Comment by benzible
5 years ago
Less qualified and less trained.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/business/boeing-dreamline...
> While Boeing has nurtured generations of aerospace professionals in the Seattle area, there was no comparable work force in South Carolina. Instead, managers had to recruit from technical colleges in Tulsa, Okla., and Atlanta.
> Managers were also urged to not hire unionized employees from the Boeing factory in Everett, where the Dreamliner is also made, according to two former employees.
> “They didn’t want us bringing union employees out to a nonunion area,” said David Kitson, a former quality manager, who oversaw a team responsible for ensuring that planes are safe to fly.
> “We struggled with that,” said Mr. Kitson, who retired in 2015. “There wasn’t the qualified labor pool locally.” Another former manager, Michael Storey, confirmed his account.
To be clear, this doesn't mean there aren't intelligent people in South Carolina. What this does mean is there is a presence in this PNW area, specifically centralized in Puget Sound, where talented aerospace engineers tend to congregate.
No matter where you move that is new, you are not going to have that _local_ talent pool necessarily available to you. This isn't to slight South Carolina at all, but it is reality.
You're no wrong, but the folks in South Carolina were (supposedly) specifically told not to try to get people from the PNW area to transfer because management didn't want union-leaning individuals coming into the new plant.
They seem to be explicitly preferring to sacrifice quality control to keep (higher-paid?) experienced union folks out. Presumably to help their bottom line.
If I was a Boeing customer I'm not sure I'd like seeing quality control being a secondary consideration of hundred of millions of dollars of my money.
A nuclear power engineer I know, told me with pride about his grandfather being the head machinist at a locomotive factory many decades ago. His father was also an engineering oriented person.
That certainly helped him in his own career... I assume that this sort of inter-generation knowledge transfer was present in WA but not present in SC.