American Airlines is sending four 757s aircraft to Timco Aviation in North Carolina as a short-term measure.
In a statement, the airline said: “In the case of the Boeing 757 fleet, a short-term solution was required to address heavy maintenance checks that were needed for some of the aircraft. The company planned for this work, but it has taken longer than expected to complete some of the maintenance checks. There is only a set amount of space, machinery and employees to complete this maintenance work in-house. If the work is not done in time, the aircraft would have to be grounded, forcing the airline to cancel flights and adversely affecting our customers and employees.”
Four of 124 aircraft in American's 757 fleet means “our Transport Workers Union TWU union employees will still handle nearly 97% of our 757 maintenance,” the airline added.
However, the TWU doesn’t seem convinced.
"AA management purposefully made the decision to put off repairs because they didn't want to hire any more people and they didn't have enough to get it done. The repairs weren't critical at the time, but it was corrosion and progressed. By contract, it's TWU's work."
TWU International Organizer Rick Mullings said they will file a grievance. "It's 4 to 5 airplanes right now, but there will probably be more in the future. AA gets $70-80 million from Tulsa promising to grow, then didn't. TWU pitched to management their idea for the repair plan, but it was refused, so now it has to be contracted out. Mechanics are trained in business, so they're educated on how to do this.
"It's a bad management decision," Mullings said.