Fight on Outsourcing

In December, 2007 the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition (TAMC) released a report entitled “Who Is Really Fixing Our Airplanes?”

The Teamster’s also sponsored the first ever national summit on aircraft maintenance outsourcing. Nearly 200 people attended, including safety advocates, members of Congress, former members of the National Transportation Safety Board, the news media and aviation industry representatives.

Since then Congress has taken the first small steps to requiring a single aviation maintenance standard, which is the key to a solution for this problem. But there is a long line of powerful and well-funded special interests that are intent on maintaining our current system. This will be a long and difficult battle.

At this point in the political and election seasons, discussion on proposed bills – the first legislative steps in this fight – will not take place until late January at the earliest. But we can begin to arm ourselves for this battle by collecting information that will make it hard for this country’s decision makers and the general public to ignore this vital issue.

There is still much more work to be done. The Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition is collecting data about shoddy outsourced maintenance. Your help is crucial to this effort. Please fill out the survey about problems you witnessed with work done by outside vendors. The information you provide in this will be used in a subsequent report.

Please be assured the Teamsters will keep your identity confidential. If you feel uncomfortable disclosing your name and employer, then leave them off the survey. The Teamsters will protect your privacy. Only the Teamsters will have access to your personally identifiable information; we will not share it with anyone.

More information can be found at the Teamster website www.teamster.org . Click on Airline Division under the Industries drop down menu. Thank you in advance for your time and effort.