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Bush Administration Dodges Decision on Air Tanker Contract |
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The 2008 election just took on greater importance for American workers after Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today that he is canceling the competition for a $35 billion contract for the Air Force’s refueling tankers and leaving it to the next administration to decide.
Gates announced that the competition between Boeing Co. and European-based EADS was “too controversial” to be settled during the last four months of the Bush administration.
One reason that the new occupant of the White House is so critical to the competition is Sen. John McCain’s role in the first contract award. Time magazine reported in March that McCain was a “key figure” in the Pentagon’s attempt to complete the tanker deal.
According to the news magazine, McCain wrote letters and pushed the Pentagon to change the bidding process so that Airbus’s government subsidies could not be considered when deciding to whom to award the contract. This placed Boeing, which receives no subsidies, at a clear disadvantage and conflicted with U.S. trade policy.
If Seattle-based Boeing had been awarded the air tanker deal, the contract would have supported at least 44,000 new and existing jobs in the United States, many of them family-sustaining union jobs, as well as more than 300 suppliers in 40 states. But under the EADS contract, only a few thousand lower-paying nonunion jobs would be created.
Machinists (IAM) President Tom Buffenbarger says:
More than 40,000 U.S. workers in dozens of states have a huge stake in this decision. We need a fair competition that is not unduly influenced by lobbyists or politicians who are under the influence of lobbyists. The American people and the U.S. armed forces deserve no less.
Some 27,000 IAM members who assemble airplanes at Boeing walked out Saturday after last-ditch efforts to reach a fair contract failed. A huge majority of workers—87 percent—voted to strike after their contract expired Sept. 3.
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) President Gregory Junemann applauded the Pentagon’s decision, saying:
It certainly is in the best interests of the U.S. taxpayer, as well as for our own national security, that we abandon the idea of rushing through a competition for the sole purpose of “getting it done” before the Bush administration leaves office. I applaud Secretary Gates for taking this approach. We at IFPTE continue to believe that when a proper competition is finally conducted that the tanker will be a top-quality domestically manufactured aircraft built by American workers.
In July, Gates announced he was reopening the competition. The decision came three weeks after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision to award the contract to EADS and Northrup Grumann.
The GAO report cites significant errors by the Air Force that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and EADS. The agency recommended that the contract be reopened.
A report compiled by IFPTE highlights the flawed bid-awarding process involved and found the EADS fleet would cost U.S. taxpayers money and is likely less safe than the Boeing model. In fact, IFPTE, which represents 85,000 white-collar engineers and technical employees across the nation, determined the Boeing model could save taxpayers $90 billion over the program’s lifetime.
3 Comments
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I recently came across this on Youtube.
Please watch this music video that couldn’t be a better anthem endorsing Barack Obama.
I feel that it completely sums up our concerns and hopes for a brighter future.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLgJVBoR_zs
Let’s get it out there to help make the change!
Thank you for your time
Sincerely,
Darryl Smithburg
I recently came across this on Youtube.
Please watch this music video that couldn’t be a better anthem endorsing Barack Obama.
I feel that it completely sums up our concerns and hopes for a brighter future.
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLgJVBoR_zs
Let’s get it out there to help make the change!
Thank you for your time
Sincerely,
Darryl Smithburg
I’m in favor of forcing a vote. Well, we cant because Nanci Pelosi refused to vote on something also…if Americans wanted to allow drilling in areas which actually HAVE oil that isnt insanely expensive to get. Allow a vote If no, then NO. Why hide? I thought this was a republic (some call it democracy but thats incorrect)
I say get those lazy bums back to work in the senate, and FORCE them to sit there until they vote on EVERYTHING that was left hanging when they had an early summer vacation, and never do this again. WE all have to work all year, why do these elite get all the perks of being rewarded by avoiding responsibility?