SEATTLE
The great Boeing plane robbery
By Jim McMahan
Seattle
Despite a big struggle between military chiefs and Boeing
executives, the Boeing Co. seems poised to gain a new $22
billion contract for 100 tanker planes. The planes would be
Boeing 767s, used for mid-air refueling of warplanes that are
sent long distances to bomb poorer countries.
They would replace 540 tanker planes called KC-135s.
Initially, 20 of the planes would be leased by the Pentagon,
which increases what taxpayers have to pay by about $5 billion.
Boeing had pushed hard all year to get all 100 planes
leased.
The contract could easily balloon to 500 planes. To get
congressional approval, Boeing browbeat, bashed and bribed its
way through various laws and regulations. But the main fight is
against the workers and oppressed, who face getting bombed or
ripped off as a result of this debacle.
Boeing is set on becoming the provider of next-generation
tankers. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House and a lobbyist
for Boeing, crowed to the Associated Press, "You're looking at
adding at least a dozen wide-bodies per year to your books,
almost in perpetuity."
This will cost at least $100 billion, meaning Boeing will be
on the government dole for a generation or two just for this
one project.
This $100 billion could be used to provide prescription
drugs to seniors in the United States and AIDS drugs to all of
Africa.
The tanker deal will constitute pillage of the U.S. workers
who have to pay for it, now and in the future, just as the
United States super-pillaged Iraq with massive bombing.
Boeing dominated the air war against Iraq: F-18s, F-15s, B-2
stealth and B-52 bombers, "Apache" and "Black Hawk"
helicopters, JDAM smart bombs, KC-135 tankers and much, much
more.
Earlier this year, Pentagon acquisition official Darleen
Druyun disclosed to Boeing information on an Airbus bid for the
tankers. Boeing Chief Financial Officer Mike Sears gave Druyun
a Boeing vice-president job in return for her favor. On Nov.
24, Boeing Chief Executive Officer Phil Condit sacked both
Sears and Druyun. Ten days later Condit was pushed out the
door. Harry Stonecipher, former CEO of McDonnell-Douglas and a
Boeing executive, replaced Condit.
Stonecipher is more closely associated with the Pentagon. He
has been a leader at Boeing in pushing for brutal layoffs and
replacing Boeing workers by outsourcing to lower-paying
contractors around the world.
It is said that the tanker contract will mean steady jobs
for the Everett, Wash., 767 line for years to come. But it is
part of growing militarization--and Pentagon influence over the
company. Some 55 percent of Boeing's $49 billion in current
revenues comes from the federal treasury. It used to be 20
percent. This influence has led to layoffs and the dismantling
of some of the company's industrial infrastructure.
Boeing has laid off 65,000 workers since 1999. The 7E7, the
next generation commercial airplane, will be built outside the
country--replicating Stonecipher's leadership with the 717, a
business jet produced with very few workers, and a failure.
According to the Oct. 28 Washington Post, the tanker
contract is the first in a series of big leases the Pentagon is
contemplating at enormous overall cost. The contract was
approved by a new Pentagon leasing panel that operates with far
less oversight and regulatory control than previously,
bypassing regulations enacted over the last three decades to
forestall military contracting abuses.
The Air Force never conducted a formal study of alternatives
to leasing the new tankers, as had been standard. It never
conducted a formal competition before signing the contract. Nor
did it arrange to test the new tankers before committing to
lease all of them.
Boeing and Pentagon corporate titans need to be given a
flight out of here. The trans portation industry needs to
travel in the direction of providing social and economic
security for workers--the vast majority of the population--and
not be con tinually hijacked by rich warmongers.
Reprinted from the Dec. 18, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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