Boeing is feeling heat on Spokane plant closure

Associated Press

SPOKANE — Political pressure is mounting on Boeing to save its only Eastern Washington facility after the company said it might close the plant to cut costs.

The 500 well-paid jobs have gained new importance in recent months as the national economic slump pushed Spokane County’s unemployment rate above 8 percent.

Perhaps more important, the Boeing plant here is loaded with political and symbolic significance, providing one of the few direct links between the state’s largest private employer and the east side of the state.

That’s why U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., recently made an extraordinary threat — that he might avenge a closure by voting against Boeing interests as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

"They come to me on funding," Nethercutt said last month. "I would have no reason to support Boeing, even on appropriations, if they were to abandon this plant."

U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Seattle-area Democrats, both have visited the Spokane plant in the past week and said they are working to keep it open.

In a state where politicians often pledge allegiance to Boeing, it was definitely not politics as usual.

Boeing was expected to issue its decision in February, but The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported Thursday that the decision likely won’t be announced until March or April.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes spokesman John Kvasnosky said he was not aware of a delay.

"Originally we told employees we thought we’d conclude by early February," he said. "We remain on that general schedule."

Kvasnosky acknowledged that Boeing has come under political pressure regarding the Spokane plant.

Murray met with workers at the plant Wednesday and told them that "the good news is a decision has not been made."

A delay in making the announcement means "they are seriously looking at ways to keep the plant open," she said.

Nethercutt said Thursday he hoped the lack of an announcement was "a positive sign."

He reiterated that his seats on the House Appropriations panel and several subcommittees put him in a good position to help Boeing.

It was politics that brought Boeing to Spokane in the first place. After ignoring Eastern Washington for most of the 20th century, Boeing suddenly took an interest in the Spokane area when U.S. Rep. Tom Foley, D-Wash., of Spokane was elected House speaker in 1989.

The plant subsequently built on the plains near Spokane International Airport makes air conditioning ducts, floor panels and cockpit shields for commercial airliners.

In a county economy of 200,000 jobs, the Boeing workforce was relatively insignificant. But Boeing gave Spokane business leaders an easily identifiable success story as they worked to lure high-tech industry to the state’s second-largest city.

Boeing moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago last year, raising questions about the company’s commitment to Washington. Then the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 took a heavy toll on the aviation industry, and Boeing announced plans to lay off as many as 30,000 workers worldwide — most of them in its Washington state-based Commercial Airplanes division.