Boeing Threatens to Move Jobs from Seattle

Boeing and the union had reached a preliminary deal for the fuselage and wings of the 777X long-haul jet to be built in the Seattle area, its traditional manufacturing base. But the deal also called for reduced health care benefits and replaced the traditional pension with a defined contribution savings plan. Hundreds of assembly workers reportedly protested at Boeing’s Everett plant, where most the company’s wide-body jets are currently built, calling for the contract to be rejected.

“I know this is a piece of crap,” a machinists union leader said Thursday. “I will go to see if this can be withdrawn and not even put to a vote.” He reportedly tore up the proposed contract.

Also on Thursday, state lawmakers gathered in Olympia to consider a package of tax and other incentives to keep key manufacturing work on Boeing’s new plane in the state. In 2003, a coalition of lawmakers and the governor provided a broad package of tax breaks and other benefits to Boeing to keep 787 manufacturing in Washington. Yet, in the following years some production was shifted to Japan and a new production line was established in South Carolina.

“Assembly of that airplane will be the lynchpin of economic growth for the state of Washington for decades to come,” Governor Jay Inslee said Thursday. That may be up to Boeing and the union.