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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 2960.PDF
EDITORIAL UK Editorial Enquiries Editorial Fax Editor Allan Winn Editor's PA Lisa Jenkins Deputy Editor Forbes Mutch News Editor Andrew Chuter Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount Business Editor Kevin OToole Commercial Aviation Editor Kieran Daly Defence Aviation Editor Douglas Barrie Aviation Research Editor Jennifer Pite Technical Reporter Andrew Doyle Editorial Assistant Kate Sarsfleld Production Editor Chris Thornton Art Editor Alexis Rendell Layout Sub-Editor Annabel Wells Technical Artist Tim Hall Technical Artist David Hatchard Technical Artist Giuseppe Picarella Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss Photographer (Europe) Mark Wagner Picture Librarian: Kim Hearn EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor Julian Moxon +44(181)652 3842 +44(181)652 3840 +44(181)652 3882 +44(181)652 3882 +44(181)652 3852 +44(181)652 3843 +44(181)652 3845 +44(181)652 3835 +44(181)652 3837 +44(181)6523834 +44(181)6523847 +44(181)6523838 +44(181)652 3842 +44(181)6523850 +44(181)652 3828 +44(181)652 3848 +44(181)6528047 +44(181)6528047 +44(181)6528054 +44(1237)471960 +44(181)944 5225 +44(181)652 3427 COMMENT +33(1)462947 61 [Fax+33 (1)46 29 47 49) Munich Correspondent Andrzej Jeziorski +49 (89) 6891041 [Fax+49 (89) 6891045] Paris Correspondent Gilbert Sedbon Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi Moscow Correspondent Alexander Velovich +33(1)4825 5261 +972(3)9671155 +7(095)3934717 [Fax+7 (095) 393 4717] AMERICAS American Editor Graham Warwick +1(770)587 2927 [Fax+1(770) 5941534) Washington Correspondent Ramon Lopez +1 (703) 836 7443 [Fax+1(703) 836 8344] West Coast Correspondent Guy Norris +1 (714) 252 8971 [Fax+1(714) 252 8972) ASIA PACIFIC Asian Editor (Singapore) Paul Lewis Australian Correspondent Paul Phelan +652263188 [Fax+65 2271769] +61(70)532 791 [Fax+61 (70) 533 003] DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES UK and EUROPE Display Advertising Enquiries +44 (181) 652 3315 Display Advertising Fax +44 (181) 652 8981 Group Advertisement Director Trevor Parker +44 (181) 652 3319 Secretary Lisa Devlin +44(181)6523315 Advertisement Production Display/Classified Howard Mason +44(181)6523267 EAST EUROPE, GERMANY, SCANDINAVIA, UK Senior Area Manager Robin Gordon +44 (181) 652 4998 NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, UK Area Manager Janice Lowe +44 (181) 652 3316 FRANCE Sales Director France Pierre Mussard ITALY Representative Romano Ferrario NORTH AMERICA Vice-president US Sales John Tidy Sales Director East Coast Robert Hancock Sales Director Mid-West & Canada Gene Glendinning Traffic Manager Debbie Kolb MIDDLE EAST Robin Gordon +33(1)46 294629 [Fax+33 (1)40 9303 37] +39(2)66034435 [Fax +39 (2) 6603 4367] +1 (714) 7561057 [Fax+1(714) 756 2514] +1(703)836 7444 [Fax+1(703) 836 7446] +1(708)304 5588 [Fax+1(708) 304 9559] +1(212)545 5376 [Fax+1(212) 679 9455] +44(181)652 4998 ASIA, AUSTRALIA Singapore Account Manager Karen Kwan +65 226 3188 [Fax+65 223 6960] CLASSIFIED & RECRUITMENT Advertisement Manager Gareth Pask +44 (181) 652 4814 International Sales Executives Mo Buttivant +44 (181) 770 3032 Judith Slann Classified Sales Executives Valerie Hall Liz Houghton Simon Lees Lucy Middelboe Enquiries Classified USA Gail Tavelman Classified Asia/Pacific Karen Kwan Publisher Gavin Howe +44(181)7703011 +44(181)7703010 +44(181)7703002 +44(181)7703027 +44(181)7703030 +44(181)6616373 +1(212)5455403 +652263188 +44(181)652 3675 STRIKING A BALANCE IN THE BAD old days, when airliner manu facturers were awash with orders they could not meet, it seemed natural that shopfloor workers would want a bigger reward for building those airliners — and would strike if they felt they were not getting a fair share. In the great recession of recent years, the strike weapon has lost its edge — most workers were happy to have a job at all, and were unwilling to jeopardise tliose jobs which still existed by withdrawing their labour. Now, however, the strike weapon has been drawn from its scab bard again — but the industry would be most unwise to assume that this time around workers are striking for money, from a position of confidence. They are not. Yes, the workers see companies such as Boeing recovering from die recession, and mak ing real profits. Yes, they perceive that such companies can afford to improve conditions now where they could not afford to before. Yes, they see order-books swelling — a promise of good business for years to come. No, they do not see an increase in job security resulting from the improvement in business. Ironically, Boeing's success in attracting orders serves only to weaken the positions of its manual workers in the USA. Many of the orders which it is now attracting come from countries which harbour strong ambitions to build up their own aerospace industries. The price of getting an order is increasingly not just a dis count on price, but a promise to place manufac turing work in the customer country. The same problem faces those companies which would sign up new partners to build new projects in those same developing aerospace countries. Those countries want not just the manufacturing work which goes into a new air liner, but they want the technology behind it. In the eyes of the workers at Boeing and else where, the export of airliners increasingly equates with the export of jobs. On the surface, their fears are very real. Most of these developing countries have wage rates far lower than those found in the USA or Europe. In some cases, the new arrivals in the industry, 'Workers do not see an increase in job security resulting from improvements in business" setting up without the encumbrances of history, have better and more automated plant with which to work well, giving them a near-unbeat able high-tech, low-wage advantage. How can Western workers — and their employers — counter these advantages? Certainly not by trying to take on the develop ing countries at build ing conventional structures in conven tional ways. Western social legislation and attitudes will not allow the sort of wage cut which would make a Seattle worker as cheap to employ and protect as one in China. Yet. There is a parallel here with the motor industry: 30 years ago, the Japanese — armed with mainly second hand Western tech nology and low wages — took on the established motor manufacturers and, in many cases, beat them with well-made, cheap prod ucts. Today, Japanese manufacturers can no longer undercut Western manufacturers — ironically, largely because Western manufactur ers have now adopted Japanese technology and working practices, and because rising aspira tions in Japan have wiped out the wages advan tage. Those Western countries which once exported technology to Japan are once again exporting complete vehicles — albeit often from Japanese-owned factories — because they are cheaper than the Japanese product. The cycle will not finish there: as costs and social attitudes change, the factors in the equa tion will change again. Perhaps Japan will regain the cost advantage; perhaps both sides will lose the advantage again to another country like South Korea. All that any worker or employer can do is play the game of commerce as cannily as possible, shifting the minimum possible work abroad while retaining the maximum possible financial return to keep the business as a whole alive and profitable. Sometimes, that may mean fewer jobs in one country, and more in another. Sometimes, it will mean that one country takes a greater share of a project than another. The trick lies in keeping the intellectual advantage, and remem bering that a job is only a job as long as there is an economic case for that job to be done. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 18 - 24 October 1995 3
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