Yesterday, after a selection process lasting 9 agonizing years, the US Department of Defense selected the Boeing Company over its European rival EADS to build the replacement for the Air Force's ancient fleet of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers. The conventional wisdom was that EADS had the competition sewn up, so the decision caught everyone by surprise--the staff of Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), whose district includes several Boeing facilities, even sent an e-mail with the wrong subject line initially.
One facet of the decision that's been lost in much of the coverage thus far, and one that's particularly relevant this week, is that the Pentagon's decision represents a major win for organized labor.
Had it emerged from the competition victorious, EADS, the parent company of Boeing's French archrival Airbus Industrie, had planned to build its tanker with non-union labor in Alabama, a so-called "right to work" state that has had success in recent years using its hostility to the American workforce to lure foreign manufacturers to set up shop there instead of in the unionized north. EADS spent millions of dollars lobbying anti-union Gulf Coast politicians like Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to put the arm on the administration on their behalf.
Instead, the tanker will be built at Boeing's Everett, Washington facility by the talented members of the powerful Machinists Union. One worker interviewed by the Everett Herald managed to be gracious in victory while also making some pointed observations about what the decision means for American industry:
Dale Flinn, a team leader for the door rigger crew, said he is pleased the Air Force chose Boeing to build 179 aerial refueling tankers to replace planes built in the Eisenhower era.
"I feel for the people in Alabama who would have assembled the Airbus plane," Flinn said. "But most of it would have been built in Europe and then the people in Alabama would have just hung the parts. The choice to build it here is healthier for the nation. And at the end of the day, we've got the better airplane."
By contrast, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who has attempted to blackmail the administration into giving the contract to his French paymasters, was both less gracious and less coherent in his response:
Only Chicago politics could tip the scales in favor of Boeing’s inferior plane,” Shelby said. “EADS clearly offers the more capable aircraft. If this decision stands, our warfighters will not get the superior equipment they deserve.”
"Chicago politics." Right. Shelby was not along among America's wingnuts, whose newfound hatred for Boeing threatens to surpass even their newfound hatred for General Motors:
Boeing gets the tanker contract. I smell a rat. A crooked rat. Even Boeing thought it was going to lose. EADS under-bid it, and its plane was bigger and could do more. But Boeing is headquartered in Obama's Chicagoland, and Defense Secretary Gates will retire to his Seattle-area home--Seattle being the main historic base of Boeing and still the site of the largest portion of its jobs, including the jobs for the tanker project. It's all so very convenient . . .
While the wingnuts whine, up in Everett they're just going to go on doing what they do best: make American planes with American workers for Americans.