AECOM Takes SWA CFT Contract from L3 Communications
Out with the Old, in with the New
AECOM will be taking the reigns from L3 Communications operating in Kuwait and Afghanistan. Find the news release here. L3 has been providing contract field teams to support the US Army aviation maintenance. L3 was the largest employer in this sector. The great thing about L3 was was that you did not need your A&P license. L3 would often times take mechanics fresh out of the military since in the aircraft being maintained where also military aircraft.
What does this mean for the L3 employees overseas right now? Well they have been given an option to join the AECOM team. The new company will need a large portion of employees to remain on site because without them, the whole operation grinds to a halt.
Pay cuts coming
It has been known that AECOM will be reducing salaries for aircraft mechanics operating under these contracts. Not only that, but it appears that AECOM will not be offering 401k matching or health benefits. This is all coming from my friends on the ground in Afghanistan right now so it is all subject to change. As of now, I understand that the pay will be reduced from $153,000 years (if worked maximum available hours) down to $110,000 or so a year. Another change would be that if there was no work, you would punch out and go hang out in your tent. This was not the case with L3, as 84 hour work weeks where common regardless of the workload. Punching out to go back to your tent will severly decrease your pay and make your yearly salary calculations only guess work.
Other outfits
If the new changes are in fact true, I would steer clear from working with AECOM. The pay differences alone make it not worth risking your life doing overseas contracting. Especially since there are better outfits that pay much better and get better vacation rotations. I have never really been a fan of L3 communications either, I mean working 84 hours a week can become mind numbing after awhile. Plus vacations every 6 months make my family forget who I am. There are plenty of other aircraft mechanic jobs overseas that only work 40 hours a week and making more money as well.
Incoming search terms:
- aecom afghanistan aviation contract
- ae comm aviation mechanic
- L3 Aircraft Jobs Overseas
- l3 aviation jobs overseas
- L3 cft helicopter Jobs overseas
- l3 cft jobs
- L3 communication pay in afghanstane
- l3 jobs in afghanistan
- l3 overseas aviation jobs
- l3 paycuts
- L3 vertex aerospace shirts
- l3 vertex cft contracts 2013
- Sherry Longshorte with Aecom Ac First
- l3 afghanistan mechanic
- l-3 vertex aircraft mechanic overseas jobs
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Yep, just about everything in this article is true except for the $110,000, it’s actually $96,000 pluss a “completion bonus” that will bring you to $106,000. I came on board a few months ago for the sole purpose of establishing connections with former co-workers on previous contracts here in Afghanistan and in Iraq and move on. They double bunk you at CRC(and get paid for furnishing single man rooms by the government)I have been lied to twice at CRC and lied to in Kuwait, and i put AECOM in the same class of employers that look exploit U.S. contracts along the same lines as lesser known company’s that use TCN labor… Even after stealing this contract from L3, there is still no requirement for an A&P, but they did lower the standard on the experience level, they have guys over here working on airframes in a war zone supporting a war effort with barely 2 years experience in the industry!! Mechanics with 6 years experience AS MECHANICS were made site supervisors in an effort to halt the mass exodus. Long story short, if you put up with the B.S. and you have a solid background it’s a good taxi service to get you in country to network, just keep in mind at $14.32 an hour in a war zone you don’t want to hang around with that SCUMBAG COMPANY for too long. They will try to schmooz you in Kuwait and tell you if you give 30 days notice the company will pay for your flight home and ship your tools back, guess what thats not in writing and I know of 3 people that complied with that “request” and Aecom never followed thru. They purchase you a one way ticket to CRC and to OCONUS, they have no intension of brining you back.I pray that Dyncorp or L3 gets the contract back in October, these jerks don’t belong in this industry and they need to return to pressure washing port-a-johns or what ever it was that they made their name in. As an A&P for 12 years, an IA for 6, a contract IAR within the nations first ODA for 3 years… I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR AECOM OR ITS LEADERSHIP
Thanks for the update on the situation Stu, I had a feeling that things were not going to get better with AECOM.
I can attest to what Stu has stated. Although I didn’t work on the aviation side I was a weapons tech with AC First (AECOM) when they won the contract. If fact my supervisor was directly responsible for the employee negotiations at my FOB (Shindand). AC First is an absolutely horrible company to work for. They are only required to hire 25% Expats, 75% were allowed to be OCN’s. The only saving grace in my shop was that we were required to have security clearances and OCN’s weren’t allowed around weapons. I don’t know how it was with the aircraft.
They will fire an employee in a heartbeat and favor OCN’s over expats. They get paid the same amount per person regardless of nationality hence their favoring of OCN’s. They also will not cover flights back to the states in the event you resign even though the IG has stated and it’s written into the PWS that they must provide airfare back stateside. If they do provide it, they will withhold your last paycheck.
Now I will say that I understand how upset L3 employees were at the time and I would have been too but several people I worked with including myself were actually threatened while out at the DFAC or PX just for wearing AECOM shirts.
Thanks Jerry for the update. I have no knowledge of what it’s like working for AECOM anymore so your info is helpful. All my friends bailed pretty much as soon as they took over. Be safe.