Comments

2

Meh, let them blame-away - it's about all they can do these days it seems.

Boeing has been planning for this since they opened up shop in SC: a so-called "right to work" (for less) state with a low wage-base (#42 out of 50 states for median household income), cheap land, and a legislature more than willing to bend over and take it up the ass by giving them huge tax breaks in excess of $900 mm all-told since 2011. And what did The Lazy B get? A non-union workforce and the expectation of huge profits. Unfortunately, we're just now hearing their SC operations are apparently turning out a product just as shoddy and error-prone as the disastrous 737 Max.

https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-787-dreamliner-quality-problems-737-max-crisis-2020-9#:~:text=Major%20new%20safety%20concerns%20with,the%20787%2C%20it%20said%20Tuesday.

So, while it may sting to lose those jobs, at the rate Boeing is churning out crap planes that airlines have been cancelling orders on by the hundreds, burning through their cash reserves (maybe all those stock buy-backs WEREN'T such a great idea after all, ya' think?), and all in the middle of a world-wide pandemic that at one point saw air travel plummet by some 96% and still nowhere near pre-COVID levels - who's to say they're even going to be around in another five years?

3

They're just upset the bribes didn't work, as I told them they wouldn't when we voted on them at the KCDems.

Look, it's all about the payouts to the top 10 execs which are sucking all the seed corn out of Boeing. Airplanes are over, if they don't switch fast. The future is high speed rail and short hop electric planes.

(caveat - not counting the lard-filled mil side that I worked in)

4

oh and even the Canadian military is buying Airbus, so you know they're sinking fast at the Lazy B. At least they're getting off the shelf Arctic models instead of larded up "special" versions.

5

Please. Did they blame progressives when Boeing moved out to Chicago? Seattle is not as progressive as it seems and if Boeing is leaving it is more likely because the people who work there can't afford to live in Seattle. Oh and of course it has nothing to do with their failed airplane, the 387, am I right? Fuck off.

6

Washington state and Seattle were rated at or near the top of the list of best places to live and conduct business for most of the last decade, fastest growing city in America, etc.

Losing all of those long-time, expensively educated and trained employees is going to be an absolute catastrophe for Boeing. Just imagine reworking all of those supply chains.

This is the kleptocrats at the top cashing out before the company they sent into a tailspin with subpar product development and legalized embezzlement via stock buybacks meets the inevitable.

7

@1. It's not because of socialism; Israel is a socialist state, as is Sweden with massive oil reserves. It's because they tried to nationalize their oil and the rest of OPEC and the entire world who wanted a cut put them under constant duress, and their european-descendent elites sold out to the globalists for their cut while sabotaging the economy for the rest of the people. God you're dense.

9

It's pretty arrogant and self indulgent to think this decision has anything to do with Seattle. What Seattle does has little to no impact on Boeing so come out of the deep blue bubble and try again. This decision is not about the past it's about the future and the risk associated with that future. The groundwork for this move was made years ago as Boeing endured strike after strike and watched its production get shut down. Tired of being held hostage they mitigated their risk and opened a second production center in another region. Further as WA state turns a deeper shade of blue there will no doubt be increased risk associated with further environmental and regulations on manufacturing business. The truth is WA is no longer a manufacturing state. We are now a technology hub and like the forestry and seafood industries, large scale manufacturing will slowly decline. Hopefully many of the workers impacted by this decision will look at it as an opportunity to start somewhere new, that is way more affordable. I wish them the best.

10

The writing was on the wall for Everett when they started accepting passenger flights.

11

@1 The Road to Derpdom

12

Anyone else trip over this sentence: “ The transition from the unionized labor in the Pacific Northwest to a business climate that's far less hostile to suppression of union activism has been slow but sure.” Translation: we used to be labor friendly but now we are not?

13

Ids rad that the government built a bunch of dams in order to make Boing possible and were all complaining about socialism.

15

Hi Charles, why did you not include the abolition of huge tax incentives from Washington State and threats of European tariffs as factors?

Thanks!

16

9 billion dollars. Imagine what else we could have done with that.

17

BTW the deep bore tunnel came in around 4.5 billion I think and we gotta fix the West Seattle Bridge now too.

18

Sorry, my mistake. It was $3.35 billion. https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct/budget

19

@8. Ehem. You can have a stock exchange and capitalism and still reinvest your tax revenue into education, healthcare, production, natural resources, and human capital. Socialism is not communism, although I recognize that juxtaposing those two terms and allowing for any nuance makes whatever is left of your pea soup you call a brain boil over. Socialism a spectrum of policies that reinvests in the producers by subsidizing their growth, rather than the owners. We have socialism here, and a stock exchange, but just for the top percent.

20

You must admit Kshama Sawant must be jumping with delight. While Everett isn't Seattle, her stated goal is to destroy every profitable business in the region.

Hopefully she and her komrades can come together and start their own people's airplane manufacturer. Owned and run by "the people," of course.

Can't wait to see that!

AnimalFarm

21

You must admit Kshama Sawant must be jumping with delight. While Everett isn't Seattle, her stated goal is to destroy every profitable business in the region.

Hopefully she and her komrades can come together and start their own people's airplane manufacturer. Owned and run by "the people," of course.

Can't wait to see that!

AnimalFarm

22

The purpose of a business is to make money for the owners. Labor just sells their time in exchange for wages, at the pleasure of the business. Nothing a union can do about the business doing what it pleases.

Except. Labor should take advantage of the capitalist system. Through unions labor can buy the business that employs them. Then labor can have a say or even total control. Running the business in a way that generates some profits, as profit is a necessary. Though it also keeps labor secure in their careers.

Getting the government involved, is just adding another master with other interests. Then labor has to lay protection money to politicians. Lest someone else offer up more.

I'm a union member.

Posted by Sunahwk

23

@22. Ever seen 'American Factory?'

24

Was this even fact checked? Boeing makes more than the 787 in Everett. Yep, thousands more people will lose jobs, but many will stay, and so will that giant building. It will continue to make the 777x and 767s, for starters.

25

Well, there's another way to look at this which is that it really is more S Carolina's gain than Washington's loss.
I would propose that we can easily absorb the loss of Boeing and retain (perhaps enhance) our quality of life in the region.
These will be a lot of good jobs that S Carolina will be gaining, this is not some chicken-processing plant. A lot of highly educated, highly skilled and highly paid people, with a substantial net worth.
Those new employees and contractors will be asking a lot from their local governments- better roads, parks, schools, libraries, recreation, hospital districts, you name it. Not to mention high standards for drinking water, utilities,, etc... all things that Democrats advocate for and Republicans work to sabotage.
Make no mistake, this move will have the curious effect of making s Carolina more 'liberal', even if they try to cloak it in some more anodyne language.
But good ole boy backwards Southern bullshit won't work for families pulling down big incomes.

27

Will the last Boeing engineer leaving Seattle please turn out the lights?

28

@26 Because Charles's rhetoric led to 1.7 million dead Cambodians.

32

I'm one of those mainstreamers Charles refers to. We can't blame progressives in Seattle for the enormous wage and cost of living growth in this region. Yes, we're highly regulated and the growth management act limits access to affordable housing in Snohomish County, but without it our northern freeways would become parking lots. No this is just change, accelerate by COVID-19. It's painful for those who get laid off and it's not their or their union's fault.

33

30

Yes, Everett is a known hot-bed of socialism. Lol.

34

@29 I would suggest you research the German auto industry, as its success runs counter to your over simplified view of how labor negotiating power impacts a firms long term competitiveness. Corporate management is primarily concerned with short term profits, as that is how they are evaluated and compensated, and that incentive is often misaligned with the long term success of a company.

Corporate culture is an extremely important factor and it matters whether or not employees are invested in a firms success. When a firm constantly undercuts and replaces its employees in an effort to minimize labor costs, it destroys this culture and embitters employees. These effects don’t show up on quarterly earnings reports, but they undoubtedly have a detrimental impact.

I would also suggest you check out the Atlantic article from last year examining how Boeing’s takeover of McDonnell Douglas has driven a successful engineering firm to be driven by financial interests.

36

Germany REQUIRES union employees on Boards of Directors.

When the Bean Counters run the business
they only wanna see more Beans
and as soon as possible.

How manyt beans
did Boeing Rake In
with their 737MAX?

37

@35 I'm arguing for labor (union) power, not government power. Boeing is moving to South Caroline is to take advantage right to work laws which prevent union security agreements between employers and unions. That is government control of labor's negotiating power, so Boeing is moving to an area with more governmental control over the labor market than we have in Washington.

What the German example shows is that a less antagonistic relationship between management and labor can improve competitiveness, and is why I believe Boeing's attempts to crush it's union in pursuit of short term profits will be detrimental long term.

38

from the nyt: Workers on Corporate Boards?
Germany’s Had Them for Decades

Elizabeth Warren’s plan to give workers a voice on corporate boards isn’t radical. “Co-determination” has a long history, and America should embrace it.

By Susan R. Holmberg

In today’s Gilded Age — when chief executives are making well over 300 times what the typical worker brings home in pay — the idea is getting new life.

. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who recently announced her bid for president, introduced a bill last year to give workers the right to vote for two-fifths of all corporate board seats, with a companion bill in the House by Representatives introduced by Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico. A similar bill by Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin would entitle workers to elect one-third of the seats.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/opinion/warren-workers-boards.html

Would Boeing's biggest Stakeholder -- its Union employees -- ALLOW Boeing to have a single-point-failure system on their fly-by-Hope Union-made Product? I'm gonna hafta guess a pretty Hard NO on that; at least, I hope so.

39

@35 I think you mistakenly thought I was saying the government should stop Boeing form moving, which is not something I would argue for. My main point was to criticize Boeing's current cost of labor minimizing strategy as flawed decision for the long term health of the business.

Politically, I'm against laws, such as right to work, which lesson labor's negotiating power and for laws which facilitate the creation of employee owned firms. I want workers, not investors or the government, to have the most power in our economy. If you are curious about my economic beliefs, check out the work of economist Richard Wolff.

41

I think the Seattle mainstream agrees with you this time. Danny Westneat is usually my guide for what white centrists want, and he wrote an entire column about how we should never have trusted Boeing in the first place.


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