Steeliedrew,

I feel bad about your situation. Boeing is no longer the home-grown Washington state company it once was. Boeing is a global corporation, and it has loyalty only to shareholders, period. It's about the bottom line and nothing else. Boeing is extorting billions of dollars in tax breaks from the state and extorting labor cost reductions from its labor force, IAM at the moment.

I hate corporate welfare, but that's what the governor and Legislature just handed Boeing. It's as bad as public funding for sports stadiums for rich team owners. Boeing threatens, "give us a fat welfare check, or we'll pick up and go to S. Carolina and get our welfare check from them, plus cheaper labor." The state caved in to Boeing's demand. It would have been political suicide with severe economic ramifications, but I kinda' think the Gov should have just said, "When you leave, don't let the door hit ya' on the ass on your way out."

The situation sucks. Boeing is in the driver's seat, and they know it. Taxes not paid by Boeing will have to be paid by WA's middle class citizens. When Boeing crushes the union, either by contracts favorable to Boeing and paying less to labor, then WA has fewer middle class citizens paying taxes. The reason the situation sucks is because it's all win for Boeing, while WA and labor lose. Regardless of the outcome, I don't see any upside. That is, I don't see how WA is better off as a state with machinists who in the future are lower middle class citizens instead of solidly middle-middle class citizens. WA may possibly be better off if Boeing and its machinists all move to S. Carolina - Boeing gets its cheap labor, and according to S. Carolina, their cost of living is lower, so machinists live as well there on lower income as they do here. And WA solves part of its traffic problem if Boeing goes away, and still loses a huge source of tax revenue. No matter what, Boeing wins, and WA and labor lose. That's what it looks like to me.

Sg