{"id":21583,"date":"2022-04-04T14:19:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=21583"},"modified":"2022-04-04T14:19:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:19:37","slug":"twu-endorses-safe-aircraft-maintenance-standards-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/twu-endorses-safe-aircraft-maintenance-standards-act\/%20","title":{"rendered":"TWU Endorses Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) strongly\nendorsed new legislation to that establishes a new level of safety and security\nfor aircraft maintenance. Led by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman\nPeter DeFazio (D-OR) and Representative John Katko (R-NY), the bipartisan Safe\nAircraft Maintenance Standards Act (S. 3944, H.R. 7267) raises safety standards\nfor U.S.-flagged aircraft maintained abroad to bring them in line with\ndomestically maintained aircraft. This will not only better ensure the safety\nand security of frontline aviation workers and the flying public, but also\ndeter offshoring of aircraft maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe TWU is proud to support the Safe Aircraft Maintenance\nStandards Act. Chairman DeFazio, Rep. Katko and Rep. Larsen have steadfastly\nsupported TWU efforts to expose and roll back the offshoring of aircraft\nmaintenance. It\u2019s the airline industry\u2019s dirty little secret, putting profits\nbefore passengers by having maintenance work performed on potentially dangerous\nforeign soil,\u201d said TWU International President John Samuelsen. \u201cThe\nlegislation will protect American workers and American air travelers from a\nrace to bottom on safety and labor standards in the airline industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today there are more than 950 aircraft maintenance and\nrepair stations that have been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration\n(FAA) outside of the United States. The number of these facilities has grown by\nnearly 40 percent in the past six years. These foreign repair stations are\nlocated all around the globe including China and Russia, as well as several\ncountries that the FAA has classified as not complying with international\naviation standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legislation would address five regulatory gaps that\nallow a lower safety standard for aircraft maintenance and incentivize airlines\nto offshore this work:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Drug and alcohol testing for safety sensitive\npersonnel<\/li><li>Background checks for workers at maintenance\nfacilities<\/li><li>Security threat assessments for these facilities<\/li><li>Unannounced inspections for maintenance\noperations<\/li><li>Minimum qualifications for aircraft mechanics<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While Congress has directed the FAA twice before to address\nseveral of these gaps, the Administration has failed to take even cursory\naction on these mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This un-level playing field for safety regulations is also\ncosting American jobs. More than 8,200 aircraft maintenance jobs left the\ncountry in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe job loss is caused by regulatory loopholes that let airlines\ncut costs by diminishing safety. We often hear that airlines \u2018do not compete on\nsafety.\u2019 Congress and the Administration have to live up to this ideal by\nimmediately closing all the loopholes that encourage moving maintenance work\noutside of the country,\u201d Samuelsen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy allowing these safety gaps to persist, the FAA is\nincentivizing offshoring U.S. jobs onto safety standards well-below the minimum\nat home. This practice should be unacceptable of any safety regulatory agency.\nWe hope Congress will pass this legislation immediately to make it clear to the\nFAA that the American people expect them to maintain the safety of our airspace\nregardless of where aircraft are repaired,\u201d Samuelsen concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) strongly endorsed new legislation to that establishes a new level of safety and security for aircraft maintenance. Led by Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Representative John Katko (R-NY), the bipartisan Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act (S. 3944, H.R. 7267) raises safety standards for U.S.-flagged aircraft [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21584,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583\/revisions\/21584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}