Division
Representatives Attend MRO Conference
This
week Representatives Chris Moore and Bob Fisher attended the MRO Network
conference in Montreal Canada. A detailed report will issued shortly but there
were a few key takeaways. Trending continues to be positive for domestic
maintenance as labor rates in Asia continue to move upward. It is expected that
both established Asian countries labor rates, as well as emerging Asian
countries labor rates, will converge with domestic rates in approximately 2018.
That
trend will make it impractical to offshore widebody overhauls to Asia in the
future. A second key point is that M&A (merger and acquisition) activity is
heating up with more than 100 such transactions expected by the end of this
year. That's up slightly from last year's roughly 80 transactions. For the past
five years this trend has continued as MRO's which have little yield seek to
join forces to produce more volume. Obviously this will drive up costs to
airlines as this trend continues. Look for more companies start to discuss
outsourcing using the word contracting.
According
to ARSA the word contracting doesn't have the same negative connotations as
outsourcing with the public and regulators. Certainly it makes no difference
what it's called, as the old saying goes you can polish a turd but it's still a
turd. Look for the detailed report of this conference in the next TAMC
newsletter.
Scope
Meeting Held
On
Wednesday the scope committee met in Houston. The line and hangar plans for sCO
and sUA were discussed. There will be some movement of work around the system as
fleets are moved but there was no anticipation of any headcount reduction
systemwide. There will be movement of some line check work into IAD and EWR as a
result of the new hangars in those locations. There was also discussion of
bringing back in house some checks that have been previously outsourced. The
company explored this possibility with the committee and it appears there could
be movement to bring some of this work back into the SFO base.
Grievance
to be Filed Regarding Health and Welfare Benefits
As
reported in the update last week the Division will be filing a grievance this
coming week over the unilateral change in medical benefits. The company was
notified that the union will be processing one grievance on behalf of the
membership. The Division intends to move this grievance to the front of the
arbitration docket to attempt an expedited resolution.
Furloughed members urged to update
their addresses
Members on furlough are advised to
keep their addresses current with the company while on layoff. It is predicted
that there will be many movements this year and there have been several members
that have been removed from the seniority list because old addresses were on
file when notices were sent.
If you are in touch with a furloughed
member, please forward this information to them. Updates may be emailed to:
[email protected] . The
ESC will provide a fax number and ask members to send the address change
accompanied with a signature.
Download Mechanics Dispatch 60 101913