Boeing's free-market move is going to cost Kansas big-time

[Liberal_in_LA]

Boeing's free-market move is going to cost Kansas big-time

Boeing workers in Kansas
So, tired of high taxes? Want to see big federal budget cuts?

Congratulations. You're getting your wish.

And you just cost 2,160 people in Kansas their jobs.

That's because Boeing Co., bracing for cuts in the defense budget over the coming decade, decided that "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," announcing Wednesday that it will close its facility in Wichita.

A plant that it's operated just since, oh, the 1920s.


http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2012/01/boeing-job-cuts-wichita-defense-cutbacks.html

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. I can only assume the plant has been deemed obsolete

Otherwise, it's a baffling move. With the notable exception of Sebelius, Kansas is solidly red, solidly pro defense, and IIRC, is a right-to-work state.

Kinda biting the hand that feeds you.

[bhikkhu]

2. Boeing has added several thousand people to its west-coast operations...

I don't know exactly what's behind the Kansas closure, but they've been expanding for some time (and are still hiring) in Washington - almost all good-paying union jobs.

They did experiment with outsourcing for the 787 ( http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/02/boeings-multi-billion-outsourcing-fiasco.html ), but for at least the last year they've been going back the other way.

[RKP5637]

3. but, but, but gov. Brownback says he's the great job creator for KS! That corps. and

people are going to flock to KS. And meanwhile he endorses his idol Perry. Also, at some point, maybe Brownback will get it that some people also leave KS because they don't like the anti- this and that. ... but I doubt that. I guess more prayer sessions are needed.

[rgbecker]

4. I get regular right wing emails from an inlaw of my sister's who works at that Boeing plant.

He may be close to retirement, but I'm interested in hearing what he has to say about that.

[demtenjeep]

5. it is going to hurt us, but it could have been worse

the majority of Boeing was sold to Spirit a few years ago so we will still have air-craft manufactoring just not the military/Air Force One side.

[ErikJ]

6. Wichita-Home of wicked Koch Brothers-

they deserved it.

[kurt_cagle]

7. Massively Funny

Boeing decided several years back to move their corporate headquarters out of Seattle to Chicago, along with plans to move a significant part of their development efforts to more "labor friendly" facilities. If they are in fact moving back to Seattle, I suspect that they've probably found that, among other things, the labor in Seattle is generally much better trained and with more advanced degrees, as well as being unionized.

However, there are also several ironies here. One of the reasons that the defense industry has been so successful is that it has distributed production and development plants in just about every state, even if such plants are relatively tiny, in great part so they can go to Congress and say that any move against them will result in jobs being cut in that representatives state/district. This is the defense industry equivalent to the financials' TBTF strategy. The Republicans attempted to use the hoary tactic of clamoring for reducing the deficit when the Dems are in power, even though typically it is the Republicans that have been most inclined to raise spending without corresponding revenues being derived elsewhere. Obama has called their bluff here, and has forced a situation where mandatory cuts will be made, most heavily in that GOP sacred cow of defense. Given a scaling back and ending of Iraq and Afghanistan, this isn't that surprising, but it is now hitting the defense industry hard. As these companies often tend to heavily back REPUBLICANS, this will in turn serve to reduce the GOP financial base.

[EC]

8. Didn't Obama just sell a lot of planes?

I remember several successful trips selling planes. The plant must of been outdated building some of the obsolete or over supplied stuff. Dosen't hurt Obama, hurts the repubs who were on the Super Committee and didn't stop this. Oh, well, sucks to be repub...

Were they union down there? Aren't they a "right to work" state?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. That was a heavy iron defense plant

As in B-52s. Boeing does not have that business anymore