United Airlines outsourcing leads to questions over aircraft safety

United Airlines plans to outsource engineering work from its SFO maintenance hub to other parts of the world, but United employees and U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, question the impact the move will have on the quality of repair work and aircraft safety.
The company said it would lay off 50 employees, mostly engineers, later this year at its San Francisco International Airport maintenance base located next to the San Bruno Avenue exit off Highway 101.
The airline said the majority of the engineering work would move to a private consulting firm in Atlanta while some information technology jobs would be transferred to India. Workers at the base said they were told most of the work would take place in India, with some oversight in Atlanta.
The engineers, technologists and specialists losing their jobs are part of a team that works with about 3,000 mechanics at the base to ensure that proper designs are applied when building and repairing aircraft there.
The engineers, mechanics and Speier said duties being done by non-airline workers off site could result in mistakes from miscommunication or inferior quality work. With an aircraft carrying hundreds of people at a time, an error could prove disastrous.
United downplayed the significance of the move and said it is confident that the changes would not result in any safety problems.
19/02/10 Mike Rosenberg/San Mateo County Times/Mercury News.com

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Feb 2010