OK, so we didn't pile on the Boeing vs. Northrop Grumman/EADS KC-X airborne tanker contract fiasco over the past few months. Sure, we covered it plenty (see here and here), but since the brouhaha over the awarding of the contract to - oh, horror - NG/EADS (a foreign company!) we've taken a wait-and-see tack. After all, everyone else seems to be asserting opinions, so why add to the excessive bloggage, right?

But now, Boeing is 3 days into a strike by The International Machinists and Aerospace Worker, which means they have no indigenous machinists to build their aircraft and parts. In the days leading up to the strike, Boeing had offered an 11% increase in wages, as well as improved bonus, pension and healthcare concessions. But that isn't what sent the machinists to the picket lines.

It was Boeing's intention to increase outsourcing of it's manufacturing overseas to improve its bottom line. The machinist's union wasn't having anymore of that, and they walked.

Wait a minute - just a few months ago, the Web was overrun with cyber-hooey from pundits and politicians, nearly all screaming bloody murder that the U.S. government was shooting itself (and citizenry) in the collective foot by giving work to NG/EADS. As the line went, that work would be best given to a U.S. company that would ensure U.S. workers - and the tax base - would get the benefits.

So isn't this a gross contradiction? Will Boeing getting the KC-X tanker contract be "good" because Boeing will use U.S. workers (as said a few months ago), or is Boeing planning on outsourcing like crazy (like, say, " ... 70 percent of all of the parts for its 787 aircraft ..."). Is Boeing American or unAmerican? Will they outsource or not outsource?

The fact is, if Boeing wants to outsource everything Katmandu to improve profits and efficiency they should be allowed to do it. And if the machinists want to challenge that, they should strike. This is democratic, like it or not.

But Boeing's portrayal as a patriotic protectionist on the one hand, and an outsourcing addict on the other is disingenuous and flat-out ridiculous.They can't be both at once, and only when it suits them.

It seems to me that between the tanker deal and the machinist strike, Boeing's in one heck of a PR pickle. It'll be interesting to see which Boeing emerges in the next few months.