International Association Of Machinists Blasts Northrup/EADS Bid

While the Air Force continues to wrestle with replacing it's aging fleet of KC-135 tankers, a war of words continues to get louder, with various factions hoping to slice off a piece of the multi-billion dollar program. Earlier in the week, lawmakers from four southern states announced an alliance who's stated initial purpose is to promote the Northrop Grumman/EADS tanker, which they say would be built largely on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Wednesday, General Vice President Richard Michalski of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers issued the following statement, which he said responds to recent statements by Northrop Grumman about its bid to win the Air Force's $35 billion tanker contract:

"EADS/Airbus is currently promoting its phantom tanker program around the world without Northrop Grumman. So here's the 'big why:' if Northrop Grumman is a full partner with EADS/Airbus on the tanker program, why aren't they being marketed around the world alongside the French company?

It turns out that the 'big why' is a big lie. EADS/Airbus is using Northrop Grumman as mere window dressing on its latest ploy to steal American jobs.

The Air Force has requested a tanker aircraft based on an existing commercial aircraft. Northrop has never built a single commercial aircraft, nor does it have the assembly lines or engineers needed to build one. Instead, EADS intends to propose its A330, which is made and maintained in Europe and is the product of what has been determined by the World Trade Organization to be an illegal subsidy campaign intended to steal U.S. jobs.

The so-called Northrop/EADS partnership on the tankers is little more than a press release. We need a fully transparent procurement process for the tanker replacement.

The first step would be to acknowledge that the A330 is an EADS/Airbus bid that is financed with European subsidies that the World Trade Organization has declared illegal."

FMI: www.goiam.org