Anti-Northrop petitions to flood D.C.

Politico ^ | 4/15/2008 | Jen DiMascio

[CharlesWayneCT]

Labor unions across the country are delivering thousands of worker petitions to Capitol Hill this week, urging lawmakers to stop funding the new Air Force refueling tanker program and start investigating it.
...
The machinists union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and the AFL-CIO are targeting more than the obvious supporters in the Kansas and Washington state congressional delegations. The union will follow its petition drive with one-on-one meetings with lawmakers, zeroing in on Arizona, Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania.
...
The unions will roll out a range of arguments, from apple-pie-style pitches that show the economic impact on individual communities to protectionist strikes at the Air Force’s decision to buy European. And there will be questions about Northrop Grumman’s ability to move into the airplane business, which has traditionally been Boeing’s forte.
...
“What we have are the actual workers, the people who will be impacted by the Air Force’s decision,” Biggs said, adding that the contract could be an economic stimulus package. “Why not reinvest here at home?” he asked. “Boeing is an American company.”
...
But Boeing supporters also are quick to question the apparent neutrality of those groups, pointing to news coverage that suggested Citizens Against Government Waste and Northrop Grumman were working together.
...
Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at Teal Group, said one reason for the heat surrounding the tanker program could be the regional shift it causes in aerospace jobs.

The contract moves the balance of aerospace work from heavily Democratic areas in Washington state and Connecticut in the North to heavily Republican areas in Alabama and Florida in the South. And with two well-oiled lobbying machines and politicians willing to fight, “you get some serious friction,” Aboulafia said.

[CharlesWayneCT]

This is a good, balanced article, although it presents mostly Boeing arguments on the first page, and requires a jump to the 2nd page to see Northrup's side. For example, it mentions a bunch of think-tanks (mostly liberal but not presented that way) siding with Boeing on the 1st page, and then presents other think-tanks supporting Northrup with attacks on those think-tanks for ties to the issue.

Most interesting is the take about this not so much being union jobs (union jobs are at stake for Northrup as well), but that it shifts jobs to republicans states, maybe states (I don't know) where people have choices about joining the unions, certainly states where the jobs will help republicans, not democrats.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

It’s the same old story of trying to protect high paid union jobs. It has been a failed strategy for decades. The Auto industry is a good example. The Unions caused plant closures in the north that moved jobs to union free plants in the South and overseas. Now the Machinists and their allies who have contracts with Boeing are afraid the jobs will move to union free plants in Mobile Alabama and elsewhere in the South. This bull about Boeing being an “American” company is just that. Boeing outsources to other countries as many parts as would Grumman/EADS.

[Non-Sequitur]

“Why not reinvest here at home?” he asked. “Boeing is an American company." Because the defense budget is not an economic stimulus package and we should be buying the aircraft that represents the best solution for the money.

I will stand by my prediction that this will result in a typically Washington compromise: split the order between the two companies so that we wind up with fewer aircraft but pay more for each one.

[Redleg Duke]

Sounds like an excerpt from "Atlas Shrugged". The unions and RATS will be the death of this country.

Boeing crapped in their messkit. They blew the proposal and now they want to tip over the game board and demand that they deserved to win anyway because they are an American company.

Our Warfighters deserve the best capability, not come throw-away from a fatcat.

[Da Coyote]

“I will stand by my prediction that this will result in a typically Washington compromise: split the order between the two companies so that we wind up with fewer aircraft but pay more for each one.”

I agree. (I admit to not knowing what the real criteria were for the decision, but having worked in a source selection group, the printed instructions provided by the govt try too hard to include every possible consideration - and the weighting factors are at times so silly as to make one believe that they came from the Harvard Business School.) Actual engineering and performance parameters contained less weight than some unbelievable mamby-pamby feel-good marshmallow stuff. When I was done, I felt like Obama without a teleprompter.

[sgbnsgt21793]

Go check the history of Northrop Grumman. Not an “American” Co.? Why aren’t they stating they have abetter plane @ a better price that’s easy and cheaper to maintain? Boo-hoo you lost. I’m sick and tired of PC do-overs. As for the poster that brought up the union angle, if that’s the case I for one pray the contract stays in Northrop & their partners hands. The unions have ruined what was once the great Commonwealth of PA. they (the unions) can’t dry-up and blow away fast enough.

[Jonah Hex]

And there will be questions about Northrop Grumman’s ability to move into the airplane business, which has traditionally been Boeing’s forte.

Northrop aircraft

Grumman F-14

[okie01]

And there will be questions about Northrop Grumman’s ability to move into the airplane business, which has traditionally been Boeing’s forte.

The oddest criticism of all, I agree. You might've also shown the B-2 stealth bomber -- a Northrop creation.

[calex59]

When did Northrop become a foreign company? I always thought they were American.

[calex59]

And there will be questions about Northrop Grumman’s ability to move into the airplane business, which has traditionally been Boeing’s forte.

And when did Northrop not know how to build planes? Some of these statements are just plain stupid.

[jaydubya2]

Boeing is claiming that their aircraft is more survivable:

http://www.aero-news.net/news/military.cfm?ContentBlockID=95786b17-eda7-40ba-8959-3fe7fad5040a&Dynamic=1

[Oztrich Boy]

Go check the history of Northrop Grumman. Not an “American” Co.?

I am told they now want to move into the aeroplane business