Boeing package signed

Consider it the final handshake.

Boeing Co. executives and state officials have signed off on the state incentive agreement that paves the way for the aerospace giant's future $750 million 787 Dreamliner plant in North Charleston.

The legal agreement finalized last month said Boeing must employ 6,000 workers -- a figure that includes the several thousand employees who are already working on the jet's fuselage at the company's two existing plants -- by the end of 2016.

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The company must then keep payroll above that level for another 13 years. If it does not it will have to pay back a portion of the $270 million promised by state officials. The amount company officials would have to pay back depends on how far below the 6,000-worker mark they fell.

Also, if the company's employment drops below 1,000 workers, the state and Charleston County Aviation Authority can take over the facility.

No more than 10 percent of those 6,000 jobs can be contract workers, such as cafeteria workers and security personnel, according to the agreement.

Boeing already has made major headway toward reaching that 6,000 number. As state officials were drafting the initial agreement last fall, the company employed about 2,200 workers directly.

Local Boeing spokeswoman Candy Eslinger would not disclose the number of direct Boeing workers on Wednesday. Total employment, she said, is roughly 3,000.

Documents also show that Boeing officials will put $206.1 million, the bulk of the $270 million bond money, toward the construction of its 610,000-square-foot assembly building -- roughly the size of 12 football fields.