IAM Fights To Convince Congress To Save 44,000 U.S. Aerospace Jobs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7079

By Doug Cunningham

Congress could decide in as little as 60 days on who gets a huge new military contract to build refueling tanker planes. Vying for the contract are Boeing and Eads - the French company that makes Airbus. Richard Mihalski of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers says more than 40,000 good U.S. manufacturing jobs are at stake.

: “We have been talking to members of Congress informing them of just what kind of jobs are in their individual districts and what it means to them to have a healthy, vibrant, robust aerospace industry here in the United States."

Mihalski says landing this contract is a huge challenge for his union. Eads is pledging to build a facility yin Alabama if it gets the contract, but Mihalski says the relatively small number of U.S. jobs that would create doesn’t begin to match the big number that would be lost if Boeing loses this contract opportunity. Mihalski also believes this is a national security issue and that U.S. workers should build the vital equipment used by the U.S. military.

[Name removed]

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[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

2. there are 44,000 people working on the 767?

I kind of doubt that,