Boeing’s marketing versus Boeing’s actions

Boeing’s marketing department is at it again.

We couldn’t help but notice that this week’s edition of the Redmond Reporter contains a full-page color ad, taken out by the aerospace giant, proclaiming its loyalty to Washington and declaring itself “proud to be here”:

When we saw this ad, we couldn’t help but think of all these headlines from last year, which summarize recent actions taken by Boeing that affect our state:

• Boeing to build 777X wing and tail parts in St. Louis (October 2014)
• Boeing exec has harsh words for SPEEA chief (September 2014)
• Boeing plans 2,000 job cuts in defense work here (September 2014)
• Boeing will build largest 787 model only in South Carolina (July 2014)
• Boeing CEO defends job transfers, but experts question rationale (April 2014)
• Boeing to close its last machine shop doing military work here (April 2014)
• Boeing moving 1,000 more engineering jobs to California (April 2014)
• Boeing offers scant info on which engineers will lose jobs (March 2014)
• Boeing has big tax refund coming from Uncle Sam — again (March 2014)
• Boeing offers bonuses to spur 787 catchup in Charleston (February 2014)
• 787 assembly problems in Charleston drag on Everett (February 2014)
• Boeing deal won’t end company’s tough bargaining (January 2014)

Those headlines are just from last year. Remember when Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago after the turn of the century? Or when Boeing threatened to build the 787 somewhere other than Washington? Or when it went ahead and opened a second assembly line for the 787 in South Carolina, after having received enormous tax breaks to build the 787 here?

There’s a disparity in this relationship. Washington has unquestionably been very generous to Boeing, but Boeing has hardly been generous to Washington.

Boeing is not showing us much loyalty in return for the billions in tax breaks we’ve doled out to them – but they’d certainly like us all to think that we are.