Workers offer passionate testimony in Olympia over Boeing tax bill
seemed at times that the people testifying in Olympia Friday morning on aerospace tax break legislation were from different universes.
Leaders from both the major Boeing unions, aerospace industry experts and representatives from Boeing testified for and against House Bill 2147, which would place conditions on state tax credits that aerospace companies receive in Washington state.
Union people spoke passionately about Boeing (NYSE: BA) moving work out of state and letting go seasoned workers. They drew a picture of company leaders not caring about the workers, arguing that the leadership's disengagement has undermined Boeing's ability to deliver quality.
Business leaders, with equal conviction, argued that the tax breaks were an essential piece of keeping Boeing in Washington, and without the legislation, aerospace here would wither and die.
"Kent is being decimated," said Mike Hochberg, a Boeing quality assurance engineer and member of Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA, which represents engineers and technical workers. "The people I speak with, they're very angry, very upset."
Kent has much of the defense engineering work that's done in Washington state. Boeing recently shifted some of its defense work out of the state.
Hochberg said the $8.7 billion in tax credits the Legislature granted to get Boeing to build the 777X in Everett failed to require Boeing to keep jobs in the state.
"There are no strings attached," he said. "Boeing said, 'Thank you very much for the money,' and moved jobs out."
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Boeing's actual job count in Washington has been dropping, even as it has been building up to produce the 777X, and raising production of the 737.
In the last year, for instance, it dropped from 81,939 in Washington to 80,199
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