Guest editorial: Hats off to Boeing’s S.C. team

(This editorial was originally published by The Seattle Times on Friday.)

Congratulations to South Carolina and to Boeing workers and managers at the plant in North Charleston. You have rolled out your first 787 Dreamliner, for delivery to Air India.

Boeing’s investment in South Carolina was not a popular thing in Puget Sound country, partly because your plant is non-union and, more, because it is not here.

At one point, the International Association of Machinists enlisted the Obama administration’s National Labor Relations Board to force Boeing to cancel its investment in your state.

The Seattle Times was no champion of South Carolina, but we said the Labor Board had no business telling Boeing to take back a $1 billion investment. We expected that the Labor Board’s decision would not stick, and it did not.

Plenty of people here thought assembling a 787 would prove hugely difficult for workers in the Palmetto State. We recall a Seattle website cartoon that pictured your assembly plant with a hound dog, an outhouse and some other things. It was not our cartoon, but it did express the prejudices of some people here.

That’s over now. Welcome to the club of Boeing states. We have some interests in common.

And again, congratulations.