Today was another historic day for the future of the avaition industry in the United States as the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner made its very first commercial flight. The All Nippon Airways flight was a charter flight from Narita to Hong Kong that last about four hours.

The Dreamliner is the most advanced and fuel efficient commercial jetliner ever produced.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

The aerospace industry is extremely important to innovation and manufacturing in the United States. Yet companies like Boeing are continuing to face regulations and headwinds that make it difficult to compete in the global marketplace. The National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against Boeing is creating uncertainty throughout the economy for manufacturers and has put at risk thousands of jobs in the production of the Dreamliner.

Manufacturers are looking for policies out of Washington that will help them create jobs and foster innovations like the Dreamliner. More regulations just continue to dampen job creation and growth.

Additional media coverage of the Dreamliner’s first commercial flight:

• Associated Press, “Boeing 787′s inaugural flight lands in Hong Kong“
• CNN, “A step forward on Dreamliner flight“
• Washington Post, “Review: Boeing’s 787 won’t fix the chair-kicking kid, but it improves almost everything else“

The Herald newspaper that serves Everett, Wash. –  home to one of Boeing’s major unionized assembly facilities — comes out strongly today against the National Labor Relations Board’s recent complaint against the company for locating new production facilities in South Carolina instead of Washington State. While forcing Boeing to manufacture the 787 Dreamliner in Washington would have immediate economic benefits for the Puget Sound region, The Herald recognized the big picture, that is, the NLRB’s unprecedented action represents a threat to economic growth throughout the United States.

From the editorial, “NLRB action hardly helpful“:

The NLRB says Boeing should have to operate the second line in Washington. (Even though the 787 “surge” line it’s already operating in Everett is likely to become permanent.)

That’s a remarkable position. A government agency believes it should be able to tell a company where it can and can’t build a factory. Its implications for business growth in strong union states like Washington are sobering: Why would a new company locate here if it knows it might never be able to expand to another state, like South Carolina, where laws protecting unions are much weaker?

Bad precedent. The sooner a judge throws this case out, the better.

The Detroit News made a similar point in its “Rein in the NLRB” editorial last week: If the NLRB’s pro-union action holds up, states with closed-shop laws will become less attractive to businesses.

The Everett newspaper also warned that the NLRB’s move could harm corporate-union relations, chiding the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers for its intransigence.

They could be dangerously overplaying their hand. They should keep in mind that this isn’t a Seattle-based company anymore. Its first loyalty is to shareholders, not a particular community. And although it’s true that the local aerospace workforce is the best on the planet currently, large numbers of Puget Sound Machinists and engineers are nearing retirement. It might not take long for another region to catch up.A prosperous future for unionized aerospace workers here depends on a long-term, cooperative partnership with the Boeing Co. The NLRB’s action, and the union’s hard-edged tone, risk undermining that.

Without doubt, today’s Machinists deserve much of the credit for the company’s success. Unfortunately, that ensures nothing for tomorrow.

Otis Rawl, president and CEO of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, chats with Jay Timmons, executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, in his CEO Corner video interviews.

Health care is the topic of the first video. Timmons:

All across the country, and I’m sure in South Carolina it’s exactly the same: Health care costs are skyrocketing. It’s a problem for business, it’s a problem for employers. Ninety-seven perfect of the members of the National Association of Manufacturers provide good quality health-care benefits for the employees, and we don’t want to risk that, we don’t want to lose that, and we don’t want to see our manufacturers who are providing those benefits have to pay more in taxes. That doesn’t make sense. 

Cap-and-trade is the subject of the second video.

South Carolina received big manufacturing-related news late last month when Boeing announced it had chosen its North Charleston, S.C., facility for a second final assembly site for the 787 Dreamliner program. (Boeing news release.) Interesting to see Rawl’s reaction in this column in The Item newspaper on the implications for the state: Business is concerned about education and training.

Otis Rawl, head of the state Chamber of Commerce, said a big-picture view had to focus on Boeing’s suppliers, many of whom likely would move to the state to be able to be near to the plant.

Those jobs generally will locate within a 100-mile radius of the North Charleston plant, which means some job help for rural areas, he said. “This announcement sends the message that South Carolina has gotten back in the game of economic development,” Rawl said. “It gives us all a little sense of things getting better.” Perhaps one thing that the Boeing announcement will force, Rawl added, is a refocused political debate on how to reshape a huge driver of all economic development – how the state educates its residents.

“We’re going to have to take a look at some type of statewide funding for public education,” he said.