For Boeing’s workers, there’s a lot on the line

  • By Michelle Dunlop Herald Writer
  • Wednesday, December 15, 2010 3:35pm
  • Business

Boeing Co. executives will be the ones making major decisions in 2011 on the fate of the 737 and 777, but the company’s engineers and Machinists will be the ones getting planes out the door.

“We will be experiencing incredible growth” in 2011, Nicole Piasecki, Boeing’s vice president of business development, said in an interview.

After a couple of down years, airlines began pulling parked airplanes out of the desert and putting them back into service in 2010. After pushing out aircraft deliveries in 2009, airlines began asking in 2010 to get their aircraft sooner. As a result, Boeing has announced that it will ramp up production on its 737 and 777 aircraft programs in the coming years and will boost 747 production when the revamped 747-8 is delivered mid-year.

“If there’s anything we’re hearing most from our customers, it’s that they want deliveries sooner,” Piasecki said.

While getting Boeing’s latest jet programs, the 787 and 747-8, on track is the company’s top priority in 2011, a smooth ramp-up in production on its existing jet lines is essential. Because several suppliers provide products for multiple Boeing plane lines, Boeing is working closely with the supply chain to ensure it can keep up, Piasecki said.

Boeing isn’t alone in keeping an eye on production. Washington state has been trying to find ways to meet the company’s future workforce demands. In the company’s latest earnings call, Jim McNerney, Boeing’s chief executive, said he expects employment to remain relatively steady, as the company looks for more efficient ways to build planes rather than using more people.

However, about 25 percent of Boeing’s work force is eligible for retirement already. Since the beginning of October, the company has hired nearly 1,300 Machinists, according to the union. Boeing recently told the state it will need between 1,300 and 2,700 trained workers in the 2010 to 2011 time frame, said Joe Dunlap, president of Spokane Community College, at a recent meeting of the Washington Council on Aerospace.

As Boeing gets past its initial 787 and 747-8 deliveries, the uptick in production will continue into 2012, when the company’s contracts with its unions are due.

Analyst Scott Hamilton, with Leeham Co., views the 2012 negotiations as momentous for Boeing’s future in the state. He believes Boeing will use future work on the successor to the 737 as leverage in negotiating with the Machinists union. After a 57-day strike by the Machinists in 2008, Boeing selected South Carolina for a second final assembly line for its 787.

“If the Machinists go out on strike again in 2012, that’s going to be devastating for the Puget Sound region,” Hamilton said. “Boeing will look for anywhere else in the world (to locate production) — South Carolina, Texas, Alabama.”

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