April 18, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) –Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today said the Transportation Department’s planned review of aviation safety doesn’t go far enough.

His comments followed Transportation Secretary Mary Peters’ announcement that a “National Safety Inspection Review” team will be sent to air carriers to review safety.

“There are also serious safety issues with outsourced repair stations, especially overseas, where foreign repair stations don’t have to meet the same standards as U.S. facilities do,” Hoffa said.

“The real problem is that there aren’t enough FAA inspectors to keep tabs on the burgeoning number of outsourced maintenance facilities,” Hoffa said. “Looking just at the air carriers won’t solve the problem.”

“We also need to raise the safety standards in places like South Korea, Beijing and El Salvador,” he said. “Then we need to enforce those standards.”

Hoffa pointed out that, unlike domestic mechanics, overseas airline mechanics don’t have to be certificated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

From 1997-2006, U.S. airlines’ spending on outsourced maintenance grew to 64 percent from 37 percent. The number of foreign FAA-certificated repair facilities more than doubled from 344 to 698 over 10 years.

Hoffa said the review team also lacks a certificated mechanic with experience in maintenance issues.

“This review team is nothing more than window dressing if it doesn’t have an airline mechanic on it,” Hoffa said.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.