Much has been written and practiced when it comes to outsourcing. Simply put, it’s corporate greed. They call it “core competency” - anything that is not your core business should be contracted out to reduce costs and increase profits.
Unfortunately, it’s being practiced all over the world, especially in countries where the workers have attained decent wages, pensions and benefit packages.
No specific industry sector is immune from it, although there are heavy losses reported in the manufacturing sector. You just have to read Stats Canada reports and look beyond the first paragraph to see that manufacturing employment is down substantially since NAFTA was signed in 1988.
In the Air Transport sector, the trend is to outsource labour intensive work to countries such as China. One example of this type of work is the heavy maintenance of airframes for aircraft. Another example is the manufacturing of aircraft and parts associated with it.
In researching what companies are up to throughout the world, it is quite evident that this trend will continue and may even spread to other sectors. Just recently ACTS purchased 80% of Aeroman Taca, in El Salvador. The expectation is that Aeroman will quadruple in employee size within a couple of years. You have to wonder, where is all this work going to come from….Air Canada?
Governments have taken absolutely no action so far. They resort to the usual statement of “let business take care of this.” But can we trust corporate greed?
In trying to understand what is happening, it appears that companies are saying that labour costs are too high in North America. Company officials say that they need to remain competitive with companies in countries where the laws are very lax, where the environment can be abused due to poor legislation or enforcement, and where workers can be taken advantage of by paying extremely low wages and denying them their basic rights.
While these corporations end up making bigger profits, two concerns come to mind.
First, where is our government and why are they allowing these companies to outsource our maintenance work? This reduces the taxes that pay for our infrastructure, such as our health care. This is the price we will all pay when one corporation decides to become too greedy.
Secondly, is this what we all expect and want from a corporation? Why would their desire to take advantage of the Canadian system and our tax dollars in the name of higher profits, be allowed to occur. There are no penalties for bad corporate citizens.
Is that what we wanted when we last voted for our Federal and provincial government representatives?
Why are we allowing this to happen without a battle? After all it’s our jobs, and our country. Or is it a case of the “I’m ok today, it’s only you that’s being affected” syndrome?
What is in store for the future? I don’t profess to have a crystal ball. But if the articles written and the discussions taking place at various conferences and seminars is any indication, we haven’t seen the end of this yet.
They are talking of how to improve on Six Sigma, LEAN, outsourcing, and are discussing other methods where they can become more competitive……..excuse me!, I almost got brain washed again…..more greedy, more profitable. It sounds very negative and cynical, but it’s the truth.
Here is our next battleground……….outsourcing of Line Maintenance!!!
So its time to remove the “Cancer”, but how do we do it?
What are maintenance workers willing to do to ensure we win this battle?
Let’s start off by being a pain in the ass to politicians and employers who don’t see it our way.
Let’s act! After all it’s your livelihood! Speak up and be counted!
Carlos DaCosta
Airline Coordinator
IAMAW, Canada
