$1 Million Per Overhaul

[repeet]

ST Engineering Ltd is charging US Airways 1 million dollars per Airbus overhaul.

How can they do this?
ST Engineering (STE) is 55 percent-owned by the Singapore GOVERNMENT!!!

Read the Rueters article for yourselves.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031009/airline_sin...pore_ste_1.html

Airbus isn't the only Foreign Government subsidized product "US" Airways is using to get rid of American jobs.

 

[SilentWarrior]

Reread article... $5.8 million (US). $580,000 per overhaul.

And it is not like the Airbus fleet is going to Singapore to get worked on. So technically American's are still doing the work. I didn't read that they were importing folks from Singapore to do the work either.

If this really bothers you, then take a look in your respective parking lots. Even American lables (Chevy, Ford etc...) have foreign parts in them. Open wide for your dose of Capitalism, and enjoy.

 

[ITRADE]

ST Engineering Ltd is charging US Airways 1 million dollars per Airbus overhaul.

How can they do this?
ST Engineering (STE) is 55 percent-owned by the Singapore GOVERNMENT!!!

Read the Rueters article for yourselves.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031009/airline_sin...pore_ste_1.html

Airbus isn't the only Foreign Government subsidized product "US" Airways is using to get rid of American jobs.

Well, &#^%&#, the U.S. government subsidizes US Airways. So, what ya gonna do now?

 

[airlineorphan]

Adaptation is not as simple as bowing down before the one you serve though. The shape of any restructuring of the workplace is shaped by the fact that the people doing the work are not mere factors in a grand economic equation, but have the social power to effect the direction and contours of the restructuring.

You're right about who owns this and that. As far as I'm concerned, a boss is a boss is a boss is a boss. I don't care whether the CEO or the investment capital comes from the U.S. or Sri Lanka. Pretty much all of them will try to find ways to squeeze the people who do the work and take the consumer for all he/she is worth.

But back to adaptation. The labor movement needs to adapt for sure, but not by bowing down before the Great And Powerful Wizard of the Market ("Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, I am the Great And Powerful.... oh humbug!").

The labor movement needs to develop a better understanding of the forces involved, the competitive dynamics and corporate strategies and in doing so, figure out where the effective pressure points are in each new and changing situation of Adventures in Capitalism.

That would be adaptation!

In solidarity,
Airlineorphan

 

[repeet]

--------------------------------
SilentWarrior Posted
on Oct 9 2003, 02:51 PM

Reread article... $5.8 million (US). $580,000 per overhaul.

And it is not like the Airbus fleet is going to Singapore to get worked on. So technically American's are still doing the work. I didn't read that they were importing folks from Singapore to do the work either..
--------------------------------


Sorry my mistake. 10 million Singapore dolllors is currently worth 5.8 million U.S. dollars.
And no the're not. It is simply cheaper to employ the American under-class with sub-standard wages, than to pay a living wage to the citizens of Singapore.


-------------------------------
ITRADE Posted
on Oct 9 2003, 02:57 PM

Well, &#^%&#, the U.S. government subsidizes US Airways. So, what ya gonna do now?
-------------------------------


Yes, the U.S. Government is subsidizing US Airways to break a maintenance contract with its employees, and give the work to a foreign corporation's sweat shop in the U.S.


-------------------------------
PineyBob Posted
on Oct 9 2003, 04:03 PM

So the sword of globalization cuts a wide and varied path through our lives. This trend is unstopable. Only those who adapt will survive.
------------------------------


Yes, but I can choose which products I decide to spend my money on.

My job is being stolen by breaking an existing contract. A contract that had just been re-negotiated twice to reduce it's cost to the company. During this mid-term re-negotiation the company used the keeping of Airbus heavy maintenance as the very reason for agreeing to the relief..

Certianly STE corporation won't make any money off of this job, but the taxpayers of Singapore will have sucessfully stolen legitimate work from a current U.S. contract by simply subsidizing a lower than cost operation.

 

[High Iron]

Adaptation is not as simple as bowing down before the one you serve though. The shape of any restructuring of the workplace is shaped by the fact that the people doing the work are not mere factors in a grand economic equation, but have the social power to effect the direction and contours of the restructuring.

You're right about who owns this and that. As far as I'm concerned, a boss is a boss is a boss is a boss. I don't care whether the CEO or the investment capital comes from the U.S. or Sri Lanka. Pretty much all of them will try to find ways to squeeze the people who do the work and take the consumer for all he/she is worth.

But back to adaptation. The labor movement needs to adapt for sure, but not by bowing down before the Great And Powerful Wizard of the Market ("Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, I am the Great And Powerful.... oh humbug!").

The labor movement needs to develop a better understanding of the forces involved, the competitive dynamics and corporate strategies and in doing so, figure out where the effective pressure points are in each new and changing situation of Adventures in Capitalism.

That would be adaptation!

In solidarity,
Airlineorphan

Very well said...all of it.

"The man behind the curtain" readily erects the strawman of tethering their opponent's arguments to the most extreme opposite. You get the "oh, you want to just build a wall around the US...blah blah blah" ad-nauseum. Of course this is done to make anyone not in lockstep to their views appear unreasonable and uninformed. The issue isn't free markets as such, but the increasingly fundamentalist interpretation of it today.

The whole "inevitability" of present economic forces is just a way of cutting off debate. Of course they don't want to talk about just HOW this came about. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".

 

[airlineorphan]

Thanks Bob,

I think that adaptation of the sort I speak of would certainly go better if unions dropped top down approaches and made full use of the true resources of a collective project: The enormous amount of ideas, knowledge and expertise that rank and file workers develop from simply being on the front lines of any workplace.

The management side has whole departments and think-tanks and industry associations that just sit around getting paid great gobs of money to think up new ways to squeeze workers and rip off consumers, so the labor side needs to use all the resources at its disposal and not show up at the fight on sedatives and one arm tied behind its back.

Democracy is Power in my book.

In soldarity,
-Airlineorphan

 

[E-TRONS]

Dave LORENZO probably duped ST into a deal which promises future work.....which he would have no problem pulling out on if forced to do so by the courts.

ST will loss their ass on these first 10 airplanes in hopes of many more to come. HA-HA, You have just been scammed by the King of Piracy himself Dave LORENZO!!!

Who will stop the extortion of this gang of criminals from CCY????

It's WAR Dave....and you still are thinking like Saddam was....it's on for sure!!!!!

E-TRONS OUT.

 

[elmerfishpaw]

AirlineOrphan....just my 2 cents for excellent posting.

 

[airlineorphan]

Thanks Hi Iron,

It's as if the free market is treated like some sort of force of nature. Or even a supernatural force, when the market is just another social relationship, made up of the individual and collective decisions of human beings, particularly very wealthy human beings who, in the final analysis, can only be held accountable by the effective collective action of the human beings who do the work that makes the wealth that the rich pretend is their godgiven right.

Markets are far too complex and dynamic to make ironclad predictions of their inevitable directions. Decisions by human beings, whether the machinations of Siegel, et al, or by AMT's, F/A's, Pilots, CSR's who collectively decide that enough is enough.

I think there is a pseudo religious tinge to some of the ideas about the supposedly "free" market. As a social relationship, it cannot be deified as it often is.

For an interesting perspective on this, read The Market As God at this link.

I'm not willing to abdicate my responsibility as a human being to the will and whim of the marketplace false god.

In solidarity,
-Airlineorphan

 

[High Iron]

Thanks for the link 'Orphan. I'll check it out later.

One of my favorite populists said of today's free maket, that the corporation today holds the same influence as the church did in the middle ages.

Silly me; I've always thought of myself primarily as a citizen rather than a "consumer". ( consumers exist in a vacuum today...doncha know that? ) and that "the economy" ( such as it is ) serves us, rather than the other way around.

 

[airlineorphan]

High Iron,

You are right on about citizens vs. consumers. And the corporation is perhaps more powerful in our religious culture than the church could ever have dreamed of. When the religion is believed in so fervently that the believers don't even realize it is a religion, that's when it's really gotten its wires into your brain.

It seems to be afforded a place in reality that the laws of physic like gravity and thermodynamics hold.

For example, does the airline industry have an overcapacity problem?

Well, yes, if the only measure is the marketplace. Demand is high enough to fill the seats, but not high enough to ensure a profit. There's clearly a demand for air travel though. People are flying. But since everything is measured against the market imperative to get a profit for the big boys on top, this modern social need for air transportation is ignored and dismissed.

What if the airlines were (gasp!) re-regulated, or (horrors!) nationalized? The tyranny of the bottom line is crushing the life out of us!

Take out the waste and managerial featherbedding at the top, and you just might have a practical and functioning industry that meets the transportation infrastructure needs of our society and our economy.

Heretically yours in officially irrational solidarity,
-Airlineorphan