Southwest Airlines mechanics union warned of too much outsourcing of maintenance work

[Sherman A1]

Weeks before the engine failure caused a passenger death, Southwest Airlines mechanics union warned of a “ostrich-like head-in-the-sand approach” regarding problems with the company’s aircraft maintenance program, according to a report.

In a Feb. 26 email, Bret Oestreich, the national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, cautioned Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Mike van de Ven that there was too much outsourcing of maintenance work.

The head of the mechanics union warned that 75% of the maintenance work was farmed out to third-party vendors, according to the Chicago Business Journal.

“The truth is there exists a serious concern regarding the degradation of safety within Southwest’s maintenance program as determined by the Federal Aviation Administration,” the labor leader wrote. “The truth is sometimes difficult to digest and accept. In addition, the view from the top you enjoy as chief operating officer may be breathtaking, but the distance from the high perch which you sit up on to day-to-day operations has obviously blurred your perception of reality.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/southwest-mechanics-union-warned-flawed-maintenance-program-article-1.3943751

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Outsourcing our lives.

[malaise]

3. This must be seen

Get thee to the greatest page

Notice the seemingly nice offers to passengers very early.
When American crashed in Jamaica days before Christmas some years ago, they made the same offer to the passengers - the plane overshot the runway at Norman Manley - how it didn't end up in the Caribbean Sea we still don't know. Most passengers declined the offer and collected a lot more when all the info was available.

[FirstLight]

4. THIS stuff is why I don't trust big planes

I seriously prefer the small plane-approach to flying... find a local small aviation co. (ya I know, not practical, but...) It's something I've been saying for years.

When flying a small plane, the pilot and sometimes even copilot will do the whole pre-flight check themselves. They KNOW if a bolt is loose or something isn't right. The big airlines, nobody gives a shit.


Now, the thing is that I have NO reason to fly. I drive anywhere I go regionally, and I usually never take "vacations" so it's a non issue for me. There IS traveling I want to do someday, but I'm going to have to get over my angst against big airlines...

[USALiberal]

10. Big airlines had not had a fatality in 9 years. Much safer than driving. nt

[hueymahl]

20. And much safer than small planes

Heck, it is much safer than almost anything else.

That said, I agree with the Mechanic in the OP. Outsourcing maintenance to foreign countries has been gaining speed for a while. It may be a cumulative hit on safety that is only now starting to be seen.

[GulfCoast66]

21. I respect your trepidation

But small planes are significantly more prone to crashing than large.

And driving is like having a death wise compared to flying.

But I well understand that statistics seldom overcome my personal fears!

Just so many cool places require flying. I find that a Bloody Mary prior to flying helps me trust statistics more!!

[jameslandy]

22. nobody gives a shit

As a retired aircraft who has done hundreds of pre flight and post flight inspections can assure you that we DO give a shit. Stupid statements like tht are in the category of "FAKE NEWS"

[USALiberal]

25. And the safest 10 years in history. nt

[Adrahil]

34. You know, statistically, you are completely, 180 degrees wrong.

U.S. commercial airlines (the big boys) are incredibly safe.

[Hoyt]

5. Honestly don't know what is right here. But bashing foreigners bothers me.

Don't claim to be an expert in safest airlines, but I did a little research and Chinese airlines come out better than American in most of the ratings.

Makes me wonder if the report above is really fair or just another Americans are better than Foreigners we've been hearing since Chinese finger-traps, Datsuns, VW Beatles and Samsung starting appealing to American consumers.

Just saying.

[LiberalArkie]

28. They have lower standards outside the U.S.

It is the same reason ships fly the Liberian flag instead of U.S. Liberia have very few restrictions on the ships and the training.

If you look at the jets that the CEO's of the airlines fly, they are completely U.S. serviced. The very best quality.





This is in India... this is a power pole and telephone. Look up the Philippines, any of the countries that are taking on the outsourcing.. There is a difference in the quality we have here and that in the cheaper labor rate countries.

[Victor_c3]

42. I have to second what you said

I’m at the beach and drinks my way too much (I’m on vacation), but I have to agree that American safety standards are there to protect us. Safety regulations, although they are a pain in the ass, are written in blood. The reason we have our current safety rules is because people have died in the past when they didn’t have said regulations.

[Hoyt]

46. That's nice, but according to international ratings, US Airlines don't do very well. Chinese

airlines rate better.

I take no pride in saying that, but it appears a fact to me. America Best or First has been a myth since at least the 1970s in a number of industries. Our bombs might make us the biggest bully, but we'd be better off putting money where it matters.

Results of two airline rating agencies:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/The-worlds-safest-airlines-revealed/

[IronLionZion]

56. Ships fly the Liberian flag only because it looks like the US flag

and they believe they would be less of a target for attack back in the day at least. Maybe not now.

Wouldn't the airline set their standards for aircraft maintenance? Or is it a government regulation?

Your picture of a power lines pole is nice but has nothing to do with aircraft maintenance or standards. Do you think airlines in the countries you mentioned are having this problem often?

For example, AeroMexico proudly boasts of doing the maintenance for a long list of airlines. And they have one of the best records in the business. They advertise it. If you've flown anywhere, you've probably flown on a plane that had maintenance done by AeroMexico.

[BannonsLiver]

61. No, those ships are flagged under different countries for tax reasons

Carnival, RCCL and the others do that to get out of paying taxes. It has zero to do with the color of the flag.

[bettyellen]

30. It makes a big difference who is working for who. Like it or not theyll feel

More indebted to their own local employers than they will when subcontracting. My cousins airline started pushing for more and more repairs and maintenance done overseas and part of the equation there is waiting longer and doing one more flight- overseas before doing the needed work. Before that they were attacking the workers for using their long standing system of borrowing parts from colleagues at other airlines so they could do the repairs faster. Attacked for creative problem solving, as an excuse to move the work overseas.
People see they are cutting corners and feel more comfortable doing the same. They’re not as invested in the company’s reputation or the lives of its passengers, when they’re just temping. Some things you don’t skimp on.

[Hoyt]

47. Maybe some American workers feel that way, but I'm not sure that is always true.

It would be very sad -- and perhaps why we have a problem -- if Americans who are contracted to do heavy engineering work in foreign countries or to build equipment for foreign countries, felt they didn't care as much about the purchaser of those services or products.

Similarly, I don't think a Chinese mechanic would feel like they didn't have to work as hard on products headed for American consumers. Don't doubt that is the impression some American companies would like to leave us with though. Companies and American workers bashed foreign cars for years even though foreign cares were better products and less expensive, not to mention more environmentally friendly.

[Neema]

6. I know tons of people who swear by Southwest, and for sure most of the major airlines have

all kinds of issues, but I have never enjoyed flying that airline. Mostly because I hate the cattle-car approach to seating. I want to know where I'm sitting from the moment I make my reservation. In fact, I usually go on seatguru.com to check on various seats before I make my selection.

But my other problem is with any business that touts low prices as a major selling pitch. Not that I like to get ripped off or anything, but it just seems like if 'low price' is one of the biggest pluses, then something else is suffering to make that happen. Whether it's paying employees shit wages, outsourcing labor or manufacturing, cutting back on staff, cutting back on quality, or all of the above, it just doesn't seem like a recipe for a good experience.

It isn't always something as horrible as outsourcing maintenance work that could potentially have been the reason why something was overlooked on that engine. Sometimes it's a matter of them running out of deicing fluid, in Chicago, in February. Who does that? And it's not like Chicago had some epic polar vortex winter where everyone was going through deicing fluid at some crazy rate. Until recently it was a very mild winter. So there's absolutely no excuse to leave thousands and thousands of people stranded and inconvenienced for such a silly error. It shouldn't be news that it's cold in Chicago in February.

[crazycatlady]

9. I prefer Southwest

They're the only airline that does not charge for checked bags. I don't like carrying more than a backpack on a plane (checking the rest).

[Neema]

31. I get that. It's a nice perk but I get free checked bags with my credit card

and don't have to be hassled with making sure I get in Group A and then still have to queue up for boarding. But hey, to each his or her own. At least you know you never have to compete with me for a seat.

[crazycatlady]

45. I've only flown 2 airlines in the last few years

Southwest and United (my departure airport of choice is Newark, one of their hubs) and I'd take Southwest over United. Southwest does not have a history of putting dogs in overhead bins or dragging people off flights.

I get the credit card perk thing, but I actually don't use credit cards. All my recent flights (in fact anything after age 23) were business travel paid for by the company.

[Neema]

49. I actually agree with you, I'd probably choose SW over United if those were

my only two choices. LOL.

[USALiberal]

11. Southwest has had ONE fatality in its history. nt

[Neema]

29. I'm not bagging on their fatalities, just on the

clearly overlooked issues that come from outsourcing maintenance and overlooking the need for things like deicing fluid in February in Chicago. People don't have to die for stuff like that to be a problem.

[Sophia4]

17. I love Southwest. I can get the seat I want when I get on the plane and,

their baggage policy is great!

[Neema]

27. Good on ya. I know a lot of people do. I do not. I get free bags with my

credit card, priority check-in and boarding, and don't have to queue for a seat. I won't do it for brunch and I sure as hell won't do it when I'm about it get on a 5 hour flight.

[Sophia4]

40. If I were still working and wanted and could spend my extra cash on priority

check-in, etc., I might go that route.

But Southwest is my choice because my income is almost entirely Social Security. Enjoy your flights.

[Adrahil]

36. I fly a lot. Southwest wins for me.

The only downside is no chance for a business upgrade cross-country.

[flygal]

7. This started happening when I quit flying (flight attendant 15 years ago)

And we all knew it would be problematic. Not to mention loss of many good paying jobs with great benefits. southwest stated the trend and others wanted to be just like them.

[USALiberal]

14. There has been ONE fatality in the last 9 years. So safety not an issue IMO. nt

[GulfCoast66]

23. Right there with you with the job concern,

But flying has never been safer.

[Initech]

8. Given how much conservatives hate regulation, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

[USALiberal]

12. Wow, where do I begin......

There had NEVER been a southwest fatality until last week. 50 years and one fatality. They don't seem to be careless.

[Auggie]

16. I believe you'd find few companies are doing business the same way they did 10 years ago

It's a possibility. The odds may have caught up Southwest.

[USALiberal]

18. The whole US Airline Industry had the safest 10 years in history. No deaths in 9 years. nt

[Auggie]

37. Maybe they've been ... lucky?

We know one faulty fan blade was certainly overlooked.

[LanternWaste]

53. I don't think carelessness always results in death.

I don't think carelessness always results in death. Often, carelessness remains unseen and unmeasured.

[Hekate]

13. Why am I not surprised. nt

[LittleGirl]

15. Look what outsoursing IT business practices have done

with our elections. This problem is worldwide and several international companies are following the "American Way of doing Business" around the world.

[Thunderbeast]

19. More needs to be known.

Outsourcing means many things.

I heard a Southwest operations executive say in an interview that major engine overhauls are outsouced.......to the manufacturer (CFM/GE).

I don't know the specifics of the union's claim, but before we immediately assume that critical tasks and inspections are performed by unqualified technicians, we should probably know more.

[GulfCoast66]

24. But thats no fun

[Adrahil]

38. Don't confuse people with facts. NT

[Sherman A1]

50. I agree that more needs to be known

Which is what prompted my posting of the story. The Union claims my have merit and I believe that they should be added to the entirety of the investigation on this tragic event. If there’s nothing to their statement, then the process should be able to sort that out as well.

[IronLionZion]

57. No, no, no, we need to promote generic distrust of foreigners

without knowing anything about who or what is involved in this case.

[Mr.Bill]

26. My dad was an aircraft mechanic who retired from United in 1984.

Even then, airlines outsourced much of their maintenance work, usually to each other. It would not be economically feasible for every single airline to operate a maintenance facility capable of servicing every part on multiple types of airliners. Indeed, some airlines have no maintenance facilities at all. For instance, United back when my dad worked there did all the maintenance work for Qantas Airlines.

I worked briefly at the San Francisco United Airlines maintenance base in the early 70s. If you walked through the place, you would see parts from many different airlines. At the time United operated the largest jet engine overhaul facility in the western hemisphere at SFO. Only one in the Soviet Union was larger. They did engine overhaul work for many airlines at United

I'm not trying to argue for or against what the Southwest Airlines mechanics union is saying, I'm only pointing out that sending out maintenance work is common and always has been in this industry. They also send out work to smaller contractors. There has always been a bone of contention with mechanics unions about sending out work to non-union contractors, and limits on this is something that is often negotiated in union contracts.
The same thing is true in auto manufacturing.

[bettyellen]

33. My cousin worked there until maybe ten years ago- they were under attack for loaning and borrowing

parts and other ways they employed to get the work done quicker and better. Little by little, most of it went overseas, even when they advised the repairs done right away, they’d wait till they could do it cheaper in Asia.

[Mr.Bill]

35. I can't say what goes on now,

I was just trying to outline for those with no first or second hand information of the fact that outsourcing maintenance is nothing new for airlines. Your post is also useful information, and more current than mine.

It's a very complex thing. I once had a college professor that worked for United at SFO. He was in charge of all powerplant manuals, which back in those days were actual paper manuals. He said the manual for a GE jet engine on the DC10 was over nine feet thick. It had to be updated, meaning physical changes in the book on a daily basis. And that's just one manual on one engine.

These new pages were known as ECs, or Engineering Changes. I worked in the company print shop and I printed ECs all day long every day. A crew would go out into the plant to distribute them to the proper place. They pushed carts full of paper around all day. And every thing had to be signed off.

Of course, I'm sure this is all electronic these days, but the amount of data is still staggering.

[liberal N proud]

32. Some f#%&ing executive thought everyone else is outsourcing

And sold it to the rest of the corporate clowns.

Watched engineering get outsourced at the company I worked for 33 years until they came for me too.

[mn9driver]

39. Ive dropped off and picked up airliners from foreign maintenance bases.

My major US airline maintains an office in all these places with their own maintenance supervisors right in the hangar. These places are big, modern, and they specialize in the particular checks and mods that they perform. I’ve done quite a few acceptance flights. I’ve always been impressed with the quality of the work.

This SWA aircraft was inspected by SWA mechanics just a day before the failure. It was also inspected by either the captain or first officer just before the flight itself. Trust me, we always take a good, long look at the fan blades.

This particular failure was almost certainly not detectable visually. It would have been detected by disassembling the fan stage and using magnetic or ultrasound scanning of each individual blade, one at a time.

This is expensive. To do just the fan stage on just one engine requires a couple days. Lots of equipment, lots of man hours, lots of money and the airplane isn’t making any money while that happens. This is the inspection that CFM recommended, that SWA opposed, and that the FAA failed to mandate.

I’m a Union member. I support my Union and other Unions. But this has nothing to do with that. This is about money. Nothing else.

[TeamPooka]

44. boo hoo it's expensive. how much was that woman's life worth? Or the next to die?

[Hoyt]

48. Thanks for your honesty. Americans are always looking to blame foreigners. Gets disgusting at times.

[PatrickforO]

41. Hey conservatives, THIRD PARTY VENDORS DON'T DO THE JOB BETTER,

and in fact usually end up costing more than if you just kept the jobs in house.

Privatizing government jobs usually ends up costing the taxpayers MORE money too.

[TeamPooka]

43. Union!

[democratisphere]

51. This is one of the reasons I no longer fly anywhere. Half assed maintenance

typical of large corporations today. They fix problems AFTER it is broken instead of maintaining a complete and thorough in-house preventative maintenance program. It is always about the investors and never about the customers and safety.

[hueymahl]

55. Reality tends to disprove your statement

About airlines fixing the problem after it is broken. The statistics and evidence are pretty clear, should you care to do even a simple google search.

[democratisphere]

58. Google is not my reality. Experience in the sh'tty corporate world with many corporations

says it all to me.

[Civic Justice]

52. Outsourcing - when will American's learn enough is enough!!!

Its taken down everything in this country.... and people still don't get it. "Outsourcing" makes companies into "shell" with a empty center.

The brand identity of industry is something people give pride filled work into.... when they are a direct employee.


That should not be a hard lesson for the people of this nation to learn.

We The People .... is to blame... We sit back un-grouped and silent as individuals, as Outsourcing continues to ruin lives and destroy industry... so the greed of executive and degree riders can fleece the industry, while destroying the workforce.

We The People .. and our silence and lack of concern to be unionized, helps destroy one industry after another, and in doing so, destroy the future opportunities for your own offspring's. Buying into "Executive Bullshit"... and every time, they pay themselves more, give themselves stock and perks, and pay the degree riders to push paper... and claim 100's of million to $Billions of profit. while the people are fed the same lie, that they must cut cost.

When people boycott the industry that DOES NOT PAY PEOPLE A LIVING WAGE, and keep in-house employees, then and ONLY THEN... will BIG Business and Industry began to respect the American people.

As long as people continue to live like a "go along, be silent SERF's" BIG Business will treat us like such, and it will treat its customers like 'voiceless peasants".... all for the sake of Greed Level Profits.

[IronLionZion]

54. We've even outsourced our presidency to the Russians

[bobbieinok]

59. Stock responce by GOP/conservatives - 'We really need to DESTROY UNIONS!'

[BobTheSubgenius]

60. Outsourced to the lowest price, I bet.

Also, that last sentence in the OP is almost poetic. Not what I'd expect to read in a letter like this one.

[zentrum]

62. Paying off the poor...

…victim's family will be just CODB (cost of doing business) to SWA. They have no ethics. Anything to avoid paying real wages to union (not outsourced) workers.