While Boeing ( BA ) has been slow to restart production of the planes built by its unionized workforce and laid off many of them amid a year of strife, the company announced it would make a major investment do in a non-union factory.
The plane maker said last week it would save $1 billion at its South Carolina factory where it builds 787 Dreamliners and create 500 jobs there.
“I’m thrilled with this next phase of growth, made possible by our incredible teammates and the trust our customers have in our aircraft,” Scott Stocker, the Boeing executive responsible for building 787s, said in a statement at the announcement. . “This decision reflects Boeing’s commitment to its workforce, the 787 program and the community.”
When a nearly two-month strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers halted much of Boeing’s commercial aviation production this fall, the company’s South Carolina factory was not affected because its workforce is not unionized. Although the plant’s safety inspectors formed a union with the IAM in 2018, a 2017 attempt to bring the majority of workers there under a collective bargaining agreement failed.
South Carolina’s status as a so-called “right to work” state may actually have been a selling point for Boeing to build a factory there in the first place. Right-to-work states, many of which were once pro-slavery members of the Confederate States of America, have legal frameworks that make union organizing much more difficult. Boeing announced a factory in South Carolina in 2009, about a year after the last machinists’ strike on the West Coast ended.
“Boeing’s decision to expand in Charleston County further solidifies South Carolina’s position as a leader in the aerospace industry,” said South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster. “This significant investment and the 500 new jobs it will bring to the Lowcountry reflect Boeing’s confidence in our workforce and highlight the strength of our pro-business environment.”
One big victory for the IAM that emerged from the strike, however, was Boeing’s commitment that the company would build the next aircraft it debuts near its manufacturing base in Washington state.
“If the company launches a new commercial aircraft program during the agreement, the company commits to building the new aircraft model here,” the union told members ahead of the vote that ratified their contract. “All final assembly, wing fabrication and assembly, major components, fabrication and delivery activities will be IAM work.”
In addition, the union wants to make clear that Boeing employees in South Carolina continue to benefit from better wages and working conditions that they believe the company would not have offered without the union’s presence.
