St. Louis-area building trades unions have agreed to work 24/7 with no overtime to build Boeing Co.'s 777X assembly plant, should it locate in the region.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced the “historic” agreement – which includes the Building and Construction Trades Council, the Eastern Missouri Laborers District Council and the Carpenters District Council of St. Louis – in a news conference Tuesday. Building the plant in three shifts would cut construction time by nearly half and triple the available workforce, Nixon said.
“Missouri workers are ready to compete, and compete to win this,” Nixon said.
The news, coming a few hours before hearings by House and Senate subcommittees, is the latest show of support for the $150 million-per-year incentive package that Nixon is pushing through the Missouri Legislature. And it makes sense: The state projects that building the plant could generate as many as 13,000 construction jobs.
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Those are jobs that are badly needed in an industry still dealing with unemployment north of 20 percent, said Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary-treasurer of the Construction Trades Council.
"We've got plenty of people available to work," he said. "What better way to get them back to work than shiftwork, helping Boeing compete a project in record time?"
The three-shift, no-overtime deal could shave more than two years off the five-year timeline for construction, Aboussie said. That means Boeing can deliver planes sooner. And it would effectively lower the cost of building the plant in St. Louis, where construction labor costs are often higher than some of the other states that are in the mix for the facility. That could make St. Louis more attractive to Boeing.
But a more crucial union deal would still lay with the International Association of Machinists District 837, which represents Boeing assembly line workers in St. Louis. A sister IAM local in Seattle last month rejected a contract tied to the 777X plant, which prompted Boeing's national search for a new site. But the 837 has generally had friendlier relations with the company, and Nixon said Tuesday that he's had productive conversations with local union officials.
“Everyone is well aware of what transpired in Washington,” he said.
837 presiding officer Gordon King did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated at Wednesday to correct formal name of the local Boeing union.
