Give U.S. workers a fair chance

By Jack Otero

The looming Chinese currency valuation crisis and the continued yawning U.S. trade deficit reflect one sad and simple fact: America manufactures less and less while foreign competitors dump cheap goods on our shores more and more. And it's facilitated by U.S. trade policies that allow overseas competition to undercut American workers – policies that have led to the loss of 4 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade.

Now workers look to President Barack Obama to put American trade policy back on the side of American workers.

He can start with the Defense Department's $35 billion Air Force airborne refueling tanker contract. In 2008, Pentagon bureaucrats nearly awarded the tanker contract to Europe's Airbus despite a World Trade Organization ruling that the company uses illegal government subsidies to destroy American aerospace manufacturing jobs. The European tanker was built with $5 billion of those subsidies.

The Government Accountability Office slammed the brakes on the Pentagon's backroom deal to hand the contract to the France-based company. But the GAO only objected to irregularities it found in the contracting process, not the fact that Airbus uses illegal subsidies, or that handing Airbus the contract would rob Americans of another 50,000 jobs.

As a result, Airbus is back peddling its subsidized plane and American jobs hang in the balance.

Most puzzling about the Airbus scandal: Its A330 aircraft failed to meet the Air Force's requirements of a mid-sized, fuel-efficient plane that could operate at smaller air bases in Europe and Asia and save taxpayers money on fuel costs. Airbus's A330 is too big to park on small air bases and is a veritable gas guzzler.

An American-made tanker manufactured by the Boeing Co. is widely touted by pilots and experts to best fit the Air Force's needs. Boeing's new tanker is based on the popular 767 aircraft, 1,000 of which are being flown by major commercial airlines all over the world. A Boeing tanker also would employ more than 50,000 American workers, and Iowa would benefit from 800 jobs and an estimated $40 million in annual economic impact if Boeing is selected.

American workers are not asking for special deals or protectionism. We demand a level playing field where we can bid for work at home or overseas and not be hamstrung by illegal subsidies and backroom deals for U.S. contracts.

Jack Otero served as deputy undersecretary of labor for International Affairs in the Clinton Administration and is a former vice president of the AFL-CIO. Comments: global@jackotero.com