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January 22, 2008 The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Business Travel Coalition, a travel buyer advocacy group, will launch a national discussion about how U.S. airlines are outsourcing more and more of their vital repair work to overseas third-party facilities, off-shoring U.S. jobs and putting the flying public at risk. The groups will be co-sponsoring the Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Summit from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., February 11 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. All stakeholders in the outsourcing debate are invited: passengers, corporate travel buyers, airlines, maintenance technicians, FAA inspectors and administrators, aircraft maintenance firms and members of Congress and their staffs. Summit proceedings will be broadcast live over the Internet. Registration is free but seating is limited. Foreign repair facilities in China, South Korea, Singapore, El Salvador, Mexico and the Philippines do not follow the same safety and security rules U.S. facilities must follow. They aren’t required to hire FAA-certificated mechanics, perform criminal background checks, or have their mechanics pass alcohol and drug testing. Outsourcing airplane repairs to unskilled, non-FAA-certificated mechanics not only destroys good-paying jobs in America, it also endangers passengers. Outsourcing has also been tied to flight delays and cancellations. The Summit will examine the risks of outsourcing and explore potential solutions. It will feature expert panels and keynote addresses from Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, industry and government leaders.
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