AMERICAN IN NAME ONLY? Airline's workers say maintenance jobs being sent overseas

TWU Protest Dallas AP FBN

American Airlines workers held another protest against job outsourcing Thursday, this time in Miami.

About 400 demonstrators picketed outside American’s Terminal D at Miami International Airport.

The Transport Workers Union organized the protest as the latest attempt to settle a new contract between American and its aircraft maintenance and ground support workers, the Miami Herald reported.

The union told the paper that American is outsourcing 40 percent of its maintenance jobs to China, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America, where labor costs are lower than in the U.S.

Negotiations with American have been going on for about 18 months, according to Gary Peterson, president of TWU Local 591, which represents mainly American Airlines maintenance workers around the nation.

On July 26, three TWU locals demonstrated at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to press the airline to keep jobs from being moved overseas and to start contract bargaining “in good faith” for the unionized employees.

President Trump campaigned on the theme of “America first” and has claimed victory in convincing U.S. corporations to keep jobs in the country and bring others back from overseas.