A bit of AMFA news

[Bob Owens]

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On 7/29/2003 12:25:08 PM AAmech wrote:

Don't sign Log Book too often although I did sign off an entry last week.

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Well I hope you fixed it first!

 

[Bob Owens]

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On 7/29/2003 1207 PM AAmech wrote:


Sorry it bothers you RUM but your amfa made and continues to make some HUGE promises. Bringing ALL work back in house! 60-100 bucks an hour pay! 100% retro pay! A union "like the pilots" have! Respect!! I see planes in Singapore I EXPECT it to be a so-called "Industrial" unions fault. Not a powerful "CRAFT UNION LIKE THE PILOTS HAVE!!!


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I think that you fail to see the difference betwen "GOALS" and "promises". AMFA has announced many "goals". Goals such as building a union like the pilots have. Goals such as elevating the compensation of aircraft mechanics. Goals such as working to refine the image of aircraft mechanics. These "goals" contrast sharply to Jim Littles goal of helping AA to put other carriers out of business by undercutting their labor costs. Of siphoning work away from A&P mechanics through language changes and the creation of new job titles where A&P mechanics may work, with the same liabilities, without getting liscence pay. Of "job creation through low wages and less benifits.
Dont you find it strange that the TWU will use dues money fighting RTW while promoting the same ideology of low wages for more jobs that RTW promotes?

Back in the late 80s, when FAR 145 was revised to allow US carriers to use Foreign maint AMFA did not represent anybody. However thousands of mechanics were pouring millions of dollars into the IAM,TWU and IBT. What did those unions do about 145 then? Nothing. Not even an educational campain or picketing. Why werent the collective resources of these thousands of mechanics focused on fighting FAR 145? Could it be that none of those unions cared that much about our profession? Why through the Clinton years was this issue put way on the back burner? Why, despite the tremendous resources of these unions is there no campain about FAR 66? What do these unions do with our dues? Fight RTW? Fine, but take care of FAR 145 and 66 first. Where should our priorities lie? Its would be easy for Sonny Hall to dismiss our grips and say "What are they complaining about, they still make more than the average American". But then again the average American does not pay union dues, face 10 year background checks, required to have a criminal free background, take random drug tests or have the responsibility of an A&P mechanic. According to one of the other airline threads an IAM official bragged that IAM members make more than workers at McDonalds or Walmart. In the meantime these guys make six figures.
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[RUM@AA]

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On 7/29/2003 1207 PM AAmech wrote:


Sorry it bothers you RUM but your amfa made and continues to make some HUGE promises.  Bringing ALL work back in house!   60-100 bucks an hour pay!  100% retro pay!  A union "like the pilots" have!  Respect!!  I see planes in Singapore I EXPECT it to be a so-called "Industrial" unions fault.  Not a powerful "CRAFT UNION LIKE THE PILOTS HAVE!!!

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FAA Inspects Too Few Plane Maintenance Contractors, Federal Agency Says
Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Publication Date: 07/11/03

Jul. 11--The Federal Aviation Administration is not adequately monitoring the growing number of outside contractors that repair planes flown by Northwest Airlines and other carriers.
That was the warning Thursday from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General.
"The vulnerabilities all relate to a lack of effective FAA oversight that needs to be improved," an inspector general report said.
The FAA inspects as few as 1 percent of the contractors, even though contractors got almost half of the $5.4 billion that airlines spent on maintenance and repairs last year, said the report by Inspector General Kenneth Mead. Mead was concerned by what his investigators found. Mechanics at one major U.S carrier identified 6,000 "discrepancies" on an aircraft that returned from a major maintenance check at a foreign repair station.
The report also says a carrier had 400 inspections of its internal maintenance operations in 2002 but just seven reviews of maintenance done on its planes by outside contractors, according to the report.
Eagan-based Northwest and other major airlines, most of which have been losing billions of dollars a year, are shifting maintenance from in-house mechanics to outside vendors to slash their costs.
They can cut their maintenance costs by as much as 50 percent or more by outsourcing maintenance, especially when the work is done in Mexico or Asia.
The report released Thursday found that 18 of 21 outside repair stations checked by government agents, contract mechanics used incorrect aircraft parts and improperly calibrated tools, and they had outdated manuals.
Workers lacked documentation that they were properly qualified and trained to do repairs and policies and procedures were inadequate, inspectors found. Records of work done overseas are often incomplete or incomprehensible.
At one repair site, scrapped parts were not segregated from usable parts.
"The scrapped parts could have been mistakenly used by a mechanic in a repair," the report warned.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the agency agrees with the findings and the need for improvement. However, she stressed the report does not say passengers are in danger.
"There's no data to support a safety issue," she said.
Northwest says outside contractors do about 26 percent of its aircraft maintenance, based on dollars spent. The Inspector General's report estimated that 44 percent of Northwest's maintenance work was outsourced in 2002, however.
Northwest's contract with its mechanics limits external maintenance to 38 percent.
But the mechanics' union says a recent audit done for the union indicates that Northwest may have exceeded that cap.
The airline once used outside contractors to handle surges in maintenance work, said Paul Volker, legislative officer for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.
"Now, they've chosen to try to outsource all the maintenance work," he said. Mechanics unions are backing federal legislation that could block overseas companies from obtaining licenses to fix U.S.-registered planes unless they boost security, and possibly do drug and alcohol tests on workers. In the May issue of Passages, the airline's employee newspaper, Northwest said that outsourcing maintenance is an important strategy in its drive to regain profitability.
The airline has lost $1.6 billion and cut 17,000 employees since the start of 2001. Northwest primarily outsources work on its DC-10s, 747-200s and DC-9s. These older planes have peaks and valleys in heavy maintenance scheduling, Kris Bauer, NWA vice president-aircraft maintenance, told Passages.
"This peak-and-valley problem makes the economics of in-house maintenance unjustified," she said. "In addition, Northwest must compete with airlines that purchase aircraft, parts and maintenance service on world markets at world-market prices. To be cost-competitive in a globally interdependent marketplace we need to outsource some of our maintenance."
While costs for outsourced maintenance are lower than for in-house maintenance, Northwest insists quality and safety are not compromised. It maintains that there are no differences between the maintenance program that Northwest mechanics and outside firms follow when working on its planes.

About half of its outsourced maintenance work is done in Asia, Northwest has indicated.

Its Asian maintenance contractors include ST Aviation Services Co. (SASCO), a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Aerospace.

SASCO has done airframe heavy maintenance work for at least eight years on Northwest's DC-10 and 747 fleets. In Hong Kong, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. (HAECO) has performed heavy maintenance on NWA 747s for more than four years.

The Associated Press and Bloomberg contributed to this report.
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Eight years ago the IAM (industrial union) was at NWA. Not AMFA. So how do you blame Singapore on AMFA? Huh?
What "promises" are you talking about? Got any of that in writing? I didn't think so.
The TWU promised us an ILC. Where did that go?
Jim Little "promised" us a re-vote. Then came the TWU SELL OUT!
Sorry AAMech but after 18 years at AA I know for a fact that the TWU SUCKS and you're a fool for supporting the union of "no further ratification".
You have no voice in the TWU. You have no VOTE in the TWU.

TWU = Sonny Hall and Jim Little.

 

[Bob Owens]

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On 7/30/2003 12:40:23 AM RUM@AA wrote:

The TWU promised us an ILC. Where did that go?

TWU = Sonny Hall and Jim Little.


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You got your ILC. Industry Leading Concessions. The question is, do we really want what Jim Little has to offer and what can we do about it?

 

[j7915]

(HAECO) has performed heavy maintenance on NWA 747s for more than four years.

Is HAECO that Lufthansa Technik outfit, created origionaly so that Lufthansa could outsource their section 41 747 rework at lower labor cost?