Boeing's South Carolina Plant Officially Opens

Fox Business: Friday marked the opening of the Boeing (BA) 787 Dreamliner Final Assembly building in North Charleston, South Carolina, despite the state's battle with the National Labor Relations Board about the company’s decision to build in South Carolina.

“The NLRB wants the jobs here transferred back to Washington State and that’s not going to happen,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson told FOXbusiness.com. “Opening this facility is an exclamation point.”

The $750 million facility, which finished construction six months ahead of schedule, features 642,720 square feet (roughly 10 football fields) of space and will produce three 787 Dreamliners per month.

“In this building, our talented Boeing South Carolina teammates are going to assemble the finest, most technologically advanced commercial widebody airplane in history,” said Jack Jones, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina. “Airline customers from around the world will come to the South Carolina Lowcountry to take delivery of their 787s, and we look forward to demonstrating what ‘made with pride in South Carolina’ is all about.”

Boeing officials, workers, and politicians all took part in the event, praising the success of the company. “To have our nation's No. 1 exporter in this state…this is the game changer of my lifetime,” said US Congressman James Clyburn D-SC.

“I can’t wait to see those mack-daddy planes come out of here,” said Governor Nikki Haley.

This is Boeing’s second 787 facility, with the first housed in Washington state. In April, the NLRB sued Boeing for building in South Carolina, saying it chose to build in that right-to-work state as punishment to union members for previous strikes. Hearings about this matter are scheduled to begin on Tuesday. While Boeing and the NLRB fight their battle, Boeing’s production in South Carolina will continue on as scheduled.

“Our goal is to fly a plane made in South Carolina and we are one step closer,” said US Senator Lindsey Graham R-SC.--Facility construction began in November in 2009, creating more than 9,000 jobs for the construction phase. Thousands more jobs are expected to be created when the facility is running at full capacity.

Plane construction is scheduled to begin mid-2011 and the first delivery is scheduled for 2012.