As somebody who spent many years working in line maintenance in Syd, I am perplexed by the desire of some tech crew to see L.A.M.E.'s removed from the tarmac (the major carriers have been trying it for years). It may well pass, unfortunately, that a lot of experience and knowlege will be flushed off the tarmac in the near future, mainly in the drive to trim costs. Only after the engineers are gone and there is an incident or an accident after something was missed on a turnaround, will it dawn on those of you who are so keen to see the engineers go. That is, when something does go wrong, the first response of major airlines in this country has generally been not," what happened and how can we prevent it from happening again "but, "what happened and who can we screw". With the engineers gone, that will place the tech crew very much in the managements firing line (even more than you currently are). Don't believe me? Wait till something happens (and I certainly hope nothing does but, the law of averages will probably catch up with you at some point.)
To all the engineers that may be affected. Fear not, there will always be plenty of overnight work and if that's not your cup of tea, then Heavy Maintenance isn't so bad (that's where I've found work after sep 2001). Or you could be one of the lucky few "Super LAME's" left on the tarmac to apply M.E.L.'s, carry out fuel drains and basically keep your operation going with a box of bandaids and one arm tied behind your back. By all means keep up the good fight but, in the short term things don't look too good. Long term though I wouldn't be surprised to see a quiet return to the tarmac for the LAME. I hope so, for the safety of the travelling public in this country.
Cheers,
CC.