Planemaker Strongly Hints At Such During Conference

Boeing is either pursuing an extremely aggressive tactic to bring its striking employees back to the table, or actually considering what in the Pacific Northwest would be unthinkable. Having already moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago a few years ago, Boeing officials are now openly talking about the possibility that it could move aircraft assembly to Alabama, or elsewhere.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports former Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz warned the Seattle Chamber of Commerce in 1991 that a new airliner built in the southeast could be 30-to-40 percent less costly than one built in Washington State.

"Could Puget Sound turn into an aerospace rust belt of the 21st century, complete with padlocked factories, unemployment lines and urban blight?" Shrontz asked then. "It certainly could."

This past Tuesday, Boeing VP/Government and Community Relations Fred Kiga referred to those "rust belt" remarks before a meeting of the Aerospace Futures Alliance of Washington. He said labor unrest could cause the company to revisit the idea of moving production elsewhere.

"We can't afford to become known as the strike zone," Kiga said. "It's ironic that I'm speaking at a conference entitled 'Cleared for Takeoff' when at the moment we are grounded."

A strike by 27,000 members of the International Association of Machinists is in its fifth week... idling five plants, and causing Boeing to lose and estimated $100 million a month.

Kiga's remarks came shortly after Washington Governor Christine Gregoire addressed the same audience. It followed by just one day an e-mail from CEO Jim McNerney to employees, which said in part, "Union leadership has recommended that its members reject contract offers and go on strike four of the last five negotiations going back to 1995.

"While we've disappointed customers for other reasons in recent years, too, we believe this track record of repeated union work stoppages is earning us a reputation as an unreliable supplier to our customers -- who ultimately provide job security by buying our airplanes," McNerney wrote.

The union and company are at an apparent impasse over outsourcing, though there are rumors both sides may return to the bargaining table soon. Still, the engineers union is warning it may strike over the same issue when its contract expires December 1.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.goiam.org