Tanker Contract Delayed Until After Election—50,000 Jobs at Stake
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When some voters cast their ballots next week, their decisions will determine whether nearly 50,000 jobs in 40 states are created. The U.S. aerospace company Boeing is locked in a competition with European-based EADS, which builds the Airbus, for what is the largest contract in Air Force history. If Boeing’s bid wins, the company will immediately create tens of thousands of good union jobs to build the tanker. The Air Force has delayed the awarding of the $35 billion tanker contract until after the November elections. With some key members of Congress up for re-election, the choices voters in Washington and a few other states make will help determine whether Boeing or EADS gets the tanker.
Washington State Workers Rally to Keep Tanker Made in America
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In this cross-post, Kathy Cummings, communications director of the Washington State Labor Council, reports on a rally Friday in support of Boeing workers. Boeing is in competition with European-based Airbus for the Air Force’s $35 billion tanker contract.
With as many as 50,000 jobs at stake across the country, members of the Machinists (IAM) and SPEEA/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 2001 rallied along with Washington State’s congressional delegation and a host of community and business leaders Friday in Everett. We rallied in support of Boeing, as the company turned in their bid for the contract to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of air re-fueling tankers.
WTO Rules Airbus Subsidies Are Illegal
The World Trade Organization (WTO) today confirmed what U.S. workers and aerospace manufacturers have been saying for years: The subsidies the European Union (EU) and its members give to the Airbus are illegal.
In a decision released today, a WTO dispute panel found that $20 billion in aid provided by certain EU nations for new Airbus aircraft over the past 40 years, as well as other subsidies, caused adverse effects to the interests of the United States aerospace industry and therefore violated WTO rules.
About a third of Airbus’s development costs come from European governments in the form of loans that are repaid with interest only if the aircraft is a commercial success.
The 1,050-page report on Airbus was published today by the WTO on its website. Broad outlines of the report have been known since March when a preliminary ruling was sent to the parties involved. Click here to read the full report.
Is U.S. Air Force Flying Cover for EADS in Tanker Fight?
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With 50,000 jobs at stake in the $35 billion contract battle over a new generation of in-flight refueling tankers, the U.S. Air Force “seems determined to help European businesses rather than our own,” says John Wolcott, editor of the Snohomish County Business Journal.
Wolcott is the latest voice to weigh in about the long and controversial fight that has pitted U.S-owned Boeing with “50 years of experience in producing aerial tankers” against the French-based, European consortium, EADS/Airbus.
The stakes are high. Granting the contract to Boeing would create at least 50,000 family-supporting jobs, save taxpayer dollars and protect fair trade laws.
Tanker Bid Tests Who U.S. Trade Policy Really Helps
If the Obama administration is serious about rebuilding America’s manufacturing base, it should start by awarding the $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the Boeing Co. and not to a European firm that has ignored trading rules in its bid, several experts say.
The tanker contract was rebid this year after the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest of the original decision to award the contract to French-based EADS/Airbus and Northrop Grumman. After EADS dropped out, leaving Boeing as the only bidder, the Air Force extended the deadline for bids by 60 days and EADS submitted a new solo bid.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) pointed out the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in March that Airbus had received illegal subsidies to make the A330 aircraft, which EADS will use for the tanker competition.
Don’t Listen to Sarkozy: U.S. Tanker Contract Should Create U.S. Jobs
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Today French President Sarkozy reportedly is lobbying President Obama to delay the U.S. government’s decision to award its $35 billion contract for the Air Force’s new refueling tanker. Sarkozy wants the contract for Northrop-EADS, a heavily subsidized French defense firm that recently pulled its proposal from the bidding process. Northrup-EADS now is mounting a huge public relations campaign to get the U.S. government to reverse what it regards as an unfair advantage for Boeing, which says the competition is fair.
If Northrup-EADS won the contract, most of the jobs would be in Europe. The few thousand jobs created here under an EADS contract would be low-paid assembly jobs with no union representation. Meanwhile, there are some 17 million jobless workers in this nation, and as leaders of two AFL-CIO constituency groups point out, granting the contract to Boeing would create at least 50,000 family-supporting jobs, save taxpayer dollars and protect fair trade laws.
Boeing Official Calls out French for Protectionism
While French-based Airbus is trying to grab a multibillion aerial tanker contract from the U.S. Air Force, its home country won’t even allow the United States to compete in its defense market. Now, a leading French businessman is calling out the French government for its protectionist policies.
In a recent press conference, Boeing France President Yves Galland, a former French trade official and politician, said the United States has ordered hundreds of U.S. Army helicopters from Eurocopter, an Airbus subsidiary, but France has not bought any defense equipment from Boeing in 30 years.
This is an important issue because the U.S. government is still mulling whether to grant a $35 billion Air Force aerial tanker contract to either Northrop-EADS (Airbus) or Boeing. The contract was rebid after the Government Accountability Office upheld Boeing’s protest of the original decision to award the contract to Northrup-EADS.
Speaking of Jobs…
Here are a few good nuggets about jobs to chew on this cold winter day.
• The reactionary noise machine is trying to bad-mouth the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make it look like it’s not creating jobs. Wrong. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis this week announced the release of nearly $100 million in renewable energy training grants that will create thousands of jobs and help move our nation to energy self-sufficiency. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) is among the unions receiving the green jobs training grants. In Austin, Texas, alone, the $4.8 million granted to the union’s Joint Apprenticeship and Training Council will enable it to train more than 1,000 workers—both experienced journeymen and workers new to the trade—by next year.
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.
Tanker Contract Would Create 44,000 Jobs in United States
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Remember the efforts by the Bush administration last year to tilt the competitive bid process in favor of giving a $35 billion contract to Airbus over Boeing?
Only after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision to award the contract to EADS/Airbus and Northrop Grumman did Defense Secretary Robert Gates cancel the competition for the Air Force’s refueling tankers.
John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, alerts us that the issue is back. In an op-ed in the Hartford Courant, Olsen points out that the French use billions of illegal subsidies to low-bid their contract proposal—and the Obama administration should insist the total value of any such Airbus subsidies are taken into account in the bidding to build the new tanker.
