Even though Chicago is Boeing’s corporate HQ, we all know it’s heart and soul is Seattle. In my latest column, I talk about how all this tanker business is starting to make people around here hate on the Emerald City. (more…)
It’s a rather bizarre place for local activism, but this morning I got a Facebook invitation to join a group “Support Northrop Grumman.”
The online group, (linked here if you have an account) urges its members to participate in an online survey set up by the House’s Web site.
“As you will notice, the numbers are rather skewed at the moment and if we don’t stand up and shout, we may lose something that is extremely valuable to Mobile, Alabama and the entire Gulf Coast,” the group’s page says.
MySpace has Eliot Spitzer’s call girl. Facebook has Northrop Grumman. How’s that for social networking?
I’m not sure how powerful my psychic friend’s predictive powers are, but I called my old buddy Nostridumas the other night to find out how we might benefit from the Northop/EADS contract. Of course that was before Boeing protested. Wait, shouldn’t he have known that was coming?
While it always makes me nervous when politics are involved, I think Boeing will get spanked, as they should, and this contract will help transform this city.
And before any of you ask, no, I was not on acid when I wrote this insanity.
The mainstream consensus among most in Washington is that Boeing was the victim of some shenanigans by the U.S. Air Force. In fact, it is hard to find anyone beyond the Alabama congressional delegation willing to stand up for the Air Force’s decision.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) even used the tanker award as political ammo against probable Republican nominee Sen. John McCain - who forced the Air Force to bid this enormous contract, instead of the convoluted plan which Boeing would lease the aircraft to the air force, resulting in criminal convictions of a Boeing executive and an Air Force procurement officer.
But for all his faults, Sen. Richard Shelby has been the one on the PR crusade, defending the air force and explaining why this is not a loss for the United States. There seems to be a void in the media of EADS/Northrop Grumman defenders and Shelby has stepped up to the plate.
After making several cable news TV appearances, Shelby had an op/ed published in today’s Financial Times:
“As members of Congress, we are concerned about US jobs. But any assertion that this award “outsources” jobs to France is simply false. With a new assembly site in Mobile, Alabama, this contract will bring tens of thousands of jobs into the US. According to the job-forecasting tool from the department of commerce, Northrop Grumman will employ about the same number of US workers on the tanker contract as Boeing would have. The Northrop Grumman tanker team will employ about 25,000 US workers at more than 230 supplier companies in 49 states,” Shelby wrote.
The Financial Times, a European-based financial publication, has been very friendly to EADS. Although that probably won’t many critics over who have questioned the award to a foreign contractor when the United States has been deemed to be heading toward economic turmoil, it’s a start.
Senator Obama, I’m glad you prefaced your remarks against the award to Northrop-Grumman and Europe’s Airbus by saying you haven’t yet looked at the whole thing carefully . I trust you will take an opportunity from your very busy campaign schedule and come back with a statement that is more reflective of this award.
The aerospace industry is not just a United States industry, and it is such an important one to our country - especially when it comes to something most Americans cherish, and that is a strong military. I’ll be frank and say I’m not a military man myself but I’m not dumb either, so we’ll just leave that at that. I’ll also point out that I live in Mobile, Alabama, but I nor any of my family or close friends are involved in the aerospace industry. I am a Realtor so of course I look forward to new residents buying homes in our area.
My understanding is the Air Force considered this contract award over three years before making a decision. So . . .one of my questions is, why can’t we put trust in their ability to make a decision about their own business, on behalf of our country, knowing they did not rush into it, and explained why they picked NG/Airbus?
I am on the front lines to keep jobs in America, to buy American, to support our country, but I am a realist, a pragmatist and also knowledgeable of our history and current efforts to grow America in respect to jobs.The fact is every month we read about another major company moving operations to Asia, expanding their presence in China, moving their technical support desks to India. They point-blank say why: cheaper costs. Americans for the most part seem to understand and deal with that, even though we aren’t happy about it.
France and Germany are two of our strongest European allies and some of the finest workmanship ever has come out of those countries in other industries, and Americans are the first to make purchases of those products.
I also don’t think one company should de facto have a monopoly on any industry no matter how many decades they have been the only one or the best. How would you like it if a bunch of people decided and voted that only men with the last name of Bush could be President of America, and since they have been doing such a great job (wink) we don’t want anyone else awarded the contract?
Sir, you’d be out of a future job.
It’s not like Boeing is going to close it’s doors over this contract. In fact it will hardly make a dent in their international operations. And it’s unfortunate in their bid they did not quote enough fuel tankers, even if decisions were made at the last minute. As you know there are about 500 tankers in all to be built so there will be other contracts and other opportunities for them to bid. Maybe next time they will be more careful in their calculations. Could it also be they might have been a little careless, feeling assured they would be awarded since they always have been in the past? I don’t profess to know I can only speculate.
Mobile is a city that has received a lot of recognition lately, and we’re also fortunate to have been selected by Germany’s Thyssenkrupp to construct a steel plant here. Seems to me other American’s would welcome our good fortune and recognize that it’s a reflection on our entire country, a positive economic sign at a time when we need all we can get. To insinuate to these European corporations we don’t want to work with them if it means losing some American jobs, could be something other companies over there notice and duly note. It could affect future contracts in other industries, in other parts of America, so I don’t understand why we are slapping the hands that feeds us so to speak? I’m sorry for the workers in Washington State and elsewhere who are affected by the loss of the contract, but somehow I don’t think Boeing is going to put them out of work. Someone had to lose the contract, right?I can’t speak for all of Mobile of course but I can say many of us if not most welcome this opportunity, and the pleasure of working with not just the folks in Los Angeles but those in Germany and France as well. All the great minds and backbone of the aerospace industry are not ensconced in one location in the world - they are as in most industries spread across this great world of ours, and this I trust will be one fine example of how fantastic things can happen when people from all walks, everywhere, work together.
Good luck on the nomination!
Forget water coolers and cubicles - - all the talk everywhere is and will be for sometime the landing of the Airbus contract on our Brookley Field. The economic impact not just for the City and County but for the entire State will be enormous. It seems Mobile has become a money magnet and the Europeans apparently have a thing for us. We are kind of cute, aren’t we, stretched out on a tranquil bay, our arms around two beaches? Congratulations to all who worked diligently over the past three years to assure the Air Force, NG and EADS that our city is worthy of such a big contract. Fingers crossed that Boeing’s expected protest will heard but not listened too, and that other businesses will begin to pay closer attention to Mobile ( I expect the Disney folks are already here scouting around for a lot of acreage and that I-65 is backed up all the way to Atlanta with the corporate exodus from there to here -LOL). Having traveled quite a bit I am sometimes flustered having to say “Mobile,Alabama” when asked from where I hail - instead of just “Mobile.” It seems we are moving much closer to being a City instead of just a city. March really did come in like a lion! Hope to cover this and more in my Lagniappe County View column.
The announcement of the new airplane plant for Mobile has some of my peers turning metaphorical somersaults, but my outlook is decidedly more guarded.
I think it could possibly be good for Mobile’s arts world. Some industries like Degussa have a decent track record of investing in Mobile’s cultural scene, ponying up funds for various endeavors and institutions. Others come in and treat us like the “demi-Third World region ripe for exploitation” that the state government claims we are in their attempts to woo new industry. We’ll see into which camp the new players fall.
But true to my reputation at Lagniappe Central, I remain skeptical as to the depth and length of any impact. Why? Because I’m a history buff–it was my major in college–and I’m well familiar with Mobile’s backstory.
For centuries, Mobilians have always awaited the intervention of outside forces to save the city’s fortunes like some benevolent hurricane showering good fortune on all. There is a distinct complacency here that keeps folks from realizing their true power.
Following the rise and fall of the Cotton Boom, Mobile has hung its hopes on project after project.
“Well, when the feds fix the shipping channel, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the state builds new docks, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the shipyards are improved, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the Department of Defense finishes that air base, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the federal government finishes the Tenn-Tom Waterway, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when they open that naval homeport, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the convention center opens, we’ll really take off.”
“Well, when the cruise terminal gets opened, we’ll really take off.”
The latest projects to start the mantra again have been the RSA Tower, Thyssen-Krupp and now EADS.
The RSA Tower sits mostly dormant. We keep hearing new tenants are coming, but it’s been almost a year since the big unveiling and most of the floors are obviously vacant as evidenced by the nighttime views into the windows. And I’m still trying to figure out why all these new tourists David Bronner foresees are suddenly going to be headed for Mobile. To go to Bellingrath Gardens?
Thyssen-Krupp hasn’t opened yet, but its distance from town puts its impact in doubt. A few decades ago, a host of chemical plants opened just south of Tillman’s Corner and their combined employment opportunities and economic impact was comparable to what is boasted for the T-K project. They were much closer to town yet they in no way “reshaped” Mobile. When one factors in the rapidly escalating cost of gasoline, it becomes even more doubtful residents on the Mobile-Washington county line will be coming into town with any daily frequency. I mean, we currently see West Mobilians who think going six miles into downtown is somehow arduous so think about those who live 50 miles away.
Granted, Brookley Air Base impacted Mobile but basically in population numbers. It provided the impetus for expanding city limits but not much else. Sure there are many who try and paint a picture of Mobile as an effete oasis prior to its contamination from the hinterland hordes who worked at Brookley, but that is little more than myth and perspective. If you asked the great majority of poor blacks and white citizens who provided the grist for Mobile’s economic mills whether Mobile was more “civilized” in those days, their answers would likely be less rosy.
Essentially, those emigres didn’t change Mobile culturally. Did they eradicate the trappings of Mobile’s Creole roots? The Catholic archdiocese is still here and just as powerful. Mardi Gras is bigger than ever. Lord knows, the racial and socio-economic divisions of the past still haunt us.
Let’s face it, the only way Mobile is going to intrinsically change will be if the residents alter the most mysterious frontier: the one between their ears. The very thing that keeps Mobile a backwater is the perspective of many of its residents. Not everyone here is provincial, but a vast majority are. Until Mobile can become more than a suburban rookery, a place where people withdraw to raise children in isolation from outside influence and cosmopolitan mindsets, where those that are “different” feel estranged and alienated, where criticism is eschewed instead of digested and defensiveness is reflexive, no change of value will ever come to Mobile. That Mobile needs to go the way of malaria epidemics and paddle-wheelers.
The days where a cloistered group of Mobilians “kept it small and kept it all” should pass into the dusty bin of history.
I know so many people who would have made this a far more interesting place to live but opted to move over the last few decades. They went on to form successful recording labels, work for international entertainment entities, record hit songs, succeed in the film industry, just on and on and on.
That’s why despite my expectations, my actual hope for this town-that-is-almost-a-city is that these new projects not only flourish but succeed in bringing in many, many thousands of new residents who don’t hold the prejudices and predilections common to native Mobilians. The mindset that has marked this place for the last three hundred years HAS TO CHANGE or nothing ever will. The best, brightest and most creative will continue to leave for more vibrant environs otherwise.
The folks in Mobile have plenty to celebrate this evening.
An estimated $40 billion U.S. Air Force contract was awarded to a Northrop Grumman/EADS partnership which includes 179 planes to be delivered over the next 10-15 years, with the manufacturing facilities to be located at Mobile’s Brookley Field.
Most expected the Northrop Grumman/EADS partnership to do no better than splitting a contract with Boeing, the heavy favorite for the bid, but Northrop and EADS won it outright.
“Today marks the dawn of a new era for Mobile, and I couldn’t be more proud of our city and our state than I am right now,” Rep. Jo Bonner said immediately following the announcement. “We are so very excited about having the opportunity to help the Air Force acquire the most modern and capable refueling tanker – a tanker assembled in America – by Americans.”
The project received hefty lobbying efforts from Mobile’s congressional delegation - including Bonner and Sens. Jeff Session and Richard Shelby.
“The decision by Northrop Grumman/EADS to manufacture the KC-30 in Mobile was a clear endorsement of our state’s workforce, and today’s contract award represents a huge investment in our state,” Sessions said. “The assembly of over 170 tankers in Alabama solidifies our state’s growing reputation as a national leader in defense technology. From one end of the state to the other, Alabama workers are proudly providing our men and women in uniform with the best and most advanced defense technology available. “
OK, I’ve been hearing all week that “Today’s the Day” for the Northrop/EADS v. Boeing announcement. So I’m skeptical. But I did hear again this a.m. from a quasi-reliable source that it’s going to happen after the stock market closes today and will be a split of the contract between us and them.
I’ve thought all along this baby will eventually be split. It’s too much money and too big an opportunity for Washington to make everyone happy. (Unless you start thinking about how much money is being spent.)
Even a split would be HUGE for Mobile. It gets us into real aerospace production and puts lots of jobs just five minutes from downtown.
If you drive by Bienville Square and see the Chamber of Commerce leadership doing cannonballs into the fountain at about 5 p.m., you’ll know we got it.
Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed.