Officials Blast Boeing Import of B-2 Workers : Aerospace: The firm’s claim that it couldn’t find enough qualified people locally is called ‘irresponsible.’
Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, along with other Southern California government leaders, harshly criticized Boeing Co. on Wednesday for importing about 450 Seattle-based aerospace workers to Palmdale for temporary assignments on the B-2 Stealth bomber program.
In a letter to Boeing Chairman Frank A. Shrontz, Bradley disputed Boeing’s assertion that it could not locate enough qualified aircraft workers in Southern California and called the practice “extraordinarily wasteful.”
Under Boeing’s contracts, the government pays the estimated $10-million cost for housing and transporting the workers. The Times reported Tuesday that Boeing had imported the workers under its B-2 bomber contract with Northrop, which is the prime contractor on the B-2 program.
In another letter to Shrontz, Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City) said he was “outraged” by Boeing’s assertions about a lack of qualified workers in Los Angeles and that he finds the big aerospace company’s attitude “irresponsible.”
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles City Council is considering a motion introduced by Councilman Nate Holden that urges Boeing to reconsider its practice of importing workers and instead to hire Los Angeles residents. The motion is scheduled for a vote Tuesday.
“I find it hard to believe that in a city of well over 3 million people Boeing was unable to find 450 qualified individuals to fill the positions currently occupied by Seattle residents,” Bradley wrote to Shrontz. “The problem is the reverse of Boeing’s claim; in fact, Los Angeles has more well-trained, qualified and experienced aerospace workers than the industry can currently support.”
Bradley said Los Angeles expects businesses to give something back to the community, and that in return for Boeing’s use of the city’s streets and utilities the company is “morally obligated to also use our labor force.”
Katz offered to coordinate a job fair for Boeing to fill the 450 Palmdale jobs. “If no one shows, . . . I owe you an apology. Otherwise, Boeing needs to make a public apology to Southern Californians.”
In a second letter, Katz assailed Boeing for hiring Los Angeles workers for jobs in Seattle at the same time it was transferring workers from Seattle to here. Katz questioned whether Boeing was using a loophole in federal regulations to subsidize non-competitive wages being paid to workers in Seattle.
Asked for comment about the letter to Shrontz, Boeing spokesman Paul Bender said only, “Mr. Shrontz isn’t here.” He said he expected that Boeing would collect some information and send a reply to Bradley.
Holden said in an interview that the aerospace industry in Los Angeles is in a depression and that local unemployed workers sorely need the Boeing jobs. Holden said he had also criticized Boeing on Tuesday in a meeting with federal labor officials who were visiting Los Angeles.
