Sealy plant loses Army truck deal [Houston, Tx area]

Houston Chronicle ^ | 2-13-2010 | STEWART M. POWELL

[deport]

3,000 jobs may be cut

WASHINGTON — The Houston-area economy suffered a second blow Friday, with the U.S. Army rejecting a Sealy-based company's appeal to keep combat truck production in Texas, where it has been for 17 years.

The Army's action to award the contract to a Wisconsin firm — following a review ordered by Congress' watchdog Government Accountability Office — could claim an estimated 3,000 jobs at the Texas plant in suburban Houston, with layoffs beginning later this year.

Coupled with President Barack Obama's proposal last week to cancel NASA's $108 billion back-to-the-moon Constellation program, the Houston area could lose more than 10,000 aerospace and manufacturing jobs over the next two years.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose congressional district includes Sealy, said the Army decision was “the wrong decision” for the workforce, troops in the field and U.S. taxpayers. There “appears to be a trend in this administration to move jobs out of Texas, whether it be cutting NASA's human space flight program or BAE's (truck) production,” he said.

[brushcop]

Right, good point also.

[Non-Sequitur]

JSC (NASA Houston) is pretty much all about manned flight, if NASA is out of the manned flight business then there is little need for JSC. Easy 20k, 30k jobs at JSC counting contractors.

One would assume all those jobs were on the chopping block anyway since the shuttle was due to end in a year or so and the next manned missions were years down the road. What were they planning to do in the interim other than collect a paycheck?

[PIF]

“What’s the ties with the Wisconsin company and Obama?”

Hussein->Wis gov Doyle->Oshkosh

Doyle has been mentioned for a poistion (a czar) in the Hussein regime after he leaves the governorship next year.

[Non-Sequitur]

0bama is hacking back NASA which gets Florida and Texas. A two-fer!

Obama won Florida in 2008 so there goes that theory.

[PIF]

Reducing TX to welfare state most likely plan.

[achilles2000]

Possibly, but government contracting sometimes involves such skullduggery as switching specs under the table midstream (this includes ignoring specs in evaluation of bids) so that the bidders are effectively not bidding on the same item. That technique has been known to be used to steer contracts to companies preferred by some brasshat.

Here is an example where the Airforce got caught: http://www.govexec.com/pdfs/061808cd1.pdf

You may be right, but it is hard to believe that BAE/Navistar bid so high that a company in Wisconsin that had to build the line could underbid them in a fair competition.

[Yo-Yo]

That is the M-ATV, which stands for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle, which Oshkosh is building for use in Afghanistan.

The contract in this thread is for building the US Army's Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles:

[jpsb]

You are correct, NASA JSC was going to get hit hard with the cancellation of the Shuttle project. But now there doesn't seem much reason to keep NASA JSC, may as well close the center and give the land back to Rice University.

[hopespringseternal]

Right decision, wrong reason. It is fairly clear Obama is engaged in Chicago-style thug politics, particularly against conservative states.

That this happened to be a decent decision his motives notwithstanding is just a bonus.

[Yo-Yo]

The Air Force decided that the larger aircraft offered by EADS/Northorp Grumman, at a lower unit price than Boeing's smaller tanker, constituted a 'best value.'

The GAO upheld Boeing's protest because in the solicitation for bids it was not made absoultely clear how much "extra credit" for extra capacity would be scored. Boeing claims that if they knew that, they would have bid a larger tanker.

BAE/Navistar did protest the awarding of the contract to Oshkosh Corp, and was denied, which is the point of this thread. BAE/Navistar have been building these trucks for 12 years, and could have underbid Oshkosh if they didn't pad their margins. They estimated how much Oshkosh needed to bid for the contract, and they guessed wrong.

[Bearshouse]

In Texas, Sealy would be a low cost location. I’m betting that there is something else going on.

Agreed. And with Texas being a "Right To Work" state, the unions don't have near the power here.

[achilles2000]

As I said, you may be right, but there was a lot that went on in the Air Force case that was not above board, and government contracting is rife with favoritism and corrupt at federal, state, and local levels. I very much doubt that the contract was the straightforward process that you think - but I could be wrong.

[headstamp 2]

http://www.oshkoshdefense.com/defense/products~sandcat~home.cfm

[Yo-Yo]

Well, it's not as if Oshkosh Corp. isn't qualified to build these trucks. They have been manufacturing the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck for the US Army since the 1980s.

[1hedLyte]

May be time to dig into tax breaks or incentives, capital investments for securing jobs for union workers may (I’m just speculating) be something to think about. Suppose the company will get some government hand-out to help pay for modifications in order to keep workers employed?

[SubMareener]

But Florida (the Villages) has been give big welcomes to Palin and Beck. So I think Florida is off 0bama’s list of friendly places.

[achilles2000]

I agree that they can deliver the goods, but I think that there is probably a political element involved. In any event, it will by Oshkosh by gosh ;-)

[Bearshouse]

We better watch closely what the Jobs bill has in it.

[tickles]

wouldn’t the best question be is this company that won the bid a union plant or non union. Just because the state of WI is a big supporter of unions does not mean that every plant is unionized. I’m in the neighboring state and I can tell you that even my employer has both union and non union doing the same jobs but in different locations. (and never the two shall meet because according to the unions their workers cannot ‘help’ us, lol) I have been on the union side, my observation is my pay is about the same, the only difference is the unions top out in the pay scale in 8 yrs, those who have been in the non union side will top out in at least twice that number or years or more.

But I enjoy working non union much better then union.