Sent this to USA Today and Tulsa World.
Please send your opinions in too!
We need to be heard now more than ever.
Fly Northwest Airlines?
According to the airline everything is just fine. However I believe as a maintenance technician with another carrier there are some things you should know.
Northwest Airlines has already outsourced a significant amount of aviation repair work overseas. The work is performed on mostly the larger jets that travel overseas. With each jet outsourced overseas jobs are lost here in the United States. The jobs lost are good paying jobs that support American families with a fair living wage.
The work done overseas has little oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government organization whose job it is to oversee the maintenance performed on aircraft flown in the United States. The FAA will admit that it is difficult to send its agents all over the world to oversee the maintenance of these overseas venders.
Most aircraft maintenance procedures are written in English while most overseas maintenance facilities operate in countries that speak a different language. The translation issue could result in problems in repairing aircraft.
FAA oversight of U.S. maintenance facilities is not such a difficult task in the United States. A FAA inspector can observe that FAA maintenance standards are being met; that all the maintenance manual procedures are up to date and are being followed, and that the calibrated tools required to perform correct maintenance on aircraft are all within their required inspection dates. The inspector can do this usually in a day. The U.S. maintenance facilities are also required to maintain OSHA and safe environmental standards while overseas facilities are not.
Overseas maintenance programs put more emphasis on production than doing the job correctly. The maintenance workers are, in general, less likely to report findings of corrosion or expensive repair tasks that may be required in order to insure or enhance the airworthiness of the aircraft. By “finding †items that are in need of repair an overseas maintenance worker can find his employment status in jeopardy as his employer focus is on “turning†the product in a minimum amount of time. If a U.S. maintenance worker is pressured in such a way than the FAA is likely to become involved.
Most american aircraft maintenance workers are required to have a license of some sort, either an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration or a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued General Radio Telephone license. If a maintenance worker performs aircraft maintenance at an airport the A&P license is a requirement. There are no such requirements at most overseas maintenance vender facilities. The licensed mechanics in the U.S. are held accountable by the issuing agencies of these licenses and can have their licenses revoked at any time. Foreign aircraft maintenance workers do not have this additional worry to impede their swift progress in the performance of their maintenance tasks in which they are assigned. Again their emphasis is on quantity not quality.
The A&P requirement at U.S. airports require that the technician candidate complete normally 19 months of training on the different aircraft systems, the proper techniques of repairing the different systems and the repair of the structure of the aircraft. Since most aircraft maintenance workers in the United States have gone through Airframe and Powerplant training in order to enable them to work on aircraft, there is an unspoken standard that must be met by the workers in this peer group. If an american maintenance worker attempts to work on an aircraft in a way that is not up to speed with the rest of his peer group the person gains a reputation of being a “hackâ€. There is peer pressure against the person who attempts to perform maintenance in such a way by his fellow workers.
Most American airline maintenance workers have a security check performed on them before they are allowed to work on aircraft or are allowed inside the fence at an American airport. Foreign maintenance workers generally have no such security requirements to allow access to the aircraft they maintain. A person working on an American jet overseas could very easily be a security risk to this country.
Foreign maintenance workers are not randomly drug tested. American maintenance workers are required to randomly submit samples for drug testing. The passenger has no way of knowing the state of mind of the person doing the work on these outsourced aircraft.
American maintenance workers and their families often fly on the aircraft the American maintenance worker performs maintenance on. This practice is a pretty good insurance policy to insure that the maintenance worker will maintain the aircraft properly. Foreign maintenance workers and their families normally do not fly on the aircraft the worker performed maintenance on.
With most large U.S. airlines there exists a self-disclosure program in which, if a maintenance worker discovers that his maintenance task was done incorrectly he can self-disclose his unintentional error by way of a self-disclosure form. This form alerts the carrier and allows the carrier to have the correct procedure performed on the aircraft after it has been released for service. This self-disclosure program found at most major airline companies is way to keep aircraft flying safe after an airline worker discovers that he has made a mistake. The airline worker is not punished for the disclosure, but the important result is that the aircraft is taken out of service and repaired properly. If the aircraft is repaired overseas the worker more than likely would never self-disclose for fear of losing his job, and the worker making the faulty repair is left to “hope†the problem will eventually be found and corrected at a later time by someone else.
By sending aircraft maintenance overseas the airlines are able to save millions but there is a cost and the American public are the ones who will eventually pay the cost.
At Northwest Airlines the company wishes to contract out most all of its maintenance. In the last five years the number of mechanics have dwindled from over nine thousand to less than four thousand. With the contract that was offered the mechanics at Northwest the number of mechanics would be reduced to less than three thousand. Besides slashing the head count, the company wants the slash the mechanics pay by 25% at a time when the costs of fuel and health care are rising through the roof. Maintenance workers are continually being threatened with outsourcing if they do not work faster and with less pay and benefits. In short the whole airline industry expects its workers to subsidize cheap airline tickets.
Would my family or I risk flying with Northwest at this time? You can, the airline says everything is fine, however my family and I will pass.
Dennis Hayes
Aviation Maintenance Technician
Please send your opinions in too!
We need to be heard now more than ever.
Fly Northwest Airlines?
According to the airline everything is just fine. However I believe as a maintenance technician with another carrier there are some things you should know.
Northwest Airlines has already outsourced a significant amount of aviation repair work overseas. The work is performed on mostly the larger jets that travel overseas. With each jet outsourced overseas jobs are lost here in the United States. The jobs lost are good paying jobs that support American families with a fair living wage.
The work done overseas has little oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government organization whose job it is to oversee the maintenance performed on aircraft flown in the United States. The FAA will admit that it is difficult to send its agents all over the world to oversee the maintenance of these overseas venders.
Most aircraft maintenance procedures are written in English while most overseas maintenance facilities operate in countries that speak a different language. The translation issue could result in problems in repairing aircraft.
FAA oversight of U.S. maintenance facilities is not such a difficult task in the United States. A FAA inspector can observe that FAA maintenance standards are being met; that all the maintenance manual procedures are up to date and are being followed, and that the calibrated tools required to perform correct maintenance on aircraft are all within their required inspection dates. The inspector can do this usually in a day. The U.S. maintenance facilities are also required to maintain OSHA and safe environmental standards while overseas facilities are not.
Overseas maintenance programs put more emphasis on production than doing the job correctly. The maintenance workers are, in general, less likely to report findings of corrosion or expensive repair tasks that may be required in order to insure or enhance the airworthiness of the aircraft. By “finding †items that are in need of repair an overseas maintenance worker can find his employment status in jeopardy as his employer focus is on “turning†the product in a minimum amount of time. If a U.S. maintenance worker is pressured in such a way than the FAA is likely to become involved.
Most american aircraft maintenance workers are required to have a license of some sort, either an Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration or a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued General Radio Telephone license. If a maintenance worker performs aircraft maintenance at an airport the A&P license is a requirement. There are no such requirements at most overseas maintenance vender facilities. The licensed mechanics in the U.S. are held accountable by the issuing agencies of these licenses and can have their licenses revoked at any time. Foreign aircraft maintenance workers do not have this additional worry to impede their swift progress in the performance of their maintenance tasks in which they are assigned. Again their emphasis is on quantity not quality.
The A&P requirement at U.S. airports require that the technician candidate complete normally 19 months of training on the different aircraft systems, the proper techniques of repairing the different systems and the repair of the structure of the aircraft. Since most aircraft maintenance workers in the United States have gone through Airframe and Powerplant training in order to enable them to work on aircraft, there is an unspoken standard that must be met by the workers in this peer group. If an american maintenance worker attempts to work on an aircraft in a way that is not up to speed with the rest of his peer group the person gains a reputation of being a “hackâ€. There is peer pressure against the person who attempts to perform maintenance in such a way by his fellow workers.
Most American airline maintenance workers have a security check performed on them before they are allowed to work on aircraft or are allowed inside the fence at an American airport. Foreign maintenance workers generally have no such security requirements to allow access to the aircraft they maintain. A person working on an American jet overseas could very easily be a security risk to this country.
Foreign maintenance workers are not randomly drug tested. American maintenance workers are required to randomly submit samples for drug testing. The passenger has no way of knowing the state of mind of the person doing the work on these outsourced aircraft.
American maintenance workers and their families often fly on the aircraft the American maintenance worker performs maintenance on. This practice is a pretty good insurance policy to insure that the maintenance worker will maintain the aircraft properly. Foreign maintenance workers and their families normally do not fly on the aircraft the worker performed maintenance on.
With most large U.S. airlines there exists a self-disclosure program in which, if a maintenance worker discovers that his maintenance task was done incorrectly he can self-disclose his unintentional error by way of a self-disclosure form. This form alerts the carrier and allows the carrier to have the correct procedure performed on the aircraft after it has been released for service. This self-disclosure program found at most major airline companies is way to keep aircraft flying safe after an airline worker discovers that he has made a mistake. The airline worker is not punished for the disclosure, but the important result is that the aircraft is taken out of service and repaired properly. If the aircraft is repaired overseas the worker more than likely would never self-disclose for fear of losing his job, and the worker making the faulty repair is left to “hope†the problem will eventually be found and corrected at a later time by someone else.
By sending aircraft maintenance overseas the airlines are able to save millions but there is a cost and the American public are the ones who will eventually pay the cost.
At Northwest Airlines the company wishes to contract out most all of its maintenance. In the last five years the number of mechanics have dwindled from over nine thousand to less than four thousand. With the contract that was offered the mechanics at Northwest the number of mechanics would be reduced to less than three thousand. Besides slashing the head count, the company wants the slash the mechanics pay by 25% at a time when the costs of fuel and health care are rising through the roof. Maintenance workers are continually being threatened with outsourcing if they do not work faster and with less pay and benefits. In short the whole airline industry expects its workers to subsidize cheap airline tickets.
Would my family or I risk flying with Northwest at this time? You can, the airline says everything is fine, however my family and I will pass.
Dennis Hayes
Aviation Maintenance Technician
