Belgium Wins US Military Contract

Some folks might have thought this was a stretch when I posted this last Thursday. But, now, mainstream media is reporting the same thing: unions driving jobs overseas and/or to right-to-work states.

CNBC is reporting:

According to Military.com, after a dramatic bidding and re-bidding process, the M4A1 contract, with an estimated value of approximately $77 million, is going not to incumbent manufacturer Colt Defense nor Remington Arms, but to a foreign company, FN Herstal. 

While FN Herstal has its manufacturing plant in South Carolina, the company itself is a subsidiary of the Herstal Group, ... the government of Belgium.

FN Herstal underbid both Remington and Colt - in the case of Remington, by a margin of about $7 million. They may have had the luxury to do so because their South Carolina plant is in a "right to work state," where individuals can decide whether they want to join a union or pay union dues. Contrast that with Colt Defense, who had to give UAW union workers at its Connecticut plant a 5.5-percent raise over the past two years. That translates into higher costs for Colt to manufacture its products.

And so it goes.