Tragic Blow to American Manufacturing
March 5th, 2008
The recent announcement that the Airbus/Northrop team had beat Boeing in a USA Defense Department contract for refueling jet tankers with a contractual lifetime value of $40 billion is a massive blow to one of the few industries the USA has continued to lead.
This contract was originally given to Boeing, but ripped away under pressure to allow bidding from European contractors. France and Germany have massively subsidized Airbus (now called EADS), which already was a key factor in the demise of McDonnell Douglas’s commercial jet aircraft business. If this order goes through it is not only a blow to Boeing, but to their hundreds of U.S. suppliers. Yes, Northrop is an American company, but they are along for the ride with Airbus – providing mainly political know how in Washington. Make no mistake, this new deal is to purchase hundreds of French/German jet aircraft.
It gets worse. If even the pentagon is buying foreign jets, why should any of our allies buy American jets for military or commercial purposes? If this goes through, history will speak of this deal as one of the key blows to America’s waning industrial capability. Tens of thousands of good jobs and technical know-how will be lost.
I have never before asked you to contact your congressman, but this time it too important. We must take a stand. Please contact them at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/, which allows a quick search of congressmen by zip code. Tell them this deal must be stopped and that you will vote against them if it goes through.
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 10:31 amand is filed under Trade Issues, USA Employment Issues.
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