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Tanker Contract: Corporate Serfdom or Quality Jobs? |
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The governors of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama are pushing the U.S. Defense Department to award in 2010 a $35 billion to $40 billion tanker contract to European-owned EADS/Airbus rather than U.S.-based Boeing Corp.
In doing so, Republican Govs. Haley Barbour, Bobby Jindal and Bob Riley are seeking to pit worker against worker, North against South, as a ploy to cover what’s really at stake: family-supporting jobs.
See, these governors loooove job creation in their states—as long as those jobs don’t pay much. Or offer affordable health insurance and retirement security. And especially as long as those jobs aren’t union.
If Boeing is awarded the contract for the refueling tanker aircraft, 44,000 family-supporting production jobs will be created across the country. In contrast, the few thousand jobs created under an EADS contract would be low-paid assembly jobs with no union protection.
In announcing a new alliance to lobby for the Europeans to win the tanker contract, Barbour made clear what’s really at stake for this set of anti-worker politicians: Killing union jobs because unions are the best defense against the type of corporate serfdom these latter-day peasant-masters want to perpetuate. At this week’s launch of the Aerospace Alliance, Barbour said that if the Gulf Coast site is chosen,
you don’t have to worry about [workers] being out on strike when America needs them.
The Republican governors’ divide-and-conquer tactic has been used time and again by anti-union management: Create division between workers so they will not join in solidarity against the real threat—corporate puppet masters and their political puppets.
In the short-term, the tanker contract is about jobs. But it’s also about the future of the nation’s economy. Unless production-related employment in the United States is increased, our nation will sink further behind the industrialized world in research and development and the high-level involvement in manufacturing that propelled our economy to the top.
Granting the tanker contract to Boeing is a step toward returning critically needed production jobs to the United States. And it’s a step away from the corporate-serfdom fantasized by corporate-bought lawmakers.
This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.
11 Comments
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They should be embarrassed. Are the people living in those states paying attention?
when i was in the army and dependent on my weapons, and good reliable transportation during my tour in vietnam, i am glad it was made by reliable union workers. and the same went for my son in iraq. i am also a cajun and all my uncles were ww2 veterans and all were union upon returning to their jobs after the war. they also know they relied on union made weapons, trucks, ships, and planes to win that war. shame on the republicans to have forgotten who really helped win that war, and who really helps to protect our country now. shame on them for not supporting american made unions.
sincerely,
a purple heart vietnam union member,
father of a decorated iraq war veteran.
We need the employee free choice act and we need it now.
I suppose that if the contracts went to europe they would avoid any shop that is unionized there.The objective is obvious a worldwide race to the bottom for workers and capital takes all
Our armed forces need new tankers. The KC-135s we’re using are all older than any of the crews serving on them. Do your part: call, write, email, and/or seek out an audience with your congressional delegates and voice your opinions directly to them. Also, make certain to politely tell them you are a proud union member and that you VOTE!
“There is power in a Union!”
KevinLee the people in those states don’t care about or hate unions especially the Senators such as Shelby, Corker, DeWitt, Bunning and so forth. They have been totally brainwashed by their narcisstic, sellout, hateful demeanors. They want it all but the working class gets the olive pit. Absolute traitors to our founding fathers, and especially the constitution.
Fantastic. An American military force, with planes bought from France. What’s next, AK47’s as standard issue arms? Body armor from China? I’m sure the electronics and communications gear is made in Taiwan…
I imagine that part of what is driving this decision is our current world trade policies. Naturally, I realize that unions resisted these policies in the first place. But I also feel that your story writers should include this link in their stories, which will force readers to finally realize how much impact this is having on the standard of living in the U.S. because I don’t think most people realize this important (but often hidden) link.
Anyone exporting jobs like these with an American economy in this condition is treasonous. They are directly doing harm to our country! The lions share of the work would probably be in Europe rather than the deep south and most of the profit would go over seas as well. Anyone who would re-elect these suckers needs their head examined.
These men are not just anti union they are anti worker. In my view people like these are traitors to the American citizenry.
When are Americans going to realize that corporations are controlling our elected officials and that they routinely pay them off!! We need a worker revolution in this country and take back America for the people not wall street. Kick these criminals to the curb and vote them out…make it clear they will pay for these bad decisions.