McCain Confronted About Jobs in Washington State

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/05/16/mccain-confronted-about-jobs-in-washington-state/

by Seth Michaels, May 16, 2008

Sen. John McCain took his campaign to Seattle and Bellevue, Wash., this week, and, as usual, he was confronted with AFL-CIO union members asking him for answers about the economy.

Union members in Washington State want to know what McCain’s role was in awarding a major military contract to a foreign company in March, costing good union jobs to the Seattle area and elsewhere. Workers in Washington are protesting the decision to outsource the building of an air tanker for the U.S. Air Force.



According to Time, McCain had a key role in the decision to send the air tanker contract overseas, and some of his current advisers, previously, were lobbyists for the European aviation company that won the contract. McCain also has a consistent record of voting for bad trade agreements that hurt workers.

In Seattle, McCain was met by 30 members of the Machinists (IAM), who braved pouring rain to let McCain know he needs to protect jobs and preserve vital national security interests. In Bellevue, where McCain traveled for yet another $33,000-a-person fundraiser, 25 more demonstrators came out to ask him for solutions to working families’ economic crisis.

McCain should stop to listen to the Machinists and others who are focusing on the real issues of jobs, trade and health care. He might learn a thing or two.

:P

Edit add picture

it was your post as it flew over my numb skull.:hide:

Edit for spell check.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1210842935268530.xml&coll=3

Bill could affect tanker
Thursday, May 15, 2008
By SEAN REILLY
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON In the course of its work on a major defense bill Wednesday, a House panel approved legislation that could affect the U.S. Air Force's decision to award a contract for aerial refueling tankers to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America.

EADS is short for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. As part of a package of amendments adopted on a voice vote Wednesday evening, the House Armed Services Committee agreed to bar the Pentagon from awarding work to foreign companies that are the subject of a complaint to the World Trade Organization for allegedly receiving illegal government subsidies. The United States government is pursuing such a complaint against Airbus, a subsidiary of Paris-based EADS.

The amendment is not retroactive, said Josh Holly, a spokesman for the amendment's sponsor, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. But it would go into effect if the Boeing Co., the loser in the battle for the tanker contract, succeeds in forcing a new competition, Holly said.

The amendment would also allow the president to disregard the ban if he or she believes it would "result in a significant and imminent threat to national security."

With an estimated value of up to $40 billion, the tanker contract calls for delivery of 179 planes over the next 15 years. If the agreement stands, the planes will be assembled and modified at Brookley Field Industrial Complex in Mobile, with 1,500 jobs predicted to result.

But ever since the Pentagon announced the award in late February, the contract has been under attack by congressional allies of Boeing. The Chicago-based aircraft giant has protested the Air Force's decision to the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, a congressional agency charged with hearing contract appeals. A decision is due by June 19. Should the GAO decide in Boeing's favor that could trigger a new competition.

--snip--

The Senate version of the legislation so far does not have any language aimed at the tanker contract, leaving open the possibility that Hunter's amendment could be dropped in negotiations over the wording the final bill.

The bill would also "pause" production of the next-generation destroyer known as the DDG-1000. The Navy has so far ordered two of the increasingly expensive ships, one from Bath Iron Works in Maine, and the other from Northrop's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula.