3rd World Aircraft Maintenance

[flythere]

http://www.kirotv.com/news/27915082/detail.html

Have you flown one of these planes?? Why can't they just hire the cheap labor under the table and save the cost of ferrying the plane all the way to El Salvador?

$2.00 an hour wages for mechanics! One would think the unions would be up in arms about more good paying jobs going south of the border!

It's all about the cheap ticket!!

 

[maru657]

The unions are up in arms, but you know, I got mine.

 

[LR25]

When I was a DC-8 mechanic, we used Copesa in Lima for heavy checks, which were bad, but then again its a DC-8, not a Boeing, so everything worked out in the end.

 

[Mr Wu]

$2/hr to beat rivets in El Salvador versus $19/hr to fly a 1900 in BOS. Is there really a difference?

 

[Scope out RJ's]

I believe southwest gets all their convertibles serviced down south somewhere.....

 

[metrodriver]

No, SWA uses a company at Paine field (Everett, WA) for some heavy work. So not all their work goes down south.

I guess reducing the price tag of a C-check from several million dollars per plane to a fourth of that adds significantly to the bottom line. Say 10 planes X 3 mil saving = 30 million in pure profit. On a fleet the size of SWA we might be talking about a whole lot more C and D checks a year. Would 50 be a reasonable number? And a saving between 100 and 150 million a year?

 

[SWA tech]

Scabs

 

[erj-145mech]

Scabs

They're not "scabs". Do you know what the definition is of the term "SCABS"? Just because you don't agree with it, don't label the other techicians a term that you don't understand.

You had better check your CBA, because if it only limits what the union can do, not what the company can or cannot do. In other words, if doesn't state that they can't do it, they can, and will.