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.