Boeing machinists in US fear job loss from China factory

The head of Boeing Co's largest union pledged on September 22 to fight for jobs threatened by a proposed Boeing factory in China, stepping up confrontation over the plant as China's president visited the Seattle area. Boeing is battling with rival Airbus Group for dominance of the prized Chinese market, which Boeing says will need $1 trillion worth of new planes over the next two decades.
Airbus had just 6 percent of mainland China's market in 1995 but in 2008 the European plane maker put an assembly plant in China and now accounts for about half the in-service fleet.
Airbus makes the A320 jetliner in China, competitor to Boeing's 737, and last week it opened a similar A320 factory in Alabama, its first on US soil.
The company said it plans to put a 737 facility in China in a bid to gain airplane orders, but said the plant would not reduce 737-related jobs in the Seattle area. Chinese state media reported that Boeing has filed plans with Chinese authorities for the plant, which would be located near Shanghai.
Airbus' factories in Tianjin, China, and Alabama build finished planes. Boeing's proposed facility in China would finish, paint and deliver narrow body 737 planes that are built at its factory in Renton, Washington.
Analysts say creating a Chinese plant is crucial if Boeing wants to win more aircraft orders from Beijing and stave off competition from China's own 737 competitor, the Comac C919, which is behind schedule.
The union said Boeing committed to keeping work in the Seattle area in exchange for union labor agreements and that it plans to hold Boeing to those commitments.
"We'll do everything we can legally and legislatively to protect our jobs," Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists District 751, said in an interview. The union represents about 35,000 Boeing workers.
Holden said Boeing has not disclosed precise details about the work that would move to China. He said rising production rates for the 737 are supposed to protect jobs in the state.
But he said any aircraft work moving from Washington to other states or countries is a concern.
"This is not simply about China," he said. "The company is creating capacity and capability outside the Puget Sound region" where most of Boeing's commercial airplanes are built. "Those are our jobs.