New Boeing CEO could thaw icy relations with labor, send next jet to Puget Sound over S.C.

The big question: Will incoming Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg's years of experience as a Boeing engineer translate into better relations between the company and its unions?

The answer could mean the difference between Boeing (NYSE: BA) building its next jet in the Puget Sound region, or in South Carolina.

Boeing announced Muilenburg's appointment Tuesday. He takes over for Jim McNerney, who will remain the company's chairman.
Concern that Muilenburg might be less polarizing toward labor has draw attention from the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper, which ran a story Thursday suggesting the new reign could erode labor-adverse South Carolina’s future with Boeing.

“McNerney was eager to establish a second final-assembly site as a way of weakening labor, a motivation Muilenburg may or may not share,” Richard Aboulafia, aviation analyst with the Teal Group outside Washington, D.C., told the Courier. “In other words, the growth of Boeing’s North Charleston site might not be quite as robust, nor as guaranteed, as under McNerney.”

Better relations wouldn’t be hard, given outgoing CEO McNerney’s pointed antipathy toward unions, which led him to at one point refer to “cowering” workers in a public speech.

While serving as president and COO, Muilenburg has said almost nothing about unions.

But unlike McNerney, who came to Boeing from General Electric, Muilenburg has risen through the Boeing ranks, including 15 years as an engineer, then manager, in the Puget Sound region.

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