Weekly Opinion/Editorial

THE FIRST DOMINO?
by Steve Fair

Last week, Boeing announced they are relocating two programs from Long Beach, Calfornia to Oklahoma City. The move will bring 550 engineering jobs to the state. Boeing said some California employees will be relocated, while other positions will be hired locally.
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The C-130 Avionics Modernization program will move to OKC beginning in the first quarter of 2011. The move of the B-1 program is expected toward the end of 2012. Both aircrafts are part of critical defense programs for the military. Boeing is on contract to engineer a modernization of roughly 220 Lockheed Martin C-130 transporters in the Air Force fleet, and upgrade the B-1 to allow the stealth jet to simultaneously carry different weapons. The design phase for C-130 modernization is nearing an end, and actual retrofits(manufacturing) will be handled at sites in Georgia and Texas.

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In conjunction with the announced plans to move the two programs to Oklahoma, Boeing announced plans to lay off about ten percent of their total work force in the Long Beach area. Mark Bass, Boeing general manager of maintenance, modifications and upgrades, gave workers the news Monday. "Making a decision like this is never easy, but as we reviewed our anticipated operating costs for the next several years, it became clear that Boeing needs to take major actions on these programs in order to remain affordable for our customers," Bass said. "We remain committed to maintaining the excellent record of performance that our employees deliver for our U.S. Air Force B-1 and C-130 AMP customers during this transition."
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According to the Boeing website, they are the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. Additionally, Boeing designs and manufactures rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. As a major service provider to NASA, Boeing operates the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The company also provides numerous military and commercial airline support services. Boeing has customers in more than 90 countries around the world and is one of the largest U.S. exporters in terms of sales. Getting them to look at the Sooner state in a positive light was quite an accomplishment.

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Boeing says the reason they are moving the job to the Sooner state is to be “more competitive for their customers.” How did Oklahoma become ‘competitive?’ Senator President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, (R-OKC) says the reason is because the Republican led legislature in Oklahoma has reformed workers comp and tort reform and the people passed right to work. These three moves have made Oklahoma more business friendly and appealing to business.

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“We knew the passage of comprehensive tort reform two sessions ago, and the progress we made in reforming our workers compensation system this past session would get the attention of the business community around the nation,” Coffee said. “Today’s announcement from Boeing that over 500 high-paying aeronautical jobs are moving from California to Oklahoma City is resounding affirmation of our work.”

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I'm not sure about workers comp or tort reform, but Right to Work was very likely a factor in Boeing’s decision. In an October 30, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, Boeing picked South Carolina over North Carolina because South Carolina’s work force was non-union.

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Right-to-work laws are statues enforced in twenty-two states, mostly in the southern or western U.S., allowed under provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibit agreements between trade unions and employers making membership or payment of union dues or "fees" a condition of employment, either before or after hiring. In other words, ‘complusionary union membership.’

Oklahoma’s work force has never had a high percentage of union workers, but the union members were vocal and fought passage of right to work tooth and nail. In September 2001, Oklahoma voters passed right to work by the slim margin of 54% to 46%. Critics said it wouldn’t make a difference in recruiting jobs to the Sooner state, but would we have gotten Boeing without it? Not likely.

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The domino effect is a phenomenon best illustrated by thinking about a row of dominoes standing on end side by side. By making a small change to one of the dominoes in the row, the entire row will be altered as the change is magnified and passed along. The first domino falls and all the others fall. Is Boeing the first domino? Time will time, but it’s a great first start.