Boeing Leaves Wichita With Empty Bags on the Tarmac

What goes "kathunk!" in the middle of the night in Wichita?

That's the sound of the door closing as the last employee locks up at Boeing for good. Plants close all the time. What makes this one hard to swallow is that it once employed 40,000, but now employs just over 2,000. The good people of Wichita apparently never saw it coming.

"Boeing Co.’s decision to shut down its Wichita, Kansas, plant after more than 80 years betrayed public officials who helped the planemaker win a U.S. Air Force contract for midair refueling tankers, the city’s mayor said.

"'Boeing didn’t consult with city officials or ask for financial incentives to stay put before announcing its decision yesterday to close the Wichita (10557MF) plant with 2,160 workers before 2014, Mayor Carl Brewer said in a telephone interview. The company had indicated that winning the Air Force tanker work last year would support 7,500 local jobs, Brewer said." (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-05/boeing-betrayal-stirs-wichita-after-city-helped-win-tanker-bid-mayor-says.html)

To top it off, Boeing has benefited from $4 billion of municipal bonds and tax relief. “'We thought the relationship was a lot stronger,'” Brewer said.

Here's where other communities need to perk up their ears and prepare for a crisis in heir towns and states: "Wichita’s loss may be a harbinger of reductions for cities and states around the nation that depend on defense industry employers as budget deficits squeeze Pentagon spending. Cuts of as much as $1 trillion may be made over a decade under a congressional deal to extend the U.S. debt ceiling last year.

"The move 'reflects the economic reality of a changing and shrinking defense budget,' said Howard Rubel, a Jefferies & Co. analyst in New York."

The company claims it didn’t plan to close the Wichita plant when Kansas politicians were lobbying on Boeing's behalf to land the tanker contract. Mark Bass, vice president for maintenance, modification and upgrades in Boeing’s defense unit, told reporters on a conference call that the new work won’t make up for expiring projects in Wichita, where labor, facilities, and infrastructure costs aren’t competitive.

"The company spent more than $3.2 billion with approximately 475 Kansas suppliers in 2011, spanning its commercial and defense businesses, making it the fourth largest state in Boeing's supplier network," said Bass in a release. "Based on Boeing Commercial Airplanes growth projections for the next few years, Boeing anticipates even more growth for suppliers in Kansas. Boeing values its long-term partnership with Kansas, and we will continue to work with all of our stakeholders in Kansas in support of a robust aerospace industry in the state." (http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=2090)

The problem with that statement is the company's credibility in Kansas has disappeared faster than a 737 flying into the sunset. After taking the state's and city's money, after leaning on lobbying efforts to land a lucrative project, after promising 7,500 more jobs if it won the contract, how much credibility does Boeing have left in the state?

It's so easy to make promises and "commitments." But business conditions change and a bussiness' plans change accordingly. That seems to be what has happened in Wichita. Remember this story when you want to tell the world how committed you are to any given location. It's better to fudge a bit than to make promises you might not be able to keep. You can't have someone scratch your back and then stab them in theirs.