Thu, Jan 29, 2009
Want Aircraft Maintenance Work Kept In-Country
Teamsters General President Jim
Hoffa sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week, urging
her to include in the stimulus bill a moratorium on outsourcing
aircraft maintenance to foreign repair stations.
"I urge you and your colleagues take every necessary step to
ensure that the stimulus package include a moratorium on any
additional outsourcing of foreign aircraft maintenance," Hoffa
wrote in a letter dated Monday. "The outsourcing of skilled
American jobs is best illustrated by the plight of the thousands of
highly skilled aviation mechanics who work in the airline
industry.
The union maintains airlines that received taxpayer subsidies
after the September 11 attacks laid off their aircraft mechanics
and sent their maintenance work to repair stations in developing
countries.
Hoffa noted that workers at foreign repair stations are not
required to hold a Federal Aviation Administration license to work
on an aircraft. "The solution is simple: the international aviation
industry needs a single, high regulatory standard," he
wrote.
For more than a decade, the Transportation Department's office
of inspector general has cited problems stemming from a double
standard on aircraft maintenance, the union asserts. For the 11
years ending in 2007, US airlines' outsourced maintenance expenses
increased from 37 percent to 64 percent.
A moratorium on outsourcing aircraft maintenance overseas would
preserve skilled American jobs, help stabilize the economy and
provide Congress an opportunity to examine this issue when the FAA
reauthorization is deliberated in the spring.
The Teamsters Airline Division, under the direction of Capt.
David Bourne, represents 43,000 airline employees.
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