Go to Original
Another Union Blasts Tanker Deal
By Sean Reilly
Mobile Press-Register
Thursday 10 April 2008
Group representing Boeing workers asks Congress to stop funding.
Washington - Another labor union representing Boeing Co. workers has formally called on Congress to withhold money for a recently awarded aerial refueling tanker contract that went to a rival team led by Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp and EADS North America.
Members of the labor community were "stunned" by the Air Force's decision to award the valuable work to a foreign company, Greg Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, wrote in a Tuesday letter to top members of the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees. EADS North America is a subsidiary of Paris-based European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.
Congress should "defund" the contract, Junemann wrote, as well as hold hearings on how it was awarded "and ultimately recompete it."
The union represents more than 24,000 workers at Chicago-based Boeing and its U.S.-based suppliers, according to an accompanying news release.
Under the contract, estimated to be worth up to $40 billion, the military plans to build 179 tankers. Although many of the parts will be European-made, the planes are to be assembled and modified at two plants at Brookley Field Industrial Complex in Mobile. Some 1,500 jobs are supposed to directly result.
Junemann's letter follows an AFL-CIO statement last month pillorying the deal; the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, another union that represents Boeing workers, has also asked lawmakers in writing to block funding for the contract.
Spokesmen for U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the chairmen of the House and Senate defense appropriations panels, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Air Force officials have defended their decision, saying the Northrop/EADS bid offered the best value to taxpayers.
Boeing is protesting the decision to the Government Accountability Office, the congressional agency charged with hearing contract appeals. The deal has also been heavily criticized by Boeing allies on Capitol Hill.
The Bush administration is seeking $1.4 billion for the tanker program during the 2009 fiscal year that begins in October. Using Congress' power of the purse has been one option repeatedly raised by critics as a means of overturning the contract. Organized labor is an important constituency for the Democrats who control Congress.
But while Murtha has alluded to that option, he has not publicly committed to pursuing it when his subcommittee drafts its version of the 2009 defense spending bill. Inouye has said he wants to see how the GAO decides Boeing's protest. That ruling is due by mid-June.
-------
Jump to today's Truthout Issues:
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.
Print This Story
E-mail This Story