North American aviation companies get labor relief from foreign workers
- at a cost
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[December 19, 2023] By
Allison Lampert
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Aerospace supplier CEO Hugue Meloche spends more
than C$10,000 for each skilled foreign worker he brings to his company's
Montreal-area factories, but paying those costs is preferable to leaving
key positions unfilled while orders boom.
As clients like engine maker General Electric boosted production in
2022, the head of Meloche Group hired 20% of its workforce of 500 from
countries like Mexico, Tunisia and Brazil to make up for staffing
shortfalls. This added at least C$1 million ($736,377.03) in costs at a
company generating around C$100 million in annual revenue.
Added costs like those are especially hitting smaller suppliers with
limited resources, industry officials said. The suppliers must then cut
costs elsewhere or pass on those extra charges to their customers while
struggling to meet demands for competitive pricing and higher production
from planemakers Airbus and Boeing.
The tight manufacturing labor market, following a wave of retirements
during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, has led North American
aircraft repair shops and suppliers, especially in Canada, to recruit a
small but growing number of workers from abroad. This fills critical
positions but puts a fresh burden on small suppliers whose human
resources staff normally do not help new arrivals find homes and cars.
These challenges are not going away as airline and aerospace executives
remain cautious on supply chains and see problems persisting until 2025.
Meloche's company in the Canadian province of Quebec offers loans to
recruits, as well as short-term housing. It has four employees dedicated
to helping newcomers with everything from finding a new home to buying a
car.
"We are the help desk," Meloche said in an interview. "We have huge
needs. For us, immigration is not a choice."
Plane and engine makers rely less on foreign labor since they have the
heft to lure domestic talent with better incentives, recruiters say. But
they are not immune.
Business jet maker Bombardier, which has 17,000 workers globally and
generated $6.9 billion in 2022 revenue, told Reuters it expects
international recruitment will represent 10% to 15% of its Quebec
production workforce hired in the next few years, an estimate that was
not previously reported. It currently employs about 9,400 in Quebec.
Airbus' Canadian division said some of its recruitment needs must be met
via immigration, while Boeing said the use of U.S. visas to bring in
foreign workers "is very limited."
Montreal-based Bombardier is taking on 40 new Moroccan workers with 40
more set to join, following its first international recruitment mission
for trade laborers this year. The company provides housing, paid flights
and other perks.
Offering that kind of help is harder for smaller suppliers, which make
up most of the 17 aerospace companies in Quebec that hunted for workers
abroad in 2022, according to data from Canadian recruitment specialist
AURAY Sourcing International.
APARTMENT HUNTING
"We're asking (human resource departments) to ... have other tasks
they've never had, such as looking for apartments," AURAY client
services manager Emilie Sauvé said.
For companies like Meloche that have had employees poached, or leave for
jobs at planemakers, one benefit in hiring foreign workers under
immigration rules is that "they have to be loyal to the company they're
hired for," Sauvé said.
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A Bombardier Global 6500 aircraft is pictured during the European
Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva,
Switzerland, May 23, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
"The small suppliers are drowning."
Hugue Meloche, who expects his business to generate C$135 million in
2023 revenue, sees recent economic headwinds easing the labor
shortage, but recruitment of foreign workers will persist in
Canada's aerospace hub.
Indeed, recruiters say Canadian aerospace companies use foreign
workers more than their U.S. counterparts due to the availability of
immigration programs that allow such hiring more easily north of the
border.
But U.S. aircraft repair companies also consider foreign workers as
an option, with a North American shortfall of aviation maintenance
workers likely to hit 43,000 by 2027, according to consultant Oliver
Wyman.
One U.S. trade association representing aircraft repair shops is
weighing whether in-demand jobs like aircraft mechanics could be
eligible for special visas.
AAR Corp, a Chicago-based network of aircraft maintenance shops, has
recruited some technicians from Mexico in recent years under an
existing visa due to growing shortages at home, said Ryan Goertzen,
a company vice president.
Figures for foreign aerospace workers in the U.S. were not available
from three government departments approached by Reuters. According
to Canadian government data for one nonimmigrant admission program,
there were 125 temporary foreign worker positions for aircraft
mechanics last year, compared with seven a year earlier and 66 in
2019.
There are a handful of programs in Canada used to recruit foreign
workers, said Sauvé, adding she expects to see higher numbers this
year and next as demand grows at her own firm.
The number of aerospace positions targeting international candidates
grew 136% at Sauvé's firm this year compared with 2022.
"We had it last year, but this year it's exploded," she said.
At aircraft repair shop KF Aerospace in British Columbia, workers
from countries like South Africa and the Philippines account for
about 7% of the workforce. The company has 22 apartments for
short-term staff housing.
KF hired 40 skilled foreign workers alone this year, compared with
roughly 35 over 2018 and 2019 combined.
Each skilled foreign worker requires an investment of more than
C$11,000 in relocation and immigration costs. But the cost is worth
it since KF Aerospace needs skilled workers in order to be able to
hire local apprentices, who require mentoring.
"Once we hire them, we want to hang on to them as long as we can,"
KF's chief corporate services officer, Grant Stevens, said,
referring to the skilled foreign workers.
"Long gone are the days of, 'just put an ad.'"
($1 = 1.3580 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal Editing by Ben Klayman and
Matthew Lewis)
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