Originally Posted by roye
I got a job as an instructor at a poly-technical institute teaching aircraft mechanics. It's been good; although I miss wrenching. Lately I've been trying to find P\T work as a mech
...............Interesting question. As much as the thought has wanted to force its way in to the forefront of my mind, I've sort of subconsciously suppressed it back.
There has always been unsettling times at my MRO, but just in the last 3 months, a union was introduced to represent the approximately 400 engineers, interior techs, sheet-metal techs, and avionics techs, and things got pretty scary. The proposals put forth by the company were rejected twice, and some of our more established customers were understandably wanting to pull out and go find other vendors for their maintenance requirements.
But finally, everyone agreed on the 3rd proposal this past week, and it looks like no one will be laid off after all, nor will the customers be pulling out. At least for now. The bargaining committee convenes in under two years to re-negotiate.
As for me, I have 5 years in this company and a total of close to 14 years in the industry under my belt. I am endorsed on the B737, and carry both the American FAA license and the Transport Canada AME M2 license. I wasn't thrilled with the wage concessions the company made, but decided to accept it, due to the bigger concessions they made in regards to the mandatory weekend overtime roster they had going for a while. That is now gone, in lieu of the company asking for volunteers for overtime, and failing which, they start asking for OT from the top and work their way down.
I've been wondering about how it is all going to end. I mean eventually, and what will I be doing then? I wonder if I should try to take up another trade in my spare time, and develop something else as a backup?
Brian.