Boeing Workers Rally to Stop Bad Tanker Deal

Thanks to Kathy Cummings of the Washington State Labor Council for this blog on a rally in Everett, Wash., to protest the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award one of our nation’s largest military contracts to a foreign company.    

More than 300 Boeing workers joined with the Washington state congressional delegation, Gov. Christine Gregoire and other elected officials yesterday in Everett to call on the Air Force to get a reality check on its decision to send American jobs and national security and trade secrets to a foreign competitor in the form of the $40 billion refueling tanker contract. 

The “Tanker Travesty,” as the deal has come to be known, refers to the decision by the Air Force to award to EADS/Airbus and its minority partner, Northrop Grumman, a contract to replace the U.S. fleet of refueling tankers. Boeing, the American company that has been producing defense aircraft including the original fleet of air refueling tankers for the past 75 years, has appealed to the Government Accountability Office on the grounds that the proposal was altered, after the bids were in, to favor the foreign competitor. 

At a time when American jobs are disappearing and our manufacturing base is being decimated, the Air Force passed over Boeing’s proposal, which would have supported at least 44,000 new and existing jobs in the United States, many of them good union jobs, and more than 300 suppliers in 40 states. But now only a few thousand lower-paying nonunion jobs will be created. (Click here to send a message to your representatives in Congress, urging them to overturn this decision.) 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says the decision must be reversed in order to ensure America’s national security, to keep 44,000 high-skill jobs here in the United States and to preserve our country’s aerospace industry. 

We have a reputation for delivering for our military. We have a workforce that is ready to build an airplane on day one—they have a paper airplane. 

Murray pointed out that EADS/Airbus has never built a tanker. EADS has not even begun to build the facility, which they plan to place in Alabama, a “right to work” state, where they can get the cheapest labor possible.

Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender told the crowd that Republican presidential nominee John McCain has been working behind the scenes for the last five years to ensure that EADS/Airbus got the contract. McCain not only lobbied for the foreign company to get the job, but two of his high-ranking campaign officials were hired as lobbyists by EADS to get the deal done. Bender also pointed out that McCain has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from EADS.

As a matter of fact, on the eve of his trip to France this weekend, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) urged McCain to clarify his role in the Air Force’s decision. IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Paul Shearon said:  

You can’t be the champion for honest and open government and have EADS lobbyists working for your presidential campaign while pressuring the Air Force to make exemptions for a foreign contractor that accepts illegal subsidies to compete unfairly with U.S. companies. 

Published reports indicate that McCain wrote to Undersecretary of Defense Gordon England and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pushing for modifications and exemptions to the contract that allowed EADS to bypass restrictions that prevent domestic companies like Boeing from selling military technologies such as missile defense systems to enemy states like Iran.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) told the crowd that the only way EADS/Airbus operates is with subsidies the United States says are illegal. In fact, even as the $40 billion contract is being handed over, the federal government is aggressively pursuing legal action against EADS at the World Trade Organization for getting grants and loans at unfairly favorable rates. 

Gregoire said awarding the tanker deal to EADS/Airbus is one of the worst procurement decisions in recent history. The plane’s design is too big to fit in the hangers in which the National Guard houses the current tankers, meaning every single hanger will have to be rebuilt, she added.  

The contract also raises national security issues. Workers at Boeing—members of the Machinists (IAM) and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 (SPEEA)—undergo security checks and rigorous background clearances. But it is unclear if the European workers, as well as immigrants who are hired to build the scattered parts of this crucial piece of military equipment prior to its final assembly, will be vetted in the same way.

Murray also questioned the wisdom of allowing all the foreign countries working on the EADS plane to have access to the plans and design of the aircraft. In a meeting after the rally, she said U.S. vulnerability will increase sharply if EADS, which is under no obligation to keep our military secrets, shares the tanker design with countries which now have no refueling tanker capability.

Murray asked how long will it be before Iran or Pakistan acquire the knowledge and capability to manufacture their own tanker so that their military planes, which don’t have the capacity to reach the United States now, suddenly have the nation in their sites?

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