Posted on 11/14/2013 6:52:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
This will probably come as no surprise to those who watched the federal government stepping in to help unions strongarm manufacturers in the last few years, but Boeing is back in the news with more labor issues. The aerospace giant is getting ready to unveil their newest jet – the 777X – which had been widely expected to be built in the Seattle area as so many of their other lines have been. But at the last minute, the unions decided the deal wasn’t fat enough for their tastes.
Boeing workers’ rejection of a new labour deal has sent the U.S. planemaker in search of alternative sites to build its newest jet and could mark the beginning of the end for wide-body aircraft manufacturing in the Seattle area.
The vote by machinists late on Wednesday revealed strong opposition to the deal that Boeing said it needed to commit to building its 777X jet in Washington, with no indication whether fresh talks would take place.
The Seattle plant builds the current 777, but the 777X is seen as crucial to Boeing’s future as the successor to its most profitable long-haul aircraft. The 777X is expected to be launched at next week’s Dubai Airshow with the announcement of more than 100 orders.
Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney declined to say in a TV interview on Wednesday whether the vote was a take-it-or-leave-it deal. “There are options for us to look at and we will evaluate them and decide,” he told an NBC affiliate in Seattle.
The number of jobs and associated economic stimulus this project represents is staggering, but the machinists union was able to put the brakes on the entire deal. And what horrible treatment did they feel that Boeing was handing down to them this time?
The rejection surprised observers from Wall Street to Tokyo, where many had expected the union to back a plan that would have replaced their pension with a second savings-contribution plan and raised healthcare costs in exchange for Boeing locating the 777X factory in Washington state, sustaining an estimated 20,000 jobs for a generation.
In order to remain competitive, Boeing needed a restructuring – not elimination – of one portion of the union’s pension structure and some additional buy-in on health care costs. But that was clearly a bridge too far. And this came on the heels of a state-wide effort to give generous breaks and other options to the employer to keep the work in the local area, to the tune of $8.7 billion in tax incentives.
But apparently if you ask the unions to participate in the process and work with – rather than against – the people creating the jobs, that’s just outrageous and out of the question. It would be hard to blame Boeing at this point if they simply packed up and took their business to a state with a more reliable and less expensive work force. I bet Tennessee wouldn’t mind 20,000 new jobs. Any takers out there?
Plenty of room in East Tennessee for a Boeing plant.
Texas is open for business. Boeing, contact Gov. Perry. The area around Ft. Worth would be great.
As for Seattle? ‘Let them drink Starbucks...’
Sounds like the North Charleston story all over again….which Boeing Model is that…the 787?
Arizona wouldn’t be a bad place to be.
Well they can come back to Kansas!
and could mark the beginning of the end for wide-body aircraft manufacturing in the Seattle area….
No, that was when they signed their first union contract. This is just another step along that road…..
Now that ZEro is neutered with Obamacare, Boeing can do this without much fear of gubment retribution.
If the State of Michigan is smart, they will contact Boeing and work a deal with them to occupy the old B-25 plant at Willow Run airport.
The plant was built by Ford during the war and is now empty (former Chevy assembly plant) The State has been trying to find uses for it and couldn’t. What could be better? A plant already attached to a runway with close proximity to a skilled manufacturing workforce. And Michigan is now a right-to-work state. Could be a win-win for everyone.
What about the National Labor Relations Board? Will they interfere again?
RE: Well they can come back to Kansas!
1) What did they make in Kansas before?
2) What made them leave?
It’s the greedy unions, pensions for life, etc. Instead of getting the moon they wanted, they get nothing. That’s how it works, but they never learn.
The union wants all the jobs or nobody gets them. They aren’t mentioning that a good many of the jobs connected to this are already being done in union shops. My cousin in the UAW works for one of the parts suppliers for the Boeing job here in Michigan.
Come on down! We’re open for business.
The libs in states like MA and other snooty “progressives” absolutely hate that the southern red states are expanding with Nissan, Volkswagon, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, BMW & Mercedes and recently new to the list to be added a HUGE Air Bus facility. They’d much rather us remain picking cotton, preferably by hand than to ever have any success on our own with our GOP Governors. Then they start throwing out the usual slurs and how red states take more federal dollars . . . well I got a solution for that too . . . a 500.00 gift card and a one way bus ride for all the welfare and food stamp recipients to the blue state of their choice. :)
Which is a really, REALLY stupid statement for obvious reasons..and just shows how clueless they are..
That’s what I’m saying. Maybe, just maybe, Zero is up to his @$$ in Obamacare and can’t dedicate any energy toward garbage like this.
South Carolina!
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