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On 3/12/2003 3:13:47 AM kcabpilot wrote:
Yes, we were all just given another one of those PowerPoint presentations that was supposed to drive home the clear fact that we are 27% more expensive than the OSV. The problem is that the numbers were wrong.
They had our hourly wage wrong.
Under "Vacation and Holidays" they claimed a cost of $7.59/hr. I'm no mathematician but using a four dollar calculator that comes out to 469 hours of vacation and holiday time per year per Mechanic. Did they pull this number out of a hat or am I coming into work on those 28 extra holidays I have and didn’t know about?
Under “Sick Leave” they claim a cost of 12 days of sick leave per year, per Mechanic. How many Mechanics do you know of that used 12 days of sick leave last year? What about all of those Mechanics who have never taken a day of sick leave, have a maxed out balance and are not even earning any more?
Under “Fringe Benefits” they claim a cost of $15/hr per Mechanic. Do you mean to tell me they spent $35,000 on my medical coverage last year and I only went to the doctor once?
Now on top of all this they add in everything else it takes to keep this facility running and compute the cost of putting out two lines of maintenance. What about all the special route work? What about projects like the 777 Primex that involved redoing a job that was incorrectly done by an OSV? A project that lasted nearly six months.
And finally, let’s talk about the OSV’s themselves. We all know they are talking about Timco. How about the fact that Timco LOST $140 million last year, $211 million the year before? How about the fact that Timco hasn’t made any profit in over three years? What about BF Goodrich? Chapter 7. Can you name one single OSV that has been in business with the same name for more than two years?
Like ualflynhi said, when they lay me off I’m done with this industry. This is the sentiment of just about all of us.
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kc,
I am going to play the devils advocate here, so don't jump on me. I actually feel the same way about Ual's fuzzy math.
I am not sure how they arrive at their firgures, but here are some examples of cost for Ual to have their own mechanics, and not have them. My figure was that benefits cost the company about 37% over wages.
A station that has mechanics needs a lunch room, bathroom facilities, foreman, and people to cover the vacations, sick time and days off. If someone gets hurt, they need overtime to replace him and also pay the injured employee.
Now if all things are equal and outsourcing is of the same quality as in house work, it all adds up to what is the cheaper way to go. It is all about competition today, and you are also competing with contract labor, just like Ual is competing with the other airlines for customers.
I know! Your arguement is that the quality isn't there in outsourcing, but, until there is a major crash, the bottom line will prevail.
In order to keep the work in house, wages and work rules have to be competitive with outsourcing. If Ual employees get 6 weeks vacation and contract people get 2 weeks, something has to give.
If there are no mechanics in the station, R&D is done by a lower cost employee who also loads or cleans the plane.
We are in a different world today, compared with the days when companies were owned by one person. With stock owned companies, you can never make enough profit for the stockholders. Bottom line is everything today. It is the only measure of success for a company.
Lay off people and the stock goes up.
I still see too many posters here who beleive they have a right to work for what they dictate. Choke the goose.
It might be time to start explaining why keeping you is better than contract, or figure out how you can save the company money with in house work.
If you depend on the union to do this for you, forget it.