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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   S.C. gov signs incentive package for Boeing By Bruce Smith Associated Press NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has signed an incentive package passed as part of a successful bid to lure airline maker Boeing to build an assembly plant in the state. Sanford signed the bill today in North Charleston. He handed out 10 pens to officials who helped with the negotiations and says one will go to a machinist at the existing Boeing plant in North Charleston that makes parts for the 787 wide-bodied jetliner. The package is worth $170 million in low-interest loans, plus sales and income tax incentives, if Boeing spends at least $750 million and creates at least 3,800 jobs within seven years. Lawmakers passed the package Wednesday just before the Chicago-based airline maker tapped North Charleston over Everett for the plant.   Related Stories • Did Democrats botch 787 deal? Republicans say so 10/30/09 • SPEEA fears long-term impact of 787 decision 10/30/09   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, October 30, 2009 Demands were clear to Machinists, Boeing says Machinists knew what was needed for Everett to land second 787 line, company says By Michelle Dunlop, Herald Writer EVERETT — The Boeing Co. rejected Machinists' claims on Thursday that the company wasn't clear about what was needed to place the second 787 line in Everett. “We very clearly laid out our objectives and our need to have the union's best offer for an agreement by mid-October,” wrote Boeing's Doug Kight and Ray Conner in a message to managers Thursday. The message came just a day after Boeing leaders picked Charleston, S.C., over Everett as the home of its second 787 assembly line. The decision will create thousands of jobs in South Carolina at a time when Boeing is cutting 6 percent of its work force throughout the company. Boeing management said that labor stability and long-term competitiveness factored highly in their decision-making process. Kight and Conner disputed Machinists leaders claims that the jet maker was not interested in bargaining with the union. Local Machinists president Tom Wroblewski called the talks a “sham” on Wednesday, saying that Boeing used the talks as a bargaining chip to get more tax breaks out of South Carolina. That state's Legislature called a special session this week to pass tax incentives worth as much as $450 million to land Boeing. “We were totally flexible,” Wroblewski said. “We were willing to talk about anything. ... (Boeing) never told us what they wanted.” Boeing's Kight and Conner said Thursday that they asked for a 10-year contract extension from the Machinists but were offered only an eight-year deal. The Boeing managers wanted annual wage increases of 2 percent but the Machinists offered only 3 percent. The two also remained far apart on striking an agreement on increases in pension, Kight and Conner said. Boeing and the Machinists leaders agreed that cost-sharing on health care was necessary but couldn't agree upon a date to start. A key point of contention: The Machinists wanted a guarantee that Boeing would base future airplane programs in the Puget Sound region far into the future. “We told the IAM (Machinists) that we wouldn't be able to make commitments on future airplanes so far into the future,” Kight and Conner said. Wroblewski told Machinists members on Wednesday that, in fact, Boeing leaders would not commit to placing the second 787 line in the region even had the union agreed to the new long-term contract. “We found ourselves bargaining with ourselves,” Wroblewski said. As the deadline for having a final offer into Boeing grew near, Kight and Conner said they told “the IAM clearly and repeatedly that their offer did not meet the objectives.” That's why Boeing said it declined last-minute talks with the Machinists, as requested by officials in Washington, D.C. Boeing hopes to have its Charleston line open by mid-2011. The company already owns a 787 parts factory, which it bought from former supplier Vought earlier this year. The workers at that site voted out the Machinists union in September. “The Puget Sound region is the hub for aerospace talent,” Kight and Conner wrote. “Puget Sound and Charleston combined are a great engine for growth and a successful future for us all.” READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out lol If Boeing Machinists go on strike the very next contract, well paybacks are a *****. If I ran Boeings, FIRE ALL OF THEM, move other 787 line out of Everett. Done, no more UNION. No more UNION's diggin into my profit margin. By UNION! morons... Craig French | Oct 30, 2009 12:27 pm | 1 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Get used to it because it will happen over and over again Get your head out of the 1950's. It's globalization buddy. If it's not going to be built in Charleston it will be China. Just give it 10 years and it will be. In the end you will be working the rice fields so the Chinese can be fed---and it will be way below minimum wage. K Dog | Oct 30, 2009 1:40 am | 1 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Fly Airbus? Live Another day? Hey Rich - are you crazy or something? Tell that to the folks that were on the Air France Airbus A330 that went down in the Atlantic a couple of months ago, or the folks that were on the American Airlines Airbus A300 that crashed in Queens in 2001... live another day? -- not for those 500+ people... FLY BOEING JETS!!!!!!! Joseph Benn | Oct 30, 2009 8:32 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal What labor pool? Face it folks, there are many highly skilled and high tech workers in S.C.....But, they already have good jobs. There was a news clip on tv last night showing the new training program already in place down there and it looked like they were training people how to hold things in their hands. What boing is going to get are the leftovers from all the textile mills that left the south for mexico. Fly Airbus and live another day!! Rich Kruml | Oct 30, 2009 9:22 am | 1 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal 787 and the Union What's interesting to me is that had the union not been voted out in S.C., the union would be welcoming the 3800 jobs for "Our brothers and Sisters down south". Since the union was voted out however, now everyone in S.C. is a low wage unskilled worker who doesn't know what they are doing. I guess that means voting out the union automatically removes any skill you have. I'm thinking that every single one of the union members in washington state was a new hire at one point and knew NOTHING, and had to be trained. You cannot seriously think no one in S.C knows what they are doing. They WERE represented by OUR union. Now they've chosen to opt out, and the union that loved them so much, now hates them with everything they have. Everyone who has been recalled, where was the union when you were laid off? Would they talk to you? Would they give you any information? Were they nice to you? Did the union newspaper continue to come to your house? No,they wanted nothing to do with you because you weren't paying any dues, you were nothing to them. You were abandoned by them until you were recalled, which is the ONLY privelage you had. The privelage now costs $60.00 + a month, and for that you get a neat pen, it's almost impossible to get fired so you don't have to work much if at all, and all the doughnuts you can eat... Marvin Miller | Oct 30, 2009 7:03 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Let 'em go! Just let Boeing move all of their plane manufacturing out of the Puget Sound. Airbus will be licking their chops at a stateside manufacturing plant with the building in place and a large skilled aerospace workforce already in place. It doesn't matter to me who my paycheck comes from. Airbus deals with unions and has no problem making and delivering airplanes on time. mike kristek | Oct 30, 2009 6:11 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal JUST SAY NO I WONT GO! Why would anybody volunteer to go to SC to help them? Boeing chose them over us so lets see if they can figure it out with out us. "JUST SAY NO I WONT GO" They can not make you go. todd christensen | Oct 30, 2009 5:10 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Things are Great Why all the sad faces people? Don't you know that Boeing is not replacing the Pacific Northwest jobs, they are just adding jobs somewhere else. I mean really now! Just like they were just getting permits for the land in SC, they were not really going to build there, it was just a permit. There is no need to fear for your job, Boeing likes the Union and wants to keep the lines on communication open to create a harmonious working environment. Learn to accept what is wrong and call it right, its the new globalist economy. Take pride in your work as they take pride in you. The machinists are a value added resource that Boeing needs to build a world class airplane. Don't worry about the layoffs, they are just streamlining the workforce to produce a more efficient workplace. Keep up the production and you will be rewarded.....right? Give them your ideas to improve the processes so that they can pass your ideas onto another state or country. I mean really now, who else is going to fix all those non-union defects. Don't worry if it takes you a long time to fix all the defects, they will just blame the union for a strike that they wanted and create a smokescreen for the investors and the press. I mean really now, why all the sad faces. Think happy thoughts and get back to work...they need you and you are appreciated. Right? G. Smith | Oct 30, 2009 12:44 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal PROBLEM is : BOEING IS NOW RUN by NUMBER CRUNCHERS BOEING for a log time moved away from an Engineering Company to one being run by *(#@* NUMBER CRUNCHERS !! Don't get your panties up in a knot. SC will lose too !. They will regret the BOEING name & deal in 3- 5 years.. 1. Giving up 10yrs of sales, construction, fuel , B& O taxes given up- for what?-- 3,800 jobs with no union. 2. After the 2nd line is up & running-they only need 800 , because it's so automated. Bye-bye 3000 non-union workers.. 3. instead of Both States giving away the farm- they should have put the pinch on BOEING to finally pay up...!! The Puget Sound region has lost plenty over the years to Boeing concessions... Remember Renton, ..... In three to five years SC will realize their mistake.. too bad ,..... Everybody loses. j arrabito | Oct 30, 2009 12:41 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal SC Does anyone trust the union or Boeing in this situation. It would be nice if someone had a taped transcript or if the confidentiality wasn't there so that the union leadership could tgo back and make weekly reports to its members so that they could get directions. But this did not happen. The Seattle Times informed the members through a leak placed close to the top. Perhaps next time both parties can more actively inform the stewards through daily updates so that we can be informed. The next negotiations come up in 2012, coincidentally 1 year after SC is supposed to come on line. Will Boeing Puget Sound continue to be a union shop? Yes. The dangers and demands of the job make it so. Unlike the auto industry, after 2 years of pounding your bones, knees, shoulder and back muscles building commercial airliners, permanently wrecking your body, workers need protections. Will Boeing South Carolina hire enough workers to make it attractive to unions? Yes. But then you have China to contend with, with an unending supply of people and the previous position of the government to provide a job to each and every person. As I have said before, regardless of who said what in the negotiations, this is great for the Puget Sound region. We have the opportunity now since we KNOW Boeing is leaving. Many companies have instantly closed shop and left. They did not close Everett. They are gradually moving out. Instead of mourning Boeing, the business leaders need to be brainstorming about the future and what skills and talents the South Sound can bring to business. richard michaelson | Oct 30, 2009 11:16 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Not flying on a plane built my minumum wage workers! Plenty of blame to go around on this one but when there are states like south carolina where an employees only right is to work for very little money, this shouldn't be a surprise. Corporate greed wins again and at the expense of your and my safety. Would you rather fly on a plane built by a skilled well paid employee or on a plane thrown together by a minimum wage worker who's last job was burger king? That's an easy one. I only hope there's a way to tell if the jet was built in Wash or S.Caro. D-Up | Oct 30, 2009 1:24 am | 1 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) The posturing began the day they packed up and moved headquarters to Chicago...to distance themselves from the lowly workers. There is no heart and soul left in the company and few have been held accountable for the problems, save the 57 day strikers...yep, they caused more than 2 years worth of problems and ya know what, even though it's talked about on the floor, that the workers were just a small part of the problems, managers towed the company line and never stood up for those workers, not once. I wish them great success in South Carolina, because, IMO, it's going to be very difficult to turn the same lines, that continually send us crappy parts and assemblies, once considered such a woeful supplier that they ended up buying the factory just to try and save themselves, into those highly skilled Boeing machinists that have, here in PUget Sound and Witchita, carried on a long and proud heritage of building the best and safest planes in the skies. CC At the Big B | Oct 30, 2009 7:07 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal why is this a surprise to anyone? Any smart company will want to protect thier production abilities. With recent strikes in puget sound and an option to expand into an existing building/site that is non-union this decision seemed all but set from day one. Certainly there is also a freight benefit on the parts made in SC, not that it wouldn't be offset by parts made offshore. Still, this seems like what we all should have expected the day B bought the SC company... I'm not against unions, but hey let's be real, timing of the last strike was extremely bad given the state of our economy. Dave None | Oct 30, 2009 6:39 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Company was very clear Of course they were not able to commit to building airplane here so far into the future. Because they were never planning on building any new planes here. No hard feelings Boeing though, its been a great career. kenneth pettingill | Oct 30, 2009 6:21 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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