IAM TO LOBBY LAWMAKERS
ON AIR FORCE TANKER DEAL

Saying success “would bring several thousand more jobs to Portland and Wichita,” as well as Seattle, Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger said his union will lobby lawmakers to overturn the Air Force’s award of a $35 billion-$40 billion multiyear Air Force refueling tanker construction contract to a duo of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and Northrop-Grumman, rather than U.S.-based Boeing.

IAM’s lobbying will emphasize both national security and U.S. jobs, he added in an interview during the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in San Diego. “Our next move is to have Congress intervene. Given where we’re at, if we can’t have the award overturned, we’ll press to have it de-funded,” he said.

But the overturn attempt comes first. Boeing formally filed a protest on March 11, of the Air Force’s decision two weeks before. The Government Accountability Office, the federal government’s non-partisan auditing arm, has 100 days to rule on the protest.

“Our team has taken a very close look at the tanker decision and found serious flaws in the process” the Air Force used to award the contract to Airbus and Northrop-Grumman, Boeing’s CEO said. Boeing would base the tankers on its 767 jetliner, while Airbus would base them on its A380. Buffenbarger has two concerns: National security and his members.

“They’re a consortium of (European) countries who created a company,” Airbus. “If one of them fails” to provide key components for the 179 tankers in the contract, “What does that mean for us?” Buffenbarger asks.

He added the Bush regime’s Defense Department wanted to get the deal done before the GOP president leaves office. A new president and a new Defense Secretary might pay attention to “buy America” provisions of U.S. laws, Buffenbarger said.

As for jobs, Airbus promises it would create 2,000 jobs by building a new factory for the tankers in Mobile, Ala., after parts for the tanker are assembled by 40,000 unionized French workers at the Airbus plant in Toulouse, Buffenbarger said. The Machinists represent 35,000 Boeing workers, including 500 in now-very-slow 767 production line, which turns out a plane a month. “If it were to ramp up, that number would obviously increase,” spokesman Frank Larkin said.

Winning the tanker contract “would let us stabilize the 767 line,” rather than ending it as 767 ordersdrop, Buffenbarger said. Boeing is also shifting to producing 787s, 777s and 7777s, but even those are not all-American, he points out. Airbus would locate its plant in Mobile “because it’s a deepwater port. Same thing with us on Seattle, because parts for the 777 are made in Japan.”