I was talking about the airplane portion of our trip to Vegas with a friend this afternoon. I told him how much we like Southwest, though it upsets me much of their major maintenance is done in El Salvador.
They are not alone. Choose a US carrier and you’re more likely to not find their planes serviced in Central America or China.
I don’t know if this affects safety in the air. Offshored mechanics aren’t certified the same way. Many don’t speak English — the language of the service manuals.
Thousand of really good America jobs have vanished –poof–. That part affects us all even if you never fly.
This is a 100% economic issue for the airlines. There is no other advantage. My suspicion is the benefit to the airline doesn’t come close to offsetting the loss to their former employees.
Everyone talks about bringing back jobs. This is the perfect place to start. These are companies that can’t move their actual business offshore. Watcha gonna do Hillary or Donald or whoever gets to lead our nation? Watcha gonna do?
Why is there no penalty for this? No disincentive?
Why would we as a nation allow our well paid and highly skilled airplane mechanics to be replaced by foreign workers making a fraction of the money. How does this possibly benefit America?
Someone should ask all the candidates. If they can’t fix this they can’t fix anything.
Geoff,
Nice to see you joining the clarion call from the only candidate that agrees with you…
Trump is the only one actually saying this is a problem and he will bring the jobs back to America.
I agree with both of you.
Rick,
I don’t know you and don’t for a moment mean to engage in a “point/counterpoint” discussion, and of course I respect your right as an American to believe what you will……but I can’t believe that you’re swallowing this man’s uneducated, inciteful tripe! This man is a bully, and an uniformed bloviator plain and simple, in addition to being a personality arsonist!
Geoff,
Having been an airline Captain at UAL for the past 30 years, I happen to know a lot about and have been directly affected by this very subject. It is indeed true, that a lot of maintenance (not all) has been outsourced, but the work that is performed by foreign mechanics, is all overseen by FAA certified maintenance supervisors from each carrier that is outsourcing the work. That doesn’t make it right, but unfortunately, that is today’s reality. I blame it on the “bean counters” that are running corporate America and the airline industry today. The bean counters don’t care about quality, jobs or proficiency, all they care about is the bottom line. And if they can save a buck at the expense of a highly skilled, experienced, Unionized, American aircraft mechanic, they will outsource that job faster than that plane will fly. It’s the nature of and a casualty of the business model we live in today.
Just wait until they start outsourcing the pilots!! It’s coming, and believe me when I say, it’s not a question of if that will happen, but when it will happen.