The announcement was made today at the Farnborough air show outside of London.

UPDATE:  PLANES TO BE MADE IN USA

According to a Boeing spokeswoman, the planes will be manufactured at the current Boeing facility in Renton, Washington, she stated during a telephone interview.  Boeing will be using their current assembly line, but also “hopes to look at more hires” in the future, said the spokeswoman.

Boeing 737 MAX

Boeing announced Monday that Air Lease Corp., run by Steven Udvar-Hazy, has placed an order for for 75 of the 737 Max aircraft – worth an estimated $7.2 Billion.  The order is for 60 of the MAX 8 version and 15 of the MAX 9 versions of the aircraft.

The announcement was made today at the Farnborough air show outside of London.

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Trump trumped?

All but two candidates have declined Trump’s invitation to the Newsmax/ION debate that he is to host:

• Mitt says no
• Bachmann and Perry say no
• Huntsman and Paul say no

The Machinists District Lodge 751 approved a contract with 74% of the voting members. The agreement gives one of the most generous pension packages in the industry to all employees including brand new hires. In exchange, the union promises to cease hostilities against the manufacturer for four years,  pull their complaints from the NLRB, allow Boeing to build their 737 in Kansas and the 787 in South Carolina.

The union recently filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that put Boeing’s new South Carolina facility in question. South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has said the union actions threatened thousands of jobs in a struggling economy[1].

The complaints alleged that Boeing was building the factory in a right-to-work state to avoid more strikes like those of 2005 and 2008, the latter which is attributed to the delay of the 787 Dreamliner at significant expense to Boeing and its reputation.

The union agreed to pull its complaints from the NLRB now that it has gotten the contract that was perhaps the goal of the conflict. Unfortunately, the board is an independent agency that is almost completely populated by President Obama’s appointees. While the union pulling their complaint does not guarantee that the board will follow suit, the union got the agreement it wanted while giving up little more than promising not to strike until 2016. It is likely that the unions will work with the Obama administration to get the board to drop the evaluation. This would show Boeing that the union has significant sway within the government and would rid Obama of a very negative campaign issue that would likely have run  right up to the election.

Boeing has had little choice but to come out with positive statements about the agreement. Boeing needs the NLRB mess to disappear so it can get on with production of their Dreamliner at the factory in South Carolina, the 737 in Kansas and no more work stoppages from the union – at least not from Machinists Lodge 751.

Sources:

[1] New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/07/business/AP-US-Boeing-Labor.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Halt the assault has started an online campaign to let our members of Congress know that the NLRB has over-stepped the rights of workers.

According to LaborUnionReport.com help is needed:

Last week’s NLRB vote to give unions the ability to ambush union-free workers and the companies that employ them, as well as to deny due process on bargaining unit issues, is only the latest in a long line of attacks on America’s union-free workforce by the union extremists controlling Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board.

In April, President Obama used the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to prevent Boeing from opening a huge new factory in South Carolina – a right-to-work state.

The NLRB is not operating as an unbiased mediator between the job creators and union leadership – their time has come.

End the NLRB. Sign the petition and be part of the solution.

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Show Topics: Join Michelle and Rich as they take your calls on the budget crisis, the GOP rumor mill, and the latest on the Boeing/NLRB fiasco.

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The federal suit alleges that Boeing built the plant in South Carolina to retaliate against the machinists union for past strikes. The machinist union has gone on strike against Being five times costing billions of dollars to the airplane builder. While opinions vary, Boeing could simply be making a precautionary move to prevent future strikes – a responsible action. The suit would allow the federal government to mandate that the 787 production be done only in Washington.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) said, “This is nothing more than a political favor for the unions who are supporting President Obama’s re-election campaign..” And Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) added, “If successful, the NLRB complaint would allow unions to hold a virtual ‘veto’ over business decisions..”.

Boeing commented on the lawsuit calling it “frivolous” and promised to open the South Carolina as scheduled. Strangely, the first hearing will be with a judge that works for the NLRB on June 14th after which the NLRB will review that judges decision.

When examining the progressive side of the argument, it becomes clear why Boeing needed to increase the rate of divestiture in Blue states. California’s business-unfriendly tax structure and union-protectionism cost it an aircraft electronics manufacturing plant for Boeing several years ago – a change that moved jobs to Oklahoma. Further evidence of the rabid attacks from leftist groups can be found at SocialistAlternative.org. In a post entitled “The Boeing Rip-Off” the author makes the argument that creating a better business climate is unnecessary.

Boeing’s demands for a more competitive business environment are in spite of the fact that it does not have a single competitor in the United States. Boeing gobbled up the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, the last competitor in commercial airline manufacturing in the U.S. That leaves Airbus, a French-European company, as its only real competition.

In actuality, there are five major aircraft builders in the world, according to Aviation Knowledge

1. Airbus
2. Boeing
3. Bombardier
4. Embraer
5. Tupoloev

Boeing also has to consider the rising star of China, who is growing a mature manufacturing sector at impressive rates. At Wired.com, an article introduces the world to China’s ambitions.

China, perhaps uncomfortable with the thought of an industry it doesn’t completely dominate, is accelerating plans to roll out a home-grown passenger plane to compete with best-selling planes from Boeing and Airbus.

China is not dealing with Unions’ unfair collective bargaining tactics. The short-sightedness of socialism is rearing its ugly head on the West coast through unionization and progressive taxation. The rest of the United States, starving for new jobs, could not be happier.