Gov. Inslee signed nearly $9 billion worth of tax incentives for Boeing into law today in an effort to win the 777X jetliner project. The governor's office estimates the project is worth 56,000 jobs and $21 billion over the next 16 years. Now Boeing is waiting to see if the machinists union will accept changes to pension and health care plans that will lower costs to the company.
"This is not about takeaways," said Boeing Commercial Airplane President Ray Conner. "This is about trying to ensure our mutual future here in the Puget Sound that's what this is about." Boeing put that future in question when it built the second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in South Carolina. But some machinists believe the company is bluffing with talk of building the new 777X outside of Washington state. "It's not a bluff. It's not a bluff," said Conner, who grew up in a Boeing family near Renton. "My hope, my sincere hope, is that we don't even have to think about doing this. Hopefully we can get a good vote, come Wednesday. Then it's easy."
Inslee won't discuss a Plan B if the machinists reject Boeing's offer. "Every machinist is going to make their individual decisions, the governor said. "What our state decided is that we decided not to roll the dice on the loss of 56,000 jobs. We thought those jobs were too important to go to the roulette table in that regard."
The contract concessions were negotiated with the International Machinist Union out of Washington. Local machinist President Tom Wroblewski reportedly ripped up a copy in front of a union meeting last week, but at the signing ceremony he was subdued. "This is a very emotional decision for our members," Wroblewski said after the ceremony. "What's at stake here is jobs for the future. Jobs to build the 777X for 20-25 years."
KIRO
