Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - Page updated at 07:25 PM
E-mail article
Print view Share:
Digg
Newsvine
Pentagon tanker rebid: Boeing workers hopeful
The Pentagon's announcement that Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will rebid the disputed $35 billion Air Force tanker contract has given new hope to Boeing workers at the company's Everett production line.
Associated Press Writer
The Pentagon's announcement that Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will rebid the disputed $35 billion Air Force tanker contract has given new hope to Boeing workers at the company's Everett production line.
The rebid "really gives new life to many Everett families," Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office found "significant errors" the Air Force made in the original award to the Northrop team. The GAO said Chicago-based Boeing, which protested the deal, might have won had the service not made mistakes in evaluating the bids.
Boeing has supplied refueling tankers to the Air Force for decades.
It proposed building the new tankers, based on its 767 jetliners, at its Everett facilities. Without the tanker contract, the 767 line is slated to close in 2012, so the decision affects thousands of jobs.
The Pentagon will conduct a limited rebid that looks only at eight issues where government auditors found problems in the initial process, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Gates said his office will oversee the competition between Boeing and the team of Northrop and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.
"It went from the light turning off to the light getting brighter," Mike McDougall, a mechanic on the 767 assembly line for 19 years, said in a telephone interview.
The 767 plant was like a "ghost town or tomb" after the Air Force announced the earlier contract winner, McDougall said.
Tom Wroblewski, president of the Seattle-based Aerospace Machinists' District Lodge 751, said he thinks the Air Force was biased in its original evaluation, adding, "They appeared to be going in there with an agenda that didn't include us, didn't include Boeing."
The union leader said he's confident that Boeing will win the contract this time around.
Still, Boeing remains concerned the Pentagon's revised request may not "significantly alter the selection criteria" beyond what was initially asked for by the Air Force, said company spokesman Dan Beck.
![]()
Boeing supporter Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., planned to ask pointed questions about the Pentagon's plan to give extra credit to the Northrop team for a larger plane that can carry more fuel and cargo.
That practice was among the GAO's eight complaints with the original Air Force selection process and continuing it would insert "bias in the competition from the start," said Dicks' spokesman George Behan. A Pentagon spokesman had no immediate comment.
Dicks and other lawmakers from Washington state and Kansas, where Boeing employs thousands of workers, pressured the Air Force to reopen the bidding process and cancel the contract with the Northrop team.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called Wednesday for "a real bid, not a rehash; a rebid that protects our national security, shields the American taxpayer from operating and infrastructure costs and buys a tanker that can refuel the entire fleet."
Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire said a thorough review of the 40-year lifecycle costs for the competing proposals would show that Boeing has "the best, most efficient and cost-effective bid."
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., whose congressional district includes Boeing's Everett plant, called the Pentagon decision "good news for American taxpayers, Boeing workers and the men and women who serve in our military."
Larsen, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said he would work to "make sure American taxpayers don't foot the bill for a less capable, more expensive and illegally subsidized European tanker."
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
Researchers stunned by inmates' success raising endangered frogs
Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
Federal Way group on trail of missing pets
Must Metro commuting at Northgate be so chaotic?

This feature requires Flash 7.
Top video | World | Science / Tech | Entertainment
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- IKEA Summer Sale
- Blackbird Spring Half-Yearly Sale
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- Evo Independence Sale
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Shooting unveils very different sides of McNair
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Quincy Jones remembers "the biggest entertainer on the planet": Michael Jackson
- Confessions of an Idol Addict | "American Idols" on tour: Live coverage from opening date
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
- The People's Pharmacy | Estrogen mimicker found in sunscreen
- Toyota's Toyoda scolds execs for emulating U.S. car companies' mistakes
- Tukwila residents rally against light-rail noise
- Outdoor-theater season kicks off at Volunteer Park
- Seattle safety project: A snake shelter on Beacon Hill
