Inslee: Washington reviewing Boeing's tax breaks

Boeing said Thursday it will shut down the original assembly line for its two-aisle 787 jetliner near Seattle and consolidate the plane's production in South Carolina as the airline industry tries to weather the global pandemic.

The move will begin in mid-2021. The company intends to keep assembling other jetliners — the 737, 747, 767 and 777 — in the Seattle area.

The company did not immediately say whether jobs would be eliminated in the move, but Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican leader of the state House of Representatives, posted on Facebook following a call with the company that the decision would affect about 900 jobs in Washington state.

Boeing had a statewide workforce of more than 70,000 people before announcing in April that it was cutting 10% of its employees.

The 787 is used mostly for international routes. Washington state in 2003 granted Boeing massive tax breaks — amounting to about $100 million a year — to entice the company to assemble the plane in the state. The subsidies were revoked earlier this year after the World Trade Organization found them illegal.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee in response to Thursday's decision on 787 production said the state would have to review tax breaks Boeing continues to receive.

Employees at Boeing's plant in Everett, Washington, began building the 787 in 2007, turning out a jetliner with a largely carbon composite fuselage for better fuel efficiency.

The company had fuselages built in North Charleston, South Carolina, then shipped across the country for assembly. In 2011 it opened a 787 final assembly line in South Carolina, picking South Carolina largely for its anti-union culture, following strikes by Seattle-area machinists in 2005 and 2008.

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