RESOLUTION 8
Protecting the Airline Industry’s Maintenance Craft
Today, U.S. aircraft mechanics are seeing their jobs disappear as work is sent abroad in the midst of the airline industry’s 25-year epidemic of outsourcing to foreign facilities that are not held to the same oversight and safety standards as U.S. stations.
This plague on America’s maintenance craft began in 1988 when the FAA began allowing U.S. carriers to outsource work to foreign stations even when the aircraft or components in question operated exclusively in this country. TWU actively opposed the change at the time and has fought its devastating effects ever since.
After the 1988 rule change, foreign stations could and did get certified by the FAA for the sole purpose of using their low-cost structure to lure work away from the U.S. These facilities were allowed to operate and work on U.S. aircraft without meeting the same rigorous safety standards and oversight that are required at U.S. facilities.
Today, with few exceptions, most major air carriers send a high percentage of their aircraft for major overhaul to repair facilities around the globe, creating a grossly unfair playing field for U.S. workers. According to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, major U.S. air carriers outsource 71 percent of heavy airframe maintenance work with about 27 percent of that work going to foreign stations. In other words, a U.S. traveler has about a one in five chance of flying in a plane that had maintenance work performed overseas.
Companies have and continue to use outsourcing threats as a hammer during collective bargaining, and indeed American Airlines attempted to use it as such during bankruptcy proceedings.
The news is not all bad however.
Congress last year mandated the Federal Aviation Administration step up oversight of this issue. Section 308 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Reauthorization Act of 2012 mandates that each foreign repair station certified to work on U.S. aircraft be inspected at least once a year by the FAA.
The new law also imposes, for the first time, an alcohol and controlled substance testing program for employees of foreign repair stations performing safety-sensitive maintenance functions for U.S. carriers.
Obviously, these mandates mean nothing without implementation.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the 24th Constitutional Convention of the Transport Workers Union of America, demands that the FAA urgently fulfill its overall oversight responsibilities in this regard, including the establishment of a safety assessment to ensure that foreign stations are subject to appropriate oversight based on risks and consistent with U.S. requirements. Also, that FAA inspectors remain responsible for the oversight and safety compliance of FAA-certified repair stations overseas, rather than turning them over exclusively to foreign civil aviation authorities. And, that the FAA implement the mandates for drug and alcohol testing requirements for foreign mechanics as mandated by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the 24th Convention of the TWU demands immediate implementation and enforcement of new regulations restricting a certificated foreign station from subcontracting work to non-certificated stations.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that TWU urges President Obama, who eloquently speaks out on how the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs plagues our economy, to direct his Administration to take a stand against the outsourcing of aircraft maintenance work as an immediate way to retain good paying jobs in America.
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