Today's Everett Herald story on the Governor's report to Boeing corporate leadership on location of the second 787 line contains some relevant information about the workers' comp developments we've been covering.
Boeing said it appreciated the thoroughness of the report but emphasized that it still views workers compensation and unemployment insurance costs as too high.
“While Washington state has made progress, there is still work to do to deal with the high costs of doing business,” Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi said.
Snohomish County Executive Aardon Reardon makes a similar point:
. . . Reardon found the governor’s business case lacking. Instead, he would have liked to see it address issues — workers compensation, unemployment insurance and workforce training — that Boeing has raised repeatedly.
While “it appears Washington is losing the competition to South Carolina, some (lawmakers) in Olympia still seem to think that everything is fine,” Reardon said.
Curiously the Governor's report did not mention workers' compensation at all, and its discussion of unemployment insurance focused on fund solvency rather than employer costs.
