Union Workers Cry Foul Over New S.C. Boeing Plant

A new Boeing plant in South Carolina is the subject of a legal battle that's playing out across the South and in Congress.

The controversy is over Boeing's decision to assemble its fuel-efficient 787 Dreamliner in non-union South Carolina instead of in Washington state, where it has built planes for decades.

The company says South Carolina offered a lot of incentives to get the plant, but the union says Boeing broke the law and violated workers' rights.

Plant Timeline Not Affected

Boeing's enormous assembly plant near the airport in North Charleston is almost finished. Inside, workers are installing equipment where new employees will build the Dreamliner.

Candy Eslinger, a spokeswoman for Boeing in South Carolina, says she can't talk specifically about the union complaint. But she says it hasn't changed anything at the plant.

"Our plans are still going forward," Eslinger says. "We will be starting production here in July of 2011 and we'll deliver our first airplane out of South Carolina in 2012."

The long-term plan is to produce three planes a month in South Carolina and seven in Washington state. Boeing spokesman Tim Neale says the company negotiated with the union, but failed.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/09/137081954/union-workers-cry-foul-over-new-s-c-boeing-plant?ft=1&f=1003

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