Good week

Boeing 787 production line
 © Boeing
BOEING Boeing supplemented its main 787 final assembly line at its Everett, Washington home with the official opening of a second line in North Charleston, South Carolina. The $750 million facility houses an eight-position horseshoe-shaped line twice as wide as a single bay at Everett. Between the two lines, Boeing hopes eventually to build 10 787s a month to attack its 850-aircraft backlog. The first Charleston-built 787 will start assembly in July.

Bad week

787 Charleston production facility
 © Boeing
BOEING A second 787 assembly line in North Charleston, South Carolina has the airframer in court facing federal government allegations that it chose to expand in Charleston - rather than build existing operations in Everett, Washington - as retaliation for a machinists' union strike that shut Everett for two months in 2008. Unions are far more powerful in Washington, which allows closed shops, than in "right to work" South Carolina, which does not.

 

 

Source: Flight International

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