Boeing has officially announced that it will move the rest of its 787 Dreamliner production from its Seattle-based Everett plant to its factory in South Carolina by mid-2021.
The cost-cutting move casts doubt on the future of Boeing’s iconic Everett plant, which was built in 1967 to house the 747 program. Since then, the factory has become Boeing’s wide-body hub, producing 747, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft.
The US planemaker has touted the idea of consolidating its 787 Dreamliner production for a number of months, and the COVID-19 crisis has seen the maintenance of two Dreamliner production plants made impossible, as demand for jets nosedives.
The North Charleston plant in South Carolina seemed to be the obvious choice to house these consolidated operations, as it is the only Boeing facility with the size capacity to produce the biggest variant of the Dreamliner, the 787-10.
Boeing said that consolidating to a single site would improve operational efficiency amid this COVID-19 downturn, and better position the company for a post-crisis recovery.
The planemaker has said it will continue 787 production at its Everett plant until the time when it cuts production rates down to six airplanes per month in 2021, anticipating that Dreamliner operations will be wholly consolidated at North Charleston by mid-2021.
The decision to move operations from Everett to North Charleston is not without criticism and has both unions and Washington state politicians rattled.
Firstly, politicians see the move as Boeing wavering on its commitment to its Seattle-area birthplace, a claim that Boeing publicly denies.
Further, Boeing’s operations in South Carolina are not yet unionised, and provides cheaper labour than Seattle.
Washington state governor Jay Inslee called the decision to consolidate operations in South Carolina “an insult” to the more than 1,000 workers who operate on the 787 jet in Seattle, and also encouraged a probe into the “company’s favourable tax treatment”.
Meanwhile, John Holden, president of a Seattle chapter of the International Association of Machinists, said losing 787 production capacity in Everett “puts the company, our members and our community in jeopardy.”
Ray Goforth, executive director of the SPEEA engineers union, said its “immediate focus is supporting the members who will be laid-off. Long-term, we will partner with community stakeholders to attract new aerospace jobs to [Washington] state by marketing the aerospace talent pool Boeing is walking away from”.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief executive Stan Deal said, “We recognise that production decisions can impact our teammates, industry and our community partners.”