Boeing workers rally as tanker bid is submitted

Amplifiers blasted out "The Final Countdown" at Everett Machinists Union Hall as a bevy of politicians took the stage to declare, yet again, their support for Boeing's bid on the Air Force refueling tanker contract.

That might have seemed like an appropriate anthem for what could be the last round of bidding between Boeing and its European competitor EADS.

It is, however, played by a band named Europe.

Boeing filed its proposal Friday morning, offering a version of the 767 airliner as its candidate for the much-delayed 179-plane contract. Airbus submitted its bid the day before.

At the union hall, about 150 union workers listened as Reps. Norm Dicks, Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott, Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray talked about what they're doing to make sure the tanker contract — and the 11,000 jobs Washington it would provide — goes to Boeing.

Much of the rhetoric focused on the recently published World Trade Organization ruling that said Airbus received billions in illegal subsidies for the airliners it has developed.

"We are basically going to give Europe a red card," said Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled one out.

(In soccer, a red card means a player is ejected from the game.)

Dicks, D-Bremerton, said Boeing has the better product. In addition to being produced by a work force with generations of airplane-building knowledge, the Boeing 767 tanker costs $10 billion less than Airbus's tanker over the course of its life cycle, he said.

"If they [the Pentagon] take that into account properly, we'll win," Dicks said.

Machinists said repeatedly before the rally that they're ready to make tankers for the American military.

"It's not in their genes," conceded Machinists Union District 751 president Tom Wroblewski, "but they know what it's about."

Tankers will be built on the 767 line in Everett and flown to Wichita, Kan., for installation of the refueling systems, Bill Barksdale, a Boeing spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.

The Air Force needed new planes about 10 years ago, said Dennis Mahmood, who works as an inspector with Boeing and has a son in the Air Force.

He criticized the delays in awarding the contract to replace the current, 50-year-old tanker fleet. "It's a shame," Mahmood said. "They need it. They need it really bad."

As the rally wrapped up, Larry Brown, political director for the union and the rally's master of ceremonies, led a chant:

"Whose tanker?" he asked.

"Ours!" the union members replied.

"When do we want to build it?" Brown asked.

"Now!" they answered.

Jason Bacaj: 206-464-3320 or jbacaj@seattletimes.com