WFAA: Aircraft repair jobs sold to foreign workers

Date: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 2:13 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2035 -- 7/06/2009 >>>>>

A couple of weeks ago (#2029) a Texas television station (WFAA) did a report
about an aircraft maintenance company that uses TN (Trade NAFTA) visas in
order to import and employ Mexican mechanics. WFAA did a follow up story that
is even more alarming.

The practice of using guest worker visas to import cheap foreign mechanics is
far broader than described in the first article, and the countries they come
from include many others such as Chile and the Philippines.
Unfortunately the types of visas that the companies used wasn't stated in the
article. From what I have seen in similar cases the visas could be the
following types: H-1B, H-2B, L-1, B-1. Even the TN visa if the foreign workers
were brought in through Mexico or Canada.

Be sure to watch the video on the WFAA web site because it's a stunning report
with a lot of information that's not included in the written article.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090630_mo_harris.23327cea.html

Aircraft repair jobs sold to foreign workers, resumes not important

02:12 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 1, 2009

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

Video
July 1st, 2009
Byron Harris reports.

A News 8 investigation found that hundreds of aircraft mechanics have been
brought into the United States to work at aircraft repair facilities.

Insiders say the companies that are importing the mechanics are so eager to
save money, they re overstating their qualifications. The result may be a
threat to safety, abetted by lax enforcement of immigration law.

At daybreak any morning at San Antonio Aerospace, hundreds of workers amble
through the gates for the day shift. They repair big jets like Airbuses,
Boeing 757s and MD-11s. But, despite the fact that it's a huge facility in the
middle of the San Antonio International Airport, a large number of the
mechanics are only temporary workers from foreign countries.

News 8 found they re from Mexico, the Philippines and Chile, among other
places. They have been brought specifically to the United States to work for
San Antonio Aerospace (SAA). News 8 followed a special bus San Antonio
Aerospace, used to pick up foreign workers every morning. Workers riding on
the bus were from the Philippines. The workers, who wouldn t say how much
money they make, are part of a stream of imported mechanics brought to this
country at cut-rate wages, according to several sources familiar with the
business.

Jada Williams used to work for one of the contracting companies, Aircraft
Workers Worldwide (AWW), based in Daphne, Alabama. AWW supplied workers for
two facilities, Mobile Aerospace Engineering (MAE) in Mobile, Alabama and San
Antonio Aerospace, which are both controlled by ST Aerospace. San Antonio
Aerospace is a division of ST Aerospace, the largest aircraft repair company
in world.

"They ve employed over 200 since I left," said Williams, who said she was
unfairly fired by the contractor last fall. "And I know we had over a hundred
when I was in there, just in Mobile."

She said in San Antonio, AWW supplied 600 workers. The workers stay in the
United States and come from various countries because of the different kinds
of visas available in those places.

San Antonio Aerospace uses several contracting companies to supply it with
workers. It can be a high-profit business for the contractors. They can make
$3 to $12 an hour for every worker hired by SAA, contractors say.

The drive for profits is so big, Williams and other insiders said, that the
contractors often falsify the qualifications of the imports.

"We had two," she said. "One of them was a female. She was about 16. It was a
brother and a sister. One guy was a grocery bagger, one was a security guard
in Puerto Rico. Their ages were between 18 and 22."

Their ages are important because it takes years of experience or schooling to
learn how to repair a big jet, experience they couldn t have had.

"There had been padded resumes at SAA before," said an administrator at
another contractor. "That s why another contract house was kicked out (of
SAA)."

One former SAA mechanic, who spent years learning his trade before being laid
off, said foreign workers got their training on the job from the Americans
they worked with.

"The more experienced mechanics, we would get paired up with either one or two
of these guys," he says. "And they would watch us for a month or so.
And that s how they would get their training."

Williams is suing her former boss, Daniel Harding, for unlawful termination
and racial discrimination. She has a computer full of company documents that
were acquired accidentally when AWW got new computers for its office and gave
her an old one. Spreadsheets, resumes and payrolls revealed many company
practices, from interviews, to trips to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City for
visas, charts marked the progress of Mexican workers to the United States.
Documents also showed workers were charged $3,500 each by AWW to get into the
United States.

Williams also has an e-mail trail from AWW president Harding to Moh Loong Loh,
the President of San Antonio Aerospace. He described one candidate as having "
25 percent English skills."

Workers need English to communicate with their supervisors and to read repair
manuals, so this is a key safety issue. American SAA workers said many imports
cannot speak English at all.

In another e-mail, Harding described a group of imported workers from Mexico,
just like a commodity.

"I hope to be able to bring increments no larger than ten at a time," he wrote
to Loh.

While this was happening, SAA former wokers said they got laid off.
WFAA-TV
The companies involved may face serious questions, said a former judge.

"I feel like we are being betrayed in our own country," said one who was
terminated. "And I feel it is not right."

"These big layoffs of 20 to 30 people would go out," said the contract
administrator. "The very next Monday, 30 or 40 [imports] would be coming in."

Williams said in Mobile the numbers were even bigger. She said she picked up a
group of 60 people from Puerto Rico at Mobile Regional Airport last February.
Since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, its residents are U.S citizens. For the
contractors, this is a bonus because they can pay the Puerto Ricans low wages
without having to deal with foreign immigration requirements.

When the FAA came to inspect San Antonio Aerospace, the company got a one-hour
warning, said a former employee.

"And a lot of guys who were not able to read English, they would hide those
guys or send them home for the evening," the former employee said.

News 8 submitted written questions to both SAA in San Antonio and MAE in
Mobile. The questions asked how many foreign workers they employ and what they
are paid. The response from each said "we are an equal opportunity employer."
Another question was whether AWW is owned by ST Aerospace. The terse answer
was no, "AWW is an independent contractor."

AWW did not respond to questions. An attorney retained by the company and
Daniel Hardin said "Mr. Hardin is a responsible businessman who has greatly
benefitted his community and his country."

In Dallas, former judge David Finn, now in private practice, told News 8 that
all the companies involved may face serious questions.

"Federal prosecutors would probably look at making false statements, material
false statements," he said. "That s a federal offense, a felony ... Mail
fraud, wire fraud, there are any number of statues on the books that would
apply to a situation like that."

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com

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