US Airways has won a battle with its mechanics union over subcontracting Airbus heavy maintenance to an outside company.
The US Court of Appeals lifted the October 2003 injunction obtained by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), preventing the airline from contracting out heavy maintenance of 10 Airbus A319s to ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering, a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero). ST Mobile had finished work on one A319, but the ruling required the company to stop overhauling the other nine.
US Airways has said it has insufficient capacity to carry out heavy maintenance, but the IAM had argued that the airline should build an in-house facility.
The court ruled that the IAM should resolve its dispute with management through arbitration after declaring the disagreement between US Airways and the IAM to be a "minor dispute".
US Airways says: "The court's decision validates the company's consistent legal opinion that this issue is a minor contract dispute under the Railway Labor Act that must be resolved through arbitration between US Airways and the International Association of Machinists." It aims to award a contract to ST Mobile, but has not decided whether it will use a third party to complete heavy maintenance on the rest of its Airbus fleet.
Source: Flight International
