Tanker Truths

07 Apr 2008
Boeing-area newspaper analysis: Boeing's arguments don't add up
Boeing's surrogates like to claim that Northrop Grumman's win of an Air Force contract to build America's next generation of aerial refueling tankers will mean job losses in the United States, but a newspaper deep in the heart of Boeing Country looks at these arguments–and find they don't add up.

In fact, Northrop Grumman's win will support 48,000 jobs in the U.S., involving 230 suppliers in 49 states. And no jobs will be exported.

The Everett (WA) Herald decided to check Northrop Grumman's numbers by surveying the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Association, in which 66 companies who work in the industry were asked what would happen if Boeing was unable to secure the contract.

The results, according to the Herald: fewer than 700 jobs could be impacted if Northrop Grumman retains the contract, with no guarantee of even one job loss (echoing a March 20th report in the Wichita Eagle in which Boeing executives confessed that losing the tanker contract will have zero impact on jobs in Wichita as well).

The Herald writes that Northrop Grumman's job estimates "are supported, in part, by the results of (the) recent survey."

The Seattle Times, meanwhile, noted that Boeing's commercial aircraft division "sells most of its airplanes to international buyers and champions free trade and offshore outsourcing," pointing up the irony of how Boeing's supporters are warning "of the dangers of giving a European company (a) role in building the Air Force tankers."

Finally, Boeing claims that its contract would create 44,000 American jobs. While Northrop Grumman documents how many jobs each supplier will create, and relies on commonly-accepted Department of Commerce jobs formulas to estimate the rest of the jobs that would be created, Boeing officials haven't shown how they arrive at their estimate.

And, they won't.

Last week, Mark McGraw, the head of Boeing's tanker program, said "we've never even attempted to go there."

"It's very hard to get into what's a new job and what's a current job and that kind of thing," McGraw said in a conference call with reporters. "We just know that's how many jobs the program would support."

< Back to index