Area To Feel Effects Of Boeing Strike West Plains Plant Generates A Payroll Of Nearly $14 Million

It was a wry message lost among bobbing placards, cheers for the arrival of Port-a-Potties and truckers honking their support for the Machinists.

“We’re all in this together,” said the United Way campaign banner, stretched across the front gate at Boeing Co.’s Spokane fabrication factory, where workers went on strike at 6:30 a.m. Friday.

Ever since a group of Eastern Washington boosters convinced the Seattle-based airplane maker to share the wealth from an explosion of orders, this floor-panel and air-duct plant has been a symbol of Spokane’s emergence into the mainstream of Washington’s economy.

But on Friday, five years after it opened, the factory became a symbol of crisis. Forces beyond the control of both workers and managers were dictating their destiny.

Workers and management couldn’t agree on a way to respond to complicated issues such as rising health care costs and global competition, so about 32,000 Boeing Machinists nationwide went on strike rather than accept a contract they considered unfair.

Although only 293 of those union members work at Boeing Spokane, the strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers likely will have far-reaching consequences for the local economy, for all of us.

“We’re talking about more hamburger and less steak,” said Gary Smith, a Washington State University Cooperative Extension economist who studies Spokane’s economy.

Boeing generates a whopping annual payroll of nearly $14 million at its West Plains plant, which employs a total of 430 people. That’s enough to buy a new computer system for Spokane County Library, build a juvenile detention center and hire 70 police officers.

Depending on the length of the strike, less money in the hands of Boeing workers could mean less tax revenue, fewer retail sales and a decline in the purchase of luxury items such as restaurant meals, ski equipment or dry cleaning.

No talks have been scheduled between the two sides.

Boeing, of course, isn’t the only manufacturer in Spokane County. In 1993, Smith said, the Boeing plant accounted for 2 percent of the county’s $682 million manufacturing payroll.

A much larger strike occurred earlier this year when the United Steelworkers of America struck Kaiser Aluminum Corp., the county’s largest manufacturer. The occasionally violent clash ended in eight days, with both sides claiming victory.

The effect of the Machinists strike on the economy will depend in part on how optimistic striking workers are about returning to their jobs, Smith said. They’ll spend according to their anticipated income.

Less than two hours into the strike, Tony Wade, a plastic bench mechanic, said he was planning ways to save money.

Wade said he will store his Camaro and temporarily drop the automobile insurance in anticipation of less income. In addition, he plans to stay at home with his children to reduce day-care expenses while his wife works.

“We got to prepare for this to go on,” said Wade, who carried a strike sign on his back while peddling his Diamond Back mountain bike around the perimeter of the Boeing plant.

Managers and supervisors working inside the plant will continue to be issued regular paychecks, said Boeing spokeswoman Diane Ressler. But the company has reduced operations from two shifts to one.

Managers at Yoke’s Pac n’ Save in Airway Heights said they don’t expect much change from the strike. But Debra Lloyd, manager of Savage House Pizza, said the dispute could cost her countless beverage sales and more than two dozen pizzas a week.

The strike should awake Spokane to the fact that every company is vulnerable to competitive pressures, Smith said, even if its Boeing.

“As Spokane steps up and captures a manufacturing base that’s tied to the national and world economies,” he said, “it’s going to be vulnerable to downside shocks as well.”

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