[Ed. note: Adam Hipp is an Engineer and plays rugby. Chances aren't all that bad that he's kicked your ass before. This is his first piece for The Cincinnati Man. Welcome, Adam!]
There’s a debate going on within Congress right now that could have a lasting effect on the development of Cincinnati for years to come. Do you have any idea what it is?
As far as I can tell, no one in the area has any clue. It’s the issue of federal funding for the JSF alternate engine, the F136. To make a long story short, Pratt & Whitney makes the engine for the new baller military fighter, the JSF. However, the government decided years ago that a competing engine would be good for the program, so it also funds R&D into an alternate engine, which is being developed by a 60/40 partnership of GE and Rolls-Royce.
F35 in flight
There are about 800 highly skilled jobs up in Evendale, OH that will likely disappear should this funding be cut, and that’s exactly what the Senate and the President are trying to do to reduce defense spending. However, the House is still supporting the engine, and the two chambers of Congress are meeting to reconcile their defense funding budgets.
Even if the House wins over the Senate, the budget faces a veto threat from the Obama administration.
Not only would this cut affect current jobs at GE Aviation, it would pretty much suck for the company for years to come. The JSF engines are planned to be used in the vast majority of the American fighters in the coming years, which would give Pratt & Whitney a near-monopoly on the military jet engine market. This would make it very difficult for GE Aviation to grow, and thus would cause them to stop attracting top technical talent from around the country to the Cincinnati area.
I think it’s pretty obvious that attracting young professionals to a city is crucial to its future growth, and that seems to be a hot topic in Cincinnati, with all of the revitalization efforts and the streetcar debate. If one of the major employers of freshly minted young professionals stops hiring significantly for 30 years, it’s probably going to have an adverse impact on the city.
With all the hubbub I hear when there is a potential for job cuts, it seems odd that so few people know about this. There’s an article in the Enquirer from time to time, but I don’t see any blogs talking about it and I don’t hear anything in any news source about the program that’s in jeopardy. Both GE and Pratt & Whitney are lobbying Congress hard to support and cut the competing company’s engine, respectively. It’s time this received a little more attention.
For more information on both sides of the debate, visit F136.com and F135engine.com.
Full disclosure: I am a current employee at GE Aviation, and my job would likely be one of the 800 lost if the engine program is cut. However, considering the layoff benefits package and my personal goals, I could really go either way on my job status. This is NOT intended to be a plug for supporting the F136- just commentary about media focus within Cincinnati. GE has in no way compensated me for writing this post.
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You are correct. It’s sad, in the middle of THIS economy with THIS state of job losses, that the local media outlets jump on top of this.
I only know about this, and its implications because I also work indirectly for GE as a contractor. If the F-136 program gets cut, I don’t have a nice layoff package.
So yes, I am also biased. But I am disappointed in how little the local media reports this. 800 GE layoffs, plus the additional layoffs of contractors = more unemployment = weaker local economy = more people in the pool looking for work = less people move here/more people leave here. I could go on.
We as a country need to stop fearing public spending. Making sure the spending is WISE and held accountable for sure, but with all the tea party stuff and anti-government sentiment, we NEED public spending now, yes, even if we need to borrow for now and pay it back later.
I had no idea – thanks for raising my awareness. Part of the (reason? problem?), I’m sure, is that Cincinnati’s most powerful Congressman, John Boehner, is vehemently opposed to earmarks for local projects:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/mar/16/john-boehner/rep-john-boehner-earmark-free/
It’s a political stance that I actually agree with, but it does have a cost to Cincinnati.
James, I sympathize a ton. I have a lot of friends who don’t know what they’ll do should the engine get cut.. I have a plan worked out already because I was on the chopping block for the layoffs last March but then my job was saved at the last minute. I would feel terrible for my co-workers.
I had figured for a while that the issue was pretty well known in the area, but I realized it’s just because we hear about it constantly at work. Whenever I mention it off hand to non-GE people they have no idea what I am talking about. I was sort of hoping someone would comment on here and prove me wrong.