Lester Burham, you sir need to go read some history. ANYBODY who worked for QF,TN,AN, would acknowledge that from the 60s or so QF had, without a doubt, the best engineering unit in the world. The was a scramble from high school students so inclined, to get a guensey there, a future for them in any airline in the world awaited. They spat out top quality apprentices year after year, they trained many apprentices from OS including Bangladesh, Singapore, India, QF engineering was on top of its game, bigtime. Then came Strong, a little bit of cost cutting here, and little bit of cost cutting there, the engineers started to get nervous, they were signing out aircraft, that they would not have previously done so, they did not like it. Then BIG DADDY arrived. Dixon. The best and only way to descibe it was a bull in the china shop. Its all about the shareholders he screamed, and the Engineers stood by helplessly as they watched their traditions and values, their work ethics slowly disappear down the gurgler. Now this sounds all very dramatic, but ask any engineer over 40 yrs about his apprenticeship, about his work ethics and he will tell you its all gone to sh%t. I am not a union man, but if any union had a reason to complain then the engineers union come out on top. You expect these blokes to sign out aircraft that they would not have done 10 years ago, its on their shoulders, if a aircraft malfunctions, and gives the tech crew a almighty headache, and believe me, there is nothing like a headhunt done in a airline, in comparison to any other industry. So before you condemm, put yourself in their shoes, they deserve better, and hopefully this might be a turning point, in getting engineering back up to scratch, acknowledging the work, all the work, is better done in this country. It worked before.