The latest in our ongoing battle between jobs and workers:

Boeing Co. told political leaders in the Puget Sound on Monday that this week's vote by Machinists will determine the fate of some jobs on the new 777X airplane.

Local politicians gathered at a press conference in Everett to discuss the importance of approving the revised contract offer. Boeing executive Ray Conner told the government leaders earlier in the day that an accepted contract will ensure that work on the airplane's wing stays in the Puget Sound, but a vote to reject the deal will ensure the jobs go elsewhere.

Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke says there is no other choice but to vote yes. Otherwise, the politicians warned of a decline in the state's aerospace industry.

"We will see the demise of the economic stimulus that Boeing has provided us," Cooke said.

Two observations. First, by announcing that the wing would go elsewhere if this particular contract is rejected, Boeing has reduced its leverage in subsequent contract negotiations by both taking the carrot of the wing off the table and by implicitly acknowledging that it would consider keeping final assembly here with or without a contract extension. It just doesn't make sense to build it elsewhere when it already has the facility and the skilled workforce here. Even Boeing knows it.

Second, politicians may truly believe that there is "no other choice but to vote yes," but of course, they don't get a vote. Politicians are afraid of backlash from voters should these jobs leave the region, but that misses the point that the people who have the most to win or lose from this are the actual Boeing workers. It's incredibly depersonalizing to view this in terms of "economic stimulus" rather than real people's lives. And that's exactly how Boeing wants it.

We all want Boeing and the Machinists to come to terms. But I think our politicians' insistence on adopting the corporate frame is ultimately counterproductive.