Machinists call for ‘fairness’ on tanker pact
With the Pentagon set to kick off the latest competition to build a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers today urged the Obama administration to take steps to ensure a level playing field.
At issue is the recent preliminary ruling by the World Trade Organization that Airbus has received illegal subsidies from European governments.
“Most troubling, according to public reports, is that Airbus has sought approximately $5 billion in illegal ‘launch aid’ subsidies to develop its A330 airliner, the very aircraft Airbus and its minority partner, Northrop Grumman, now intend to retrofit and use to bid on the U.S. Air Force’s $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract,” IAMAW General Vice President Richard P. Michalski wrote in a letter to Obama.
The machinists’ union urged the Defense Department to incorporate contract language that would discount the value of any improper subsidies.
Union leaders, in a conference call with reporters, said they are not seeking special treatment nor are they trying to have anyone barred from the competition.
Officials with the St. Louis-based defense unit of Boeing Co. said this month that they are prepared to enter the competition with one of two planes. One would be a KC-767 and the other would be a larger, converted 777. The latter would be comparable in size to the modified A330 offered by competitor Northrop Grumman Corp. and European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., parent of Airbus.
And in six months, when it is most likely that Boeing will be found guilty of receiving it’s own illegal subsidies, what then? Discount them both?
For those with heads in sand, the ilegal subsidies are the tax free breaks on factories, the massive injection of free funds from the Japanese government for them to build the 787 wing…..Hey, soon a whole aircraft will be built there!
“Hey, soon a whole aircraft will be built there!”
–Uhh, no; in case you haven’t been watching, Boeing is pulling more and more of the manufacturing back in house precisely because outsourcing to a large extent didn’t work. They just bought an entire manufacturing assembly in South Carolina so that they could start a second production line of the 787 and get it back on schedule.
Having said that, the amount of political maneuvering on both sides of this ‘debate’ is distressing, and frankly dangerous, as the Air Force’s tankers get older and older. Here is my proposal: Let GSA handle the bidding process, set the rules in advance, as clearly as possible, and ANYONE who violates the rules gets arrested, including congress, and boeing, and airbus. ANd once the bid is in and accepted, that’s that. No whining, no suits, no backroom deals with congress or the manufacturers.
It starts to feel a little like the Byzantine court, and that’s not a comfortable feeling.