The bottom line is this: What airlines spend on heavy overhaul isn't really your concern, Bob. Your concern ought to be maximizing the wages of your members in the USA. If AA (or any other airline) outsources heavy checks and thereby increases their costs above the insourced costs, then that's their management failure, right? Not your problem.
Your concern should be focused, IMO, on figuring out how to move your wages from the low thirties per hour up to the mid-to-high forties per hour. Problem is, your so-called "union" has thousands of members in Tulsa and Fort Worth, and it's obvious (at least to me) that AA is never going to agree to pay them $47/hr for heavy checks (at least not while there are MROs in places like SAL that employ people for less than 10% of TUL wages). There are almost seven billion people on the planet; there may not be very many A&Ps currently issued by the FAA, but I'll bet that there are plenty of warm bodies somewhere on the planet that can overhaul a jet airplane or can be quickly trained to do so (even if that training is half-assed and not up to your standards)
Partly true….
The reason why the labor movement in the US has shrunk as much as it has is because of the mindset that says that it is labor’s job to figure out how to maximize its own “take” at the expense of the company – while the US is largely a business-friendly country that says that growing the economy is more important than protecting labor. The last couple years have been a shift in the direction of being more labor friendly but the results are far from certain... and when you politicize economic issues (such as is going on with Boeing and the 787 plant and the DL representation elections), labor will lose because the only way the US economy can compete is if the US offers higher quality, more efficient processes compared to lower cost world producers… one look at the US auto industry shows that labor gambled for a long time that they could force mgmt to pay above market (compared to the global marketplace) wages … lots of higher quality, lower priced, more consumer friendly automakers have won substantial shares of the US auto market and they aren’t through growing….despite attempts by Washington to help the auto industry, business will invest and consumers will buy where there is the best return on investment – whether it be a plant for a company and the workers that staff it or the purchase price of the car for a consumer…
The same can be said about the US airline industry…. There is a lot about the industry that cannot be outsourced to 3rd world countries… but when it is possible to outsource flying to lower cost regional carriers and maintenance can be done overseas, there is nothing long term stopping companies from going where they get the best return on investment.
The only way labor will win is if they figure out how to demonstrate value added to the company… WN and its labor win because they both create what both need. Perhaps UPS does it for their mechanics because they do the same….and they have both adapted to the type of business they run- and arguably both are engaged in businesses that allow them to pay their employees better than network passenger airlines.
There are only two practical solutions to that problem -- separate the line and OH contracts, or create different job classifications with different rates. AA already has the OSM/SRP classifications for unlicensed helpers, but as far as I can tell, there's no distinction between a licensed worker on the line and on the dock. Split those to a line mechanic classification, and an overhaul mechanic classification, and you could easily have the $41 rate for overhaul and $47+ for the line. Maybe throw in an IdeAAs type incentive program in place for the base to help make up the difference...
But, as we all know, that's got a very low chance of surviving a vote because it will be cast as divide and conquer...
Divide and conquer will never work and will never pass.. even those who want to see the union fail recognize that… part of the whole union mindset is for everyone to stand together… Bob and co. could separate out the line and OH but they would likely lose the group they throw under the bus…
You also have to look at what US competitors are doing… I don’t know all but unless all of AA’s major competitors have the same wage differential (and I know at least some and perhaps all do not), then AA won’t agree to paying one group more just to keep another group happy… it’s basic economics… AA will do what is in AA’s best interest for all of the work and they aren’t going to pay a premium to do so.
The Line folks don't think they are "better" than the OH at all. The industry has changed. The avg cost of getting a/c OH has dropped dramatically because you can fly the plane to the lowest bidder. You gotta pretty much fix the plane where it's at in Line mtx. If they figure out how to get cheap outsourced line mtx, we're all f$@$ed. But in the mean time, line is where the money is at. You know it, I know it, we all know it, why can't we all admit it?
No… line justifies a higher price because it is harder to outsource… but to think that “we’ve got them by the gonads” so we can command whatever price we want while throwing our colleagues under the bus who can’t as easily defend themselves against outsourcing will only serve to weaken the AMT “profession” ….
The only for both is to demonstrate the value they add… and demonstrating it… not by telling us based on anecdotes that outsourced maintenance is of cheap quality while in-house maintenance is flawless (we deliver planes that are as good as when they come from Boeing - (forget about those manufacturing defects that Boeing delivered, Bob?) ) Provide statistics on the quality of the work that is delivered and then justify ECONOMICALLY that flying a plane to some other part of the world costs MORE than doing it here….
I doubt it, company propaganda. My bet is the source can be traced back to the International . The same guys who run around saying AA is going BK, doing the companys dirty work while on the union payroll. Thats where I heard it as well. Ask to see the applications. I do know that the station manager was asking guys (since many work second jobs on the field) to ask anyone they knew in the industry to put in an application. He even commented on the lack of talent available. One of the guys they hired was over 60 years old, may be a great guy but if they had 800 qualified applicants do you think they would hire and train a guy that they will only get five years at the most from? Would you? The guys we got are mostly guys that left JetBlue and Delta.
Remember judge them by their actions, not what they say. In NY they reinstated flex rate to step 3. Would they have done that if they had 800 applications?? Cost of living has nothing to do with determining to use flex rates, market conditions, the ability to fill the spot is the sole reason why they raise it.
My guess is they are getting very few, thats why they are reaching out to the schools and giving away all those MD-80s, hiring people who are within retirement age, bringing in the flex rates and lowering the experience requirement.
Your 2nd paragraph is true… AA didn’t raise labor rates because they felt generous.. they did it because they had to… but pretending that AA doesn’t have enough qualified people who can step in is a mighty dangerous assumption unless you really know… there might well be a whole lot of those that aren’t qualified… but if it came down to AA deciding they have had enough w/ the current labor /mgmt standoff, they could well figure out how to get 1500 of those warm bodies in place to pull a NW/AMFA busting operation…
Don’t kid yourself about what AA is willing to do if it comes down to saving the company… right now, they are happy to play the game of status quo…
