Outsourcing isn’t
always the wrong choice, but the U.S. airline industry
has rushed into it too fast and too far, giving up every
aspect of maintenance they can to the lowest bidder,
without giving proper consideration to the potential
safety consequences and economic impact. Our objection
is not just that union members are losing their jobs to
non-union workers. As a craft-focused union, we
consider it our responsibility to increase the quality
of our trade, and rampant outsourcing leads to the
replacement of lifetime professionals with less-skilled,
cheaper labor. We believe airlines bought into the idea
of comprehensive outsourcing so quickly that they
haven’t properly considered whether it actually benefits
their bottom line. This is short-term thinking – they
haven’t weighed the long-term effects. The public has a
right to be concerned about this trend, and Congress
should take action to make sure that civil aviation
remains safe, reliable, and home-grown. (Details) |
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27 illegal aliens were arrested in March
2005 at TIMCO, an aircraft overhaul contractor in Greensboro, NC. The
details of this incident show the security and safety risks posed by
outsourcing.
Details
Putting Safety At
Risk While Exporting High-Paying American Jobs
Until
recently, most maintenance on aircraft operated by U.S.
airlines was done by technicians working directly for
the airlines at maintenance facilities located at
airports on the airlines’ routes. The airlines employed
certified, licensed mechanics (or technicians, in
aviation terminology) almost exclusively, and work was
closely regulated and supervised by the FAA.
In-house aircraft maintenance still
takes place with the same standards it has always had, but it is no
longer the only setting in which planes are worked on. In the
last few years, major U.S. airlines, in their search for lower
costs, have “outsourced” much of their maintenance to low-cost
contractors in America and overseas. While most of the public
has little idea how big the changes have been, there are huge
implications for the aviation industry and the American economy.
The gaps in FAA
oversight and regulations are a problem by themselves.
But they are more serious in light of the way
maintenance vendors operate. Given the less thorough
background checks at outsource facilities, they
sometimes attract technicians airlines have refused to
hire. More importantly, while almost all mechanics
working at airlines are certified in aircraft
maintenance, vendors often use only a handful of
certified mechanics who oversee large groups of
uncertified workers. Security is also a vulnerability
of these facilities, given that some safeguards enacted
for in-house maintenance do not apply to them. Worse,
some foreign repair stations that work on U.S. aircraft
are located in areas such as Singapore where terrorists
are known to operate. And given the U.S. hot and cold
relationship with China, military readiness is
threatened by the fact that many large commercial
aircraft the military depends on for emergency airlifts
are sent there for overhauls. (Details)
We hope this doesn't happen |
The FAA has
responsibility for overseeing aviation maintenance,
ensuring that regulations are followed and that the
flying public is safe – airlines’ own maintenance
facilities are closely monitored by the FAA.  The FAA
has not adjusted well to regulation of outsourced
maintenance, however. There are a huge number of
contractors and not enough inspectors to oversee this
expansion. Moreover, the widely varied work
environments at outsource vendors make oversight more
difficult. (Details)
Outsource shops are
covered by some of the same regulations as in-house
maintenance, but there is evidence that the lack of
enforcement means the rules are not followed as
closely. In addition, many regulations
 don’t carry over
to contract maintenance – for example, airline employees
are required to have 10-year FBI background checks, but
employees of contractors are not. (Details)
Aside from the safety issues raised by
the disparity between in-house and contract maintenance, the economic
consequences are large. Aircraft maintenance is a highly skilled
craft, and the good-paying jobs that come along with it are moving to
contractors in the U.S. and abroad.
AMFA Local 33 alone has lost around 2,000 members in Minneapolis-St.
Paul in the last two and a half years, yet Northwest continues to
increase the amount of maintenance it sends to foreign and domestic
vendors. That this happened while the federal government gave the
airline $249 million dollars in taxpayer money as part of the
post-September 11 bailout is, in our opinion, in bad faith and
exemplifies poor business ethics. |
