United training program brings more jobs, business
Becoming an aircraft maintenance technician wasn’t easy for Yolanda Gong.
She worked midnight shifts as a baggage handler so she could go to school in the daytime. “I was sleeping in my car at some points,” she recalled on Tuesday. “It was exhausting.”
Gong, who joined United Airlines after earning her license, is now a mentor in Calibrate, the airline’s training program for future aircraft maintenance technicians. It pays trainees as they work toward their licenses, in a 36-month-long course that begins with classes before moving on to supervised work alongside licensed technicians. United also covers the cost of the classes, which can total $50,000 at a technical college, the airline says.
Calibrate, announced last year, was officially registered with the U.S. Department of Labor Tuesday, in a Houston ceremony that drew Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Deputy Secretary Julie Su, International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and United CEO Scott Kirby and Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The program is still small. Sixteen men and women were part of its initial cohort, which started at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport in November. Several other groups of future techs are now training, in Houston and San Francisco, with more airports in the future.
The Chicago-based airline has high hopes for the program — and a need for more skilled workers. Overall, United plans to hire 7,000 more maintenance technicians by 2026, and 1,000 will be trained through Calibrate.
Walsh said Calibrate can serve as a model for large employers, many of whom have struggled to hire enough workers since the economy roared back to life after COVID-19 lockdowns ended.
“This program proves that when business and labor work together, everyone succeeds,” he said, adding that you don’t often see a massive company, the federal government and the Teamsters hobnobbing, as they were Tuesday.
Part of the goal of the new program, United leaders say, is to diversify its workforce.
“We recognize that we were attracting talent that looked the same — friends of friends, family members of family members,” said Simone Drakes, managing director of Calibrate. “Increasing the number of women and people of color had to be driven. It was not going to continue to grow with accidental encouragement.”
Jose Trevino, who is training to become a technician, said he was a nervous about joining Calibrate. He’s worked for United for 22 years, he said, mostly in the tool room at IAH. He was comfortable in the role, familiar with all the tools. Still, he couldn’t ignore the chance for career growth.
“Given the opportunity, you have to take advantage of it,” said Trevino, who still marvels at the planes. “You see them flying, but once you start looking into them, it’s amazing how they work.”
Walsh, who will step down next month to become executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, said the United States needs more programs like Calibrate, as well as immigration reform, to meet workforce needs.
“I think the biggest threat to our economy right now is lack of workers,” he said.
Gong agreed.
“We have a lot of people that want to be doctors, that want to be lawyers, but we don’t have enough blue-collar workers,” she said, explaining that she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in another field before deciding to retrain. “When I did my research, I thought, we’re going to be short on technicians — and that can only mean job security and good pay.”
She’s found an additional benefit to her career, she said, since earning her license: “I love what I do. I just love fixing the planes.”