Outsourcing in the aviation industry is similar to outsourcing in all industries and is a direct contributer to the crash of our economy.
That aviation outsourcing occurs purely for the financial gain of corporate executives is similar to the shameful raiding of American industries, stealing of pensions, selling off of assets and outsourcing of American jobs.
What is different is the direct and extremely dangerous game of chance these executives are playing with the lives of so many.
Since so-called deregulation, all incentive for innovation and quality of product has been removed from the airline industry. Instead it's replacement is a dog-eat-dog world, where quick financial reward from drastic sell offs of jobs and assets that took years and decades to build up is the only game in town. So instead of winning customers with improved service, safer service, innovations in comfort and customer experience, we get a whirlpool of airline executives who spin the falsehood of benefit from cost reduction, when we can all see the deep hole in the middle of the whirlpool and have watched as fellow employees, customers, whole companies are sucked to the bottom. But it is the structure of corporate America and its incestous sitting on each other's boards of directors, that have created a criminal and immoral climate of take and take for taking's sake.
Those who's jobs are the safety and care for millions of American's and their transportation needs, pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, ramp and fuel, have and will continue to, argue and lobby for, an obviously far safer system. A system where safety is the first consideration and milion dollar bonuses are the very last. But the truth is that the whole nature of corporations and their role or impact on American life needs to be examined.
At the beggining of this country, corporations could only operate by state charter and if found to operate unethically, would lose that charter. Gradually over the years, money has eroded that privelage to a point today where corporations have more rights than individuals, serve as cash cows and covers of darkness for the super rich.
Is that the enviroment in which Americans wish to place their loved ones aboard a hurtling piece of metal in the sky? I doubt it.
Do most of us see value in the simple idiom: if you want it done right, do it yourself?
How many flying passengers are fully aware their transcontinental rocket was just rebuilt, maybe, in China, at a repair facility where only 5 of the 2500 'technicians' were in fact licensed?
Would most Americans have no problem with stepping aboard major airline A, only to discover the piloting, the skill and experience upon which their lives depend, will in fact today be conducted by subcontracted pilots from some foreign airline Z nobody has ever heard of?
The obvious answer is that most Americans would like a safe, comfortable, even enjoyable travel experience at a decent price and most would not be willing to make the risky decisions to erode safety for the sole benefit of executive compensation, particularly if so informed. And it is that informed part that gets trampled on by PR from self serving airline executives and by a comotose corporate media that are more reprint vessels for corporate spin than instruments of thought and investigation. Unfortunatly, it seems the voices of corporate greed easily shout down the concerned voices of those who would know, until it's too late.
For the sake of the safety of the flying public, common sense, not greed, should be the ONLY consideration in aviation rule making:
1. ALL maintainance to be conducted by the airline itself, with rigirous oversight. If the airline can't run it's own maintainance division, it can't have an operating permit. Period.
2. No subcontracting of safety critical operations allowed. Fueling the aircraft, flying the aircraft, servicing, dispatching, loading, cleaning, even feeding are far too critical to the lives of our passengers to be left to another company, one brought in obstensiously due to a bargain basement cost but truthfully only to engineer a quick rape of assets and an even quicker hop into another chicken coop.
3. Repeal the Railway Labor Act of 1926 which not only relegates Americans working in the transportation industry to second class status, but when compared to European airline/labor history, leaves one questioning why we continue this antiquated form of slavery. Generally in Europe when negotiations stall on a Tuesday, the union goes on strike on Wednsday and by Thursday a new contract is in place and everyone is back to work. In America the average negotiation period is 2 years, is accrimonious and bitter for the employees and can be directly felt by the flying public. Ironically, it is the European carriers that consitantly run more profitable quarters than the Americans. Peace.