RESPECT

Generally speaking, income is simply a measure of your value to society. The more you are valued, the more you make. Our society is somewhat myopic at times and values more highly the people who have elevated public visibility, such as rock stars, Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and game show hosts. CEOs of major companies (even failing ones) get the same "high visibility" treatment to an obscene degree.

The primary reason unions exist in our modern society is to give common voice to those who do not, by themselves, have the celebrity that would automatically entitle them to star status income levels. One could argue that the floor sweepers at some major investment banks have made more positive contributions to their companies over the last couple of years than have the CEOs. In truth, they should also be paid more, but we both know that will never happen.

Unions, and to a lesser degree, professional advocacy groups, address the inequities in the workplace on behalf of their members, in private companies and public agencies that have lost track of the fact that their employees ARE the business. Those employees, especially those with professional training credentials, take deep pride in their accomplishments and professional conduct. Professional respect, in the end, means more to most than any salary issues.

Though clearly this is not strictly an aviation issue, it does strike at the heart of who we are as A&P mechanics. Nowhere is this professionalism more evident than in the aviation maintenance field, where professionalism equals safety for the traveling public. It has often been accurately stated that an A&P mechanic can be responsible for more lives in one week than a heart surgeon in his entire career.

We are now entering a period where the lack of professional respect in the past has created an opportunity for those of us left in the aviation industry as A&P mechanics. Some companies are unable to expand because they cannot find an adequate number of mechanics (at the price they’re willing to pay). This trend will accelerate because the number of A&P schools has shrunken considerably. The A&P shortage is real even with the troubled economy.

So why don’t A&P mechanics earn as much as surgeons? Could it be the lower formal education requirements? Nope. If that were the case, airline mechanics would earn more than airline pilots, for whom there is no formal education required by the FAA, not even a high school equivalency certificate.

Could it be that the "alphabet" groups and unions, who have long been fighting for the membership dues of the A&P mechanics, have dropped the ball as advocates? What was the last big issue they pushed in their newsletters? Hint: It was the National Aircraft Mechanic Day. What did you gain from that? Long ago, there was a National Dinosaur Day, too. Look what it got that group.

In the latest, unsuccessful effort at an FAA funding bill, there was a provision to require that all U. S. airlines utilize for heavy maintenance checks only FAA-certified repair stations that have in place a DOT-approved drug and alcohol testing program. While this was a seemingly innocuous provision, it would not only have leveled the playing field for domestic CRS facilities, it would have brought a large percentage of that work back to the U.S. Did your organization ask yo to write your representative and senators to support the bill? Did they even tell you about it? Could you have made a difference if you’d known about it?

Any national membership organization has the moral obligation to identify the issues that are vital to their membership and voice the members’ concerns before their elected representatives on those issues. Anything less is morally reprehensible and demonstrates a lack of respect for the members, both individually and collectively.

Similarly, a union that engages in political activity on behalf of a single candidate misuses its membership dues to the point where a good case for embezzlement could be made. Who benefits from this support? The union bosses and no one else. The union "campaign volunteers" still receive their regular salaries, paid by union dues. It’s called "soft money." You, as a member of that union, get to make political contributions in this manner, without being able to deduct them as such from your taxes. Remember, if that candidate loses, your position is not likely to have been improved, politically speaking. It’s up to you to push both your union and/or professional membership organization, to work in your interest instead of theirs. You have that power and now is the time to use it.

The bottom line is that if you have been educated as a professional, act like a professional, look like a professional and belong to a professional organization, you should be treated by both your employer and dues-financed membership organization as a professional. It’s called professional respect.