Print Edition

Print Edition: April 19, 2008

GOING, GOING…OUTSOURCED

How’s that outsourcing working for you? In the March 31, 2007 Neff Zone column, I essentially asked that question. I also said: "I would argue that every job outsourced from our shores diminishes our capacity (bit by bit and miniscule piece by miniscule piece) to stand on our own two feet and hence defend ourselves. So I ask, when does outsourcing become treason?"

This topic rattled my brain once more as I watched the safety inspection mess that beset the airline industry during the past two weeks. In all the reports I saw and read, not once did the dirty little secret of maintenance outsourcing come to the forefront. About half of the maintenance done on America’s airline fleet is now performed in offshore shops. It’s only logical that this situation should be part of the discussion when it comes to safety.

Business Week magazine said as much in an article entitled, "Behind the chaos in the skies." In the article, Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition said: "Moves by airlines to outsource and offshore repair and maintenance work, coupled with insufficient oversight of the industry by the FAA, are endangering passengers. Outsourced operations do not receive the same level of scrutiny from the FAA."

Another Business Week article, "The Offshoring of Airplane Care," backs Mitchell’s assertion. The article notes: "Airlines are entrusting vital work, critics say, to companies abroad that the FAA doesn't have the resources to monitor effectively. Even those overseas facilities that the agency visits don't have to conduct the criminal-background checks and random drug and alcohol tests on aircraft mechanics that are required at domestic facilities. And it's difficult for the FAA to stage surprise inspections, as it does in the U.S. Overseas outsourcing has gotten truly out of control." Maintenance is now being outsourced to such places as Dubai, China, Korea, and Singapore. El Salvador is another hot spot, where "mechanics" make $4,500 per year.

Aircraft Maintenance Technology magazine further observes that since more work is being offshored, fewer Americans are entering aircraft maintenance schools, leaving us with a shortage of qualified technicians. Wonder why the recent inspections took so long? Simple, we no longer have the workforce trained to deal with the problem.

The average airline maintenance worker makes around $52,000 per year, good pay but hardly a princely sum. Sure, the airlines will save money by replacing that domestic worker with a $4,500 El Salvadorean. But in the long run will that savings make up for the millions (or eventual billions) lost in events like the maintenance inspection mess (over the last two weeks)?

Plus, by putting our airline fleet in the hands of questionably qualified mechanics who are not subject to any appreciable security standards or work rules, doesn’t this make us less safe and secure as a country? Again I ask, how’s that outsourcing working for you now?

As if the outsourcing of our airline maintenance isn’t enough of a worry, how about the scandal relating to the drug heparin? Reports out of Changzhou, China link heparin, a commonly used blood thinner, to 62 deaths and 800 allergic reactions in the U.S. and Germany.

The Washington Post reported: "A modified form of a cheap and widely used dietary supplement sold to relieve joint pain was identified as the contaminant found in tainted and at times lethal heparin produced in China for American patients."

FDA officials said they were investigating whether the compound, chemically modified chondroitin sulfate, was intentionally added to cut costs and boost profits or was mixed in by mistake. In either case, they said, it was not part of the prescribed manufacturing process.

"I have no doubt that there are other contaminated or counterfeit drugs like heparin coming into the country, because there's really no system in place to stop them," said William Hubbard, a top official at the FDA until 2005.

About 40 per cent of pharmaceuticals and 80 per cent of the chemical ingredients in drugs are imported, according to U.S. government statistics. A growing share comes from developing countries such as China, India and Mexico. A Canadian Press article observes: "For exports, China doesn't regulate anything at all. There is no export licensing system in place."

"This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of problems with sensitive drugs," says Dr. Bryan Liang, an adviser to the Partnership for Safe Medicines, an American group working to promote drug safety. "The problem is only going to get worse as more materials come from suspect sources."

So again I ask, how is that outsourcing working for you? We don’t fix our own planes. We don’t make our own medicines. We’re losing those skills. In time of war or national emergency, wouldn’t you think skills such as these would be critical to our nation’s well being?

Remember the old communist credo: "External encirclement plus internal demoralization equals progressive surrender." Then ask yourself, when does outsourcing become treason.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.