State will compete against other sites for future work

Boeing is moving some design work for new commercial airplanes to South Carolina and Southern California, the company announced Friday.

Washington's engineering center will have to make the case against the other two for future programs, including the upcoming 787-10 Dreamliner and 777X, Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. "They will be in competition for future work."

The only immediate impact on jobs in the Puget Sound region will be 300 positions moving to Southern California, Alder said.

In the future, "you'll see hiring in some areas, you'll see decreases in some areas," he added. "We expect all three of these centers to thrive."

Boeing recently concluded contentious contract negotiations with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents union engineers in the Washington.

"This is the first detailed version of this that we've seen," SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich said Friday. "We'll sit down with our elected leaders and have a discussion."

Boeing turned to union engineers in the Puget Sound region to sort out problems with outsourced engineering work on its 787 Dreamliner. Turning to new hires in centers elsewhere could raise concerns about more such issues with future programs.

"There are more than 20,000 experienced engineers and technical workers and pilots in our bargaining units," Dugovich said, "and that's not easily duplicated."

Boeing also announced a "related strategic move" to create a propulsion operation in South Carolina to enhance the performance of future airplanes, beginning with the 737 MAX. And it's looking into creating a design center in Kiev, Ukraine, to support one in Moscow.

"Our opportunity for future growth is unprecedented and this helps us be more competitive by building on our team's talent and capability -- across Boeing, the United States and around the world," Mike Delaney, Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president of Engineering, said in a news release. "With these changes, we are structuring Boeing's engineering operations to support that growth, reduce business risks and to consistently provide the products and services our customers expect."

The new propulsion operation in South Carolina is part of "a thoughtful, disciplined approach to building our capability and capacity in integrated propulsion system design," Nicole Piasecki, vice president and general manager of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Propulsion Systems Division, said in the release. "The Propulsion South Carolina team will begin with the design and assembly of the 737 MAX engine nacelle inlet and expand strategically on future airplane programs."

A supplier does this work on current 737 models, Boeing noted.

The new Southern California engineering design center will be home to engineering support for out-of-production airplanes. Long Beach, Calif., already supports heritage McDonnell Douglas airplanes.

Over the next six to nine months, Boeing plans to move out of the Puget Sound area support for most other out-of-production airplanes, including the 707, 727, previous 737 models and 757. That change will move 300 jobs from the Puget Sound to Southern California, Alder said. The employees who currently have those jobs will have to re-apply if they want to move with them, he said.

In April, Boeing told employees that it planned to lay off up to 700 engineers this year, because design work was declining for the 747-8, 787-9 and the KC-46 Tanker programs, and the 787-10 nor the 777X programs had not yet launched.

Boeing has been planning these centers for about three years, Alder said.