The IBT WORKS FOR YOU!
The IBT Has Been Fighting Outsourced Work Even as far back as AWA per-merger US AIR!
Tuesday, September 22nd, 1998
The Associated Press
AmWest,
mechanics
tentatively
make deal
• The airline agrees to move its maintenance contracts back to its in-house workers.
PHOENIX – America West Airlines has tentatively agreed to stop outsourcing its maintenance contracts in an effort to settle a 2 1/2-year labor dispute with its mechanics union.
The hiring of outside contractors has been a major obstacle in negotiations between the airline and the Teamsters Union, which represents 400 America West mechanics.
The agreement comes soon after the Federal Aviation Administration fined America West $5 million for maintenance lapses.
The tentative five-year contract includes a promise by America West CEO William Franke to stop outsourcing maintenance on dozens of the airline’s Boeing 737s and return the work to its own mechanics, Teamsters spokesman Patrick Lacefield said.
America West, the nation’s ninth-largest carrier, is withholding comment until mechanics vote on the pact, likely next month, spokeswoman Patty Nowack said.
Maintenance has been an issue at America West since the airline fired 375 mechanics in December 1995 and began contracting heavy aircraft maintenance to outside shops.
Among other things, the contract calls for a 34 percent pay increase over five years, with an average immediate wage increase of 14.4 percent, Lacefield said. The new contract would increase the average mechanic’s hourly wage from $17 to $20.
Union officials will discuss the proposal this weekend with mechanics in Phoenix and at the airline’s hubs in Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio, Lacefield said.
Contract negotiations continue between America West and its 2,100 flight attendants, who have been without a contract since voting to unionize in 1994.
PHOTO: Associated Press file photo
America West has the most flights out of Tucson – 12 daily – and carries the most passengers in and out of Tucson International Airport – 666,394 last year. All flights from here travel to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor, the airline’s main hub (shown here).
