Posted on 02/13/2010 7:24:32 AM PST by deport
3,000 jobs may be cut
WASHINGTON — The Houston-area economy suffered a second blow Friday, with the U.S. Army rejecting a Sealy-based company's appeal to keep combat truck production in Texas, where it has been for 17 years.The Army's action to award the contract to a Wisconsin firm — following a review ordered by Congress' watchdog Government Accountability Office — could claim an estimated 3,000 jobs at the Texas plant in suburban Houston, with layoffs beginning later this year.
Coupled with President Barack Obama's proposal last week to cancel NASA's $108 billion back-to-the-moon Constellation program, the Houston area could lose more than 10,000 aerospace and manufacturing jobs over the next two years.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose congressional district includes Sealy, said the Army decision was “the wrong decision” for the workforce, troops in the field and U.S. taxpayers. There “appears to be a trend in this administration to move jobs out of Texas, whether it be cutting NASA's human space flight program or BAE's (truck) production,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
“He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!...”
so we replace a dem .. for each event..
JSC (NASA Houston) is pretty much all about manned flight, if NASA is out of the manned flight business then there is little need for JSC. Easy 20k, 30k jobs at JSC counting contractors.
all the nasa money went to climate change ..
I am sure there is more to the story than saving $400 million. In fact, I suspect that the savings is illusory, but that the claim is made for PR purposes. It is very, very unlikely that a maqnufacturer in Wisconsin could underbid a manufacturer in Sealy. The cost structure in Texas is just too much lower. In Texas, Sealy would be a low cost location. I’m betting that there is something else going on.
Good, maybe they can figure out how to warm things up a bit. I’m frezing my but off in S.E. Texas (Houston area) right now.
You could be right, hopefully the appeal will reward the best bidder.
How many jobs at NASA JSC
From their web site:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/business/jobs.html
JSC Jobs
The JSC civil service workforce consists of about 3,000 employees, the majority of whom are professional engineers and scientists. Of these, approximately 110 are astronauts.
+ View the website
Contractor Jobs
About 50 companies provide contractor personnel to JSC. More than 12,000 contractors work onsite or in nearby office buildings and other facilities.
+ Read More
Obama hates Texas.
The “Sealy-based” company is actually owned by the British Company BAE. They lost the contract in competetive bid process last August but had appealed the decision and was told yesterday that their appeal had failed. The Wisconsin firm had successfuloy won the contract and only two other firms had bid, BAE (Sealy) and a firm in ILLINOIS.
Trying to make this a vendetta against Texas is a little bit of a stretch.
My thought exactly. 0bama is hacking back NASA which gets Florida and Texas. A two-fer! Welcome to the 0bama-nation!
Actually, no there isn't. The US Army put out a solicitation for bids to build their next batch of FMTVs, and Oshkosh Corp. underbid BAE/Navistar by $440 million.
Given that Oshkosh has to build a line to manufacture these trucks, and BAE/Navistar already had the tooling amortized, there was quite a lot of profit margin in BAE/Navistar's bid.
They got greedy, and Oshkohs was hungry. Competition is the American way.
How can a company in a union state beat a company in Texas on a labor bid? Was the use of union labor *part* of the bid?
You could be right, hopefully the appeal will reward the best bidder.
This is the appeal which BAE Sealy lost and Oskosh WI won.
How can a company in a union state beat a company in Texas on a labor bid? Was the use of union labor *part* of the bid?
Don’t know the bidding process. But I’d bet money the Feds have specifications regarding wages within their bidding specs. BAE may have gotten a little lax in holding cost down since they have had this contract for many years. Who knows what all lurks behind closed doors.
Saved?... to be given to ACORN.
When did BAE acquire the plant from Stewart and Stevenson?
some experts weight in...
When did BAE acquire the plant from Stewart and Stevenson?
May 2007 I believe.
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