KPLU Local News
(2009-10-28)
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A Boeing 787, painted in the company's colors, stands in the paint hangar at the company's facility in Everett, Wash.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
In a written statement, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Jim Albaugh said the move "will strengthen the company's competitiveness and sustainability and help it grow for the long term."
U.S.Senator Patty Murray told KING-5 TV that she was deeply disappointed by the decision.
"It hurts all of us," she said. "I grew up like a lot of people did believing that Boeing was ours, the Pacific Northwest, and that we were all family, and so it's hard to watch when you see something like this happen."
Murray says she believes the company could have come to terms with the union that represents its machinists.
In order to keep the second 787 production line in Everett, Boeing had sought a 10-year no-strike guarantee from the International Association of Machinists. A contract deadlock lead to a strike last year that held up production for nearly two months, costing the company an estimated $2 billion in profits.
Workers at the Boeing plant in South Carolina recently voted to leave the union.
South Carolina lawmakers just passed an incentive package that includes millions in tax breaks to entice Boeing to expand in that state.
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