“Awful news for our state” is how Sen. Doug Beck, D-Affton, responded to the news that Boeing plans to lay off nearly 700 Missouri workers, beginning in January. Beck said that despite the rough year the aerospace manufacturer has had, it’s a company he wants to stay in the St. Louis region.
The state of Missouri and St. Louis County have provided the company with nearly $200 million in financial incentives to help support a $1.8 billion expansion in the St. Louis area. Whether that means Boeing will have to pay back the state for any unmet obligations is unknown.
“A lot of those bills have clawback features where they’ll have to pay back certain amounts of money,” explained Beck. “So, a lot of those don’t even happen unless, you know what I mean, unless you create those jobs, and you keep them. So, anything that I have tried to pass in the legislature, I’ve made sure there was really strong clawback features that they actually provided a promise of the jobs coming in.”
He said that the legislature’s work with the company is to keep jobs in the St. Louis region.
“Over the last few years in the legislature, there have been a GOP push to cut unemployment assistance, and I think this maybe will show them that’s the wrong time to try to do things like that,” Beck told Missourinet. “So, the governor and the incoming governor, a lot of this will place when the incoming Governor Kehoe comes in. Hopefully they’ll be able to deal with some of these layoffs.”
Gov. Mike Parson responded to the news, saying that he hates to see this happen.
“Yeah, it has an effect,” Parson told Missourinet. “Anytime there’s 700 people lose their jobs, that’s a pretty good impact when you total those numbers up and see what they do everyday for a community and stuff. You won’t feel that affect till; you probably won’t feel that right off the bat a year from now. That could definitely have an effect.”
The aerospace manufacturing company has been dealing with financial problems and a recent worker strike that affects its bottom line, in addition to an incident this past January when a door plug from a Boeing 737 MAX 9 blew out shortly after takeoff, causing uncontrolled decompression.
The company has nearly 17,000 workers in the St. Louis area.
Copyright © 2024 Missourinet