No part of the Boeing 777X airliner will be built in Missouri.
That’s after a machinists union in Washington State voted last night to accept a contract that will see the plane and its composite wing built there. The vote ends the bid by Missouri and several other states to bring production of at least part of the plane to sites within their borders.
The state legislature met in special session last month and approved a 1.7-billion dollar expansion of existing tax incentives for Boeing if it had chosen to build the plane in St. Louis. St. Louis County pledged another 1.8-billion in tax breaks.
Missouri leaders projected assembly of the 777X would have brought as many as 8,000 jobs to the St. Louis region and perhaps tens of thousands more jobs throughout the state.
The Washington union had rejected an earlier contract proposal from Boeing because of changes it made to pensions and health care benefits. It was that rejection in November that lead to Missouri and as many as 22 other states scrambling to win the project. The union’s vote Friday to adopt the new contract was a narrow 51-percent to 49-percent.