Boeing (Seattle, Bellevue, Startup: foreclosed, rent, insurance)

[Backstrom]

Um. Boeing is not leaving. And we are not losing jobs. We are just out of what could have been a few thousand jobs. The day when Boeing was the friendly neighborhood company is gone.

[Under The Clouds]

Yeah, unfortunately the union is clueless. I have to, though, that I don't think Boeing would have opened the second line here even if they had agreed to a no strike clause. Boeing's move to a low wage, right to work state is inevitable.

[Ira500]

Actually, reports are that the union agreed to a ten year contract with no strikes in that ten year period, pretty much what the company said they wanted, and the company chose South Carolina anyway..
Sure, in the past, on too many occassions, the Machinists picked unwise times to strike, so maybe it's a little too late for them to be showing flexibility?

[seattlerain]

I will not be at all surprised to see at some point Boeing move most of its manufacturing overseas.

Once that happens it will not end until we are all reduced to living in shanty towns bordering large smoldering dumps where the population ekes out a living dismantling the products discarded by the ruling class...which would be those who have made fortunes switching the American consumer over from American made products to foreign made products.

[eskercurve]

Something else crossed my mind ...

Boeing is competing against EADS/Northrop for the advanced tanker contract. The Boeing offer is a mix of 777s and 767s modified elsewhere before being shipped to the customer. Where will the extra capacity to build the planes come from if we get the contract if they chose a second line in Everett? They can't build on the 777 line, the 737 line is not set up to handle widebodies, the 747 line is busy with the 747-8 (and they don't want to kill the 747-8 since even though it's a money loser at the moment, eventually it will turn a profit), and the 787 line will be humming but has capacity issues. They had to choose Charleston for my previously mentioned issues ... but they also had to for strategic reasons.

It's a huge gamble, but this will definitely lower the cost of a contract to the gov't, since they won't have to build a new site to support it. One more feather in the quill of Boeing's effort to win that contract.

Now if only the union twerps would shut the hell up about being "betrayed" and stuff. The gov't doesn't want to deal with the unions anymore than they already have to. Why put them off with such belligerent remarks which only highlight the fractious relations with the company? My vote would be to disband the whole lot. Federal regulations prohibit the kind of things which forced unions to come about in the first place.

No, Gregoire doesn't control the unions, but she can definitely force the issue of our state's competitiveness wrt Boeing and manufacturing by declaring the state a Right to Work state. Take the teeth out from the tiger.

[USNRET04]

Clearly low labor costs and cheap land played a big role in landing this. That has always been SC's selling point and is one reason why the state remains mired in poverty and leads the nation in low incomes. The good news with this announcement is that if done right by the state it could be leveraged into other high tech, high skill jobs that would eventually raise incomes in the state. Even if such fails this is great news for the "low country" and a feather in the state's hat.

Welcome to South Carolina Boeing, hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

[Patron of Wrath]

Ultimately it could be argued that both labor unions and right to work states are bad for the economy and the American people. Both should be replaced by a nation-wide employee bill of rights. Back that up with legitimate legislation promoting American companies hiring US based American workers and we'll see improvement in the quality of life in our country...

Of course that line of thought fails to take into account the "function" of government, which [like any power] is to perpetuate itself. Elected officials need money to get elected and hence need to become beholden to special interest. Special interest, for those unaware, is counter to public interest.

[BellevueGuy]

Originally Posted by Patron of Wrath

Ultimately it could be argued that both labor unions and right to work states are bad for the economy and the American people. Both should be replaced by a nation-wide employee bill of rights. Back that up with legitimate legislation promoting American companies hiring US based American workers and we'll see improvement in the quality of life in our country...

You are eseentially talking about Socialism. It would only be an improvement in very short term.

Long term it erodes the economical competitiveness of the US and will lead to a dramatic decline in quality of life for every single person.

[Patron of Wrath]

Which part are we talking about?

The employee bill of rights, essentially, is Affirmative Action that also protects white people. Has Affirmative Action eroded our economic competitiveness? Before we speak negatively of Socialism lets take into account that the Military, Social Security, Welfare, etc, are all Socialist institutions. Socialism is an integral part of our Republic.


Legislation to promote US companies hiring US based American workers is no different that what many countries [China] already do. The idea of a tariff, for example, has existed for hundreds of years to establish fairness between goods going from low wage countries to high wage countries. Mayhap we could change the tax system so companies don't receive tax benefits for the act of outsourcing American jobs to foreign countries. We only have to do enough to establish fairness.

Fact: China artificially and intentionally suppresses the value of their currency in order to continue a long-standing unfair level of trade with wealthy countries [us].

And in case you didn't know, Socialism is the ultimate destination of Democracy. That's a fact that we might as well accept, because the only way around it is revolution, and I don't see that happening any time soon. We could also change the way we vote, but again, that's not likely to happen.

[BellevueGuy]

I am sorry... I am not going to spend time responding to fans of Socialism. And I think we should spend time talking about more constructive ideas like which industries WA can diversify to.