure improvements, in-
cluding an additional pier at the Port of
Mukilteo and a railway line ending just
below Boeing’s Everett facility.
The company reviewed 80 propos-
als from 20 states, and chose to locate
the new 7E7 assembly line at the exist-
ing Boeing facility in Everett.
The next-generation jet, renamed the
787 in 2005, proved a hit with airlines:
The Dreamliner is made of lighter,
more durable composite materials, and
will deliver huge savings in fuel and
maintenance costs. Boeing racked up
over 800 orders for the aircraft, and de-
termined that a second assembly line —
representing an additional 700 to 900
jobs — will be needed in order to meet
demand. The company announced that
South Carolina, Texas, and Kansas
were being considered as locations, as
well as Washington.
Could Washington do more to get
the company to locate a second 787 as-
sembly line in the state? In the report
entitled “The Business Case for Con-
solidating Boeing 787 Assembly in
Washington,” Gregoire reminded the
company why Washington is already a
great place for Boeing to do business:
80,000 trained aerospace workers; out-
standing air, water, rail, and road infra-
structure; ongoing investments in aero-
space workforce training at local
colleges and universities; and favorable
tax laws.
Connie Kelleher, spokesperson for
IAM District Lodge 751 in Washington,
adds one more reason to locate in Wash-
ington — Boeing’s existing workforce
possesses a shared practical knowledge
about how to build Boeing jets that
can’t easily be duplicated.
Kelleher recounts a recent conversa-
tion with a recently hired Boeing ma-
chinist.
“He said, ‘I could have drilled holes
in a classroom forever. But they put me
in the wing line, and I’m standing at the
top of a ladder at a 45 degree angle in-
side a wing, with a mirror in one hand
to see what I’m doing, drilling to a close
tolerance. The only way I could learn
that is for somebody to tell me how to
do it who has done it before.’”
Mistakes in such an environment can
be very costly, both in scrapped parts
and in image, if the public starts to think
Boeing is cutting corners.
“When you’re at 30,000 feet, I don’t
think you want your plane to have been
built by the lowest bidder,” Kelleher
says.
Boeing executives have said they
will make a decision on where to locate
the second assembly line by the end of
the year.
It might not seem that the 1,240 Ma-
chinists at Boeing’s Portland unit have a
stake in the fight over where the new as-
sembly line will be. The unit, actually
located in Gresham, fabricates hundreds
of aircraft parts for Boeing planes, and
isn’t being considered as an assembly
site. But by mid-2009, Boeing was
making noises about using the siting de-
cision to extract a no-strike pledge from
the union, a concession which would af-
fect every Boeing machinist.
Kelleher says the company never di-
rectly proposed a no-strike promise
from the union. The message has come
second-hand from elected leaders, like
Congressman Norm Dicks (D-Bremer-
ton), who told reporters that Boeing’s
decision centers on whether they get as-
surances there won’t be a work stop-
page. A work stoppage would further
delay deliveries of the 787, which is al-
ready two years behind schedule. And
a Boeing vice president told the press
that choosing a final-assembly site
somewhere other than Everett would
enable Boeing to keep its jets rolling out
in the event of a work stoppage there.
The company has said it’s consider-
ing locating the new line next to its non-
union facility in South Carolina. The
IAM organized the 500-worker South
Carolina facility, which Boeing bought
from VoughtAircraft Industries last year.
Workers voted the union out this year.
Long-time union members can’t re-
member there ever having been a
golden age of labor relations with Boe-
ing. It’s a company that bargains ag-
gressively. But unlike most American
workers, Boeing workers have a rare
ability to use the strike weapon to de-
fend their interests. That’s because the
work they do is highly technical and
closely regulated by the Federal Avia-
tion Administration. They can’t be re-
placed when they strike, like so many
other workers.
“Our members are very well edu-
cated and very knowledgeable about
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
OCTOBER 16, 2009