Jacksonville Looks into Outsourcing Airport Maintenance Work

Maintenance workers at Jacksonville International Airport might soon face competition for their jobs.

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority told workers Friday that it would be asking companies to submit qualifications and proposals to handle the "full spectrum" of maintenance work at the airport, ranging from custodial work to management of the airport's baggage screening system.

The request for the information does not guarantee that the authority will actually outsource the work, much of which is now done by a unionized workforce, stressed JAA Executive Director John Clark.

"It's not a foregone conclusion," he said Friday after meeting with department heads and union officials to announce the plan. "I want to see how the market responds."

Although union officials said during the meeting that they were concerned about their jobs and the loyalty of the organization toward its workers, union president Marcus Rau said he didn't think the move would mean mass layoffs.

"I don't have a problem with it," said Rau, president of the Florida Council of Industrial and Public Employees UBC 2081, which represents about 100 skilled workers. "I believe our people are efficient. I don't have a problem with doing something better and being more efficient."

The authority has tried outsourcing some maintenance duties in the past with unsatisfactory results. It had limited success with hiring an outside firm to run the baggage screening system in the bowels of the airport: A German company hired for the task had insufficient staff, and when the firm pulled out of the business, the contract went to a firm with no experience in the field before ending up with the current contract holder. An experiment in hiring a custodial company about three years ago generated complaints of an unclean terminal and dirty bathrooms.

The difference, Clark said, is those projects involved hiring outside workers but having responsibility for the jobs reside with airport employees. If an outside company was hired to do the maintenance work, the authority would set standards, but the responsibility of meeting those standards would lie with the company.

The official request will go out in the next two months, and respondents will have about a month to submit proposals.

The evaluation of the maintenance department will come on the heels of a four-day review of the entire organization conducted by a team of aviation experts beginning Sunday.

That "outside, top-down" assessment is part of refocusing Clark says the authority needs as it moves to become financially self-sufficient. Last year, as part of that plan, Clark got rid of three senior managers and made other personnel changes.

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