CWA to White House: Keep the F136 Fighter Program

CWA President Larry Cohen called on the Obama administration to block the Defense Department from stopping work on the F136 Joint Strike Fighter engine. The engine is built by about 2,500 members of IUE-CWA, members of Local 81201 in Lynn, Mass.

The Defense Department’s action would jeopardize “the types of highly skilled, technical manufacturing jobs that your administration is focused on creating and sustaining in these difficult economic times,” Cohen said in a letter to President Obama.

The House of Representatives already has voted several times this year to continue funding for this engine program. Not only does the program provide quality employment, but it is a critical part of our defense, using competition among manufacturers to produce the high quality and cost effective defense systems our nation needs.

The Government Accountability Office has determined that continuing the F-136 program will produce taxpayer savings of about $20 billion.

“The disturbance that a ‘Stop Work Order’ would cause to the F136 program and to nearly 2,500 individuals currently working on it is harmful and unnecessary,” Cohen said.