Layoffs would have happened, Chicago or not

Did Boeing's relocation make it easier for company leaders to do mass layoffs?

A week after top executives moved into Chicago offices, the 9/11 attacks sent an industry downturn into a nosedive. Boeing shed 27,000 jobs here over three years.

But Mark Blondin, president of Machinists union District 751, doesn't hold Chicago responsible for Boeing's cuts. He blames the local guy, commercial-airplanes Chief Executive Alan Mulally.

Boeing "would have made the same decisions anyway, whether they were here or not," Blondin said.

John Warner, Boeing's former chief administrative officer, agrees that the buck stops here.

"It's not the corporate headquarters that lays off people," Warner said. "The business-unit leaders ... have to make the layoff decisions, just as Alan Mulally had to do after September 2001. That was his call."

Today, Blondin seethes about Boeing farming out 787 work, while Mulally rides a turnaround that has added back 10,000 jobs.

Dominic Gates, Seattle Times aerospace reporter