Tue. March 01, 2011
The news that Boeing won the U.S. Air Force contract to build a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers is a big triumph for the IAM, who has fought nearly 10 years to help bring this award to fruition. And no where is the win more evident than in Washington, Kansas and Connecticut, where 50,000 jobs - existing and future - were on the line.
At a time when aerospace workers have been hit harder with layoffs than at any other time since the Great Depression, IAM members and their communities are savoring the taste of victory.
District 751 members in Washington will build the planes. It has been an “incredible partnership,” said District 751 President Tom Wroblewski to thousands of Boeing workers who gathered on the Everett factory floor to celebrate the signing of the contract. “For 10 years, we have worked hand-in-hand on this issue – on the political front, on the shop floor - and together we made this happen.”
