Ray Conner Says No Additional Job Transfers Out Of Puget Sound Region In The Offing

Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO for commercial airplanes Ray Conner says the company could hire as many as 30,000 workers in the Puget Sound region over the next few years as older workers in the area retire from the company. To that end, the executive said, a major recruitment effort will be undertaken in local area high schools.

That was just one aspect of the business discussed by Conner in an interview with The Seattle Times. Conner (pictured) defended his tough negotiations with union employees as being driven by a "bare-knuckle" competition for sales with Airbus.

But Conner also said that he does not foresee any additional job transfers out of the Puget Sound area to other locations.

Conner said that he sees the company as having the potential to "do great things," but added that Boeing would also have to "tighten up around here. Because the other guys are good."

Conner said that the taxpayers of Washington State were getting a good return on their investment in the company through incentives and tax breaks. He said the Everett plant is "busting at the seams" and that there are so many people working there that they don't all have places to park.

He said that for the 777X, Boeing has invested more than $1 billion for a new assembly facility where as many as 40,000 people will have jobs, which he said does not include the construction jobs that have been added in the region to facilitate building the factory.

FMI: www.boeing.com