EVERETT — State and local officials took pocketbook issues out of the equation and let the Boeing Co. make a 7E7 site decision from the heart, one of the program’s executives said Wednesday.
"We’re so happy to be here. This is where Boeing’s heart is," 7E7 program vice president Walt Gillette told Gov. Gary Locke and other dignitaries. "Thanks so much for enabling us to make a decision that allows us to stay where our heart is."
Gillette spoke on what was a day of celebration in Everett.
"There was a skip in the step of everybody on the streets of Everett today," said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash. "I’ve not seen smiles on faces that wide since my son’s first Christmas."
Locke, Larsen and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., met with cheering 7E7 design workers in their offices Wednesday, then moved down the road for a rousing rally with Machinist union activists.
The day concluded with about 150 Everett residents and community and business leaders gathering at the new Everett Events Center for a celebration that included champagne toasts and a quickly penned 7E7 tribute song performed by the Everett High School jazz band.
"I don’t know how it got here but I’m mighty mighty glad it came," belted out soloist Kendra Woods.
The 7E7 decision was due to unprecedented cooperation between business, labor and governmental leaders, several speakers said.
It wasn’t easy, several lawmakers said, given a widespread perception that Boeing had already made the decision to leave, and any action the state could take was a vain one.
"A lot of people were saying this couldn’t be done," Larsen said. "I don’t know where those naysayers are right now. Maybe they’re in a spider hole in Iraq."
But the naysayers were right at the start. Gillette said Everett did not look like a viable option when Boeing started considering 7E7 sites. The cost of doing business here was too high, compared with other locations, and Boeing was prepared to take the new jet elsewhere.
But the actions of community leaders changed that, Gillette said.
"The site selection could have been all about the numbers if there was a big difference in the numbers," Gillette said. But the $3.2 billion tax package and other legislative moves balanced the playing field, making it a decision based on human factors.
"Our team functions very well here. We certainly have the skills," he said. "We were able to pursue the people side … the spirit of Boeing that comes from the people."
In that sense, it was Boeing workers themselves who deserve the credit for the decision, Locke said.
"Your ingenuity, your track record, made it very easy for the board of directors," Locke told the engineers.
He and U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., echoed that in comments to the Machinists, saying it was workers’ skills and experience that gave Everett the edge against more than 80 other competing sites.
"We had you, the ace in the hole, and that’s what made it happen," Inslee said.
At the Machinists hall, more than 50 activists cheered as one of their own took a pen to a "We Can Do It" sign, crossed out the word "can" and replaced it with "did."
"That’s right, we did it," said Ron McGaha, the union’s district vice president. "I’m happy to say, on this 100th anniversary of flight, that your hard work paid off. You did everything right."
Locke said several times during the day that having the 7E7 in Everett will preserve aerospace as a dynamic industry in Washington well into the second century of flight.
"You’re securing the future
of Boeing commercial airplanes for decades to come, for generations of Boeing aerospace workers to come," he told Machinists.
Locke, Murray and Larsen were greeted by cheers and applause by the 7E7 design team. They responded with handshakes and eager questions about the new plane program.
Michelle Milleson, a stress engineer working on the 7E7 cargo floor, chatted with Locke about the composites Boeing plans to use on the Dreamliner fuselage, and how they are different from aluminum.
"I’ve never met the governor in person," she said. "To have him come to our work, and want to talk to us, is pretty neat."
Milleson said she’d met Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief Alan Mulally the day before, at the ceremony announcing the program. The two days of hoopla was a little dizzying.
"It’s kind of surreal, the whole experience," Milleson said. "To be on the 7E7 program … is just amazing."
Boeing’s composites development will get a boost this morning when U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announces the start of a new composites research center at the University of Washington.
The center will be the sixth Federal Aviation Administration center of excellence in the nation, and will focus on research into how to use composites in aerospace.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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