Boeing will move production of 787s from Wash. state to SC
SEATTLE — Boeing said Thursday it will shut down the original assembly line for its two-aisle 787 jetliner near Seattle and consolidate the plane’s production in South Carolina as the airline industry tries to weather the coronavirus pandemic.
The move will begin in mid-2021. The company intends to keep assembling other jetliners — the 737, 747, 767 and 777 — in the Seattle area.
“Consolidating to a single 787 production location in South Carolina will make us more competitive and efficient, better positioning Boeing to weather these challenging times and win new business,” Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing’s commercial aircraft business, told workers in an email.
The company did not immediately say whether jobs would be eliminated in the move, but Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican leader of the state House of Representatives, posted on Facebook following a call with the company that the decision would affect about 900 jobs in Washington state.
Boeing had a statewide workforce of more than 70,000 people before announcing in April that it was cutting 10% of its employees.
The 787 is used mostly for international routes. Washington state in 2003 granted Boeing massive tax breaks — about $100 million a year — to entice the company to assemble the plane in the state. The subsidies were revoked this year after the World Trade Organization found them illegal.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called Thursday’s decision on 787 prodiction “an insult” and said the state would have to review tax breaks Boeing continues to receive.
At an afternoon news conference Inslee said he had multiple conversations with Boeing and they did not give any indications of anything the state could do to keep the production here.
Employees at Boeing’s plant in Everett, Washington, began building the 787 in 2007, turning out a jetliner with a largely carbon composite fuselage for better fuel efficiency.
The company had fusel ages built i n North Charleston, South Carolina, then shipped across the country for assembly. In 2011 it opened a 787 final assembly line in South Carolina, picking the state largely for its anti-union culture, following strikes by Seattle-area machinists in 2005 and 2008.
“We are committed to helping Boeing — and businesses large and small — grow and prosper in our state,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said Thursday.
Boeing announced this summer that it was studying the possibility of combining all 787 production at one location, and the newer South Carolina plant soon emerged as the favorite. Workers in Everett will continue making t he smaller 787-8 and 787-9 models until the company cuts production to six 787s a month next year, the company said.
Lawmakers and union officials in Washington state said Boeing was wrong to abandon the skilled aerospace employees who worked on the 787 in the state. Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, said the union would “partner with community stakeholders to attract aerospace jobs to the state by marketing the aerospace talent pool Boeing is walking away from.”