Boeing Target of Bills Aimed at Keeping Jobs in Washington State

That is not the first sweet deal that Boeing has received from the state of Washington that does not include job guarantees. A deal in 2003 worth $3.24 billion to Boeing also failed to insist that Boeing keep the jobs in the state, and in what should have been a wake-up call for the state in 2009, Boeing accepted a $900 million deal to open its second assembly line for the 787 in South Carolina.

According to industry analysts at Leeham, since the 2013 tax breaks were approved Boeing has moved about 7,000 jobs to company facilities in other states. The Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) local 751, which represents many of Boeing’s union employees in the state, and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) commissioned a survey among likely voters in the November 2016 election and found that 67% support amending the existing legislation and tying the tax breaks to maintaining aerospace jobs within the state.

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The unions claimed that not only do other states include job guarantees in their incentive packages, but that some also include minimum wage requirements to ensure that the tax incentives are being used to create high-paying jobs. According to a press release from the two unions:

The two legislative bills, one addressing jobs and the other wages, will bring aerospace tax incentives in line with legislation in other states and Washington’s original intent to maintain and grow the state’s aerospace industry with good, family wage jobs.

According to Leeham the job guarantee legislation enjoys bipartisan support in the state legislature, while Republicans who control the state’s senate oppose the wage floor bill, as does an industry group in Spokane, the state’s second-largest aerospace cluster.

It is worth noting that, according to a database maintained by Good Jobs First, Boeing is the heavyweight champ at getting tax breaks from state and local governments, with a total of $12.84 billion since 2003 in three “megadeals.” Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is second, with one deal worth $5.6 billion, and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) appears to be third, with incentive deals worth about $4.65 billion.

Boeing’s stock opened fractionally lower Tuesday, at $148.60 in a 52-week range of $116.32 to $149.84.

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