Controllers attack FAA over contract

[question everything]

Posted on Sat, Sep. 02, 2006

Controllers attack FAA over contract

By LESLIE MILLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Air traffic controllers said Friday they will be forced to work even when they're tired after the Federal Aviation Administration imposes a new contract this weekend. Controller fatigue may be an issue in the investigation of the recent airplane crash in Kentucky that killed 49.

The solo controller in the tower at Lexington Blue Grass Airport had his back turned on the airfield when the pilots took off on the wrong runway early Sunday. He told investigators he'd had only two hours of sleep and worked 17 hours in the previous 24.

The controllers' new contract with the FAA follows nine months of bitter negotiations that broke down in April. Controllers sought binding arbitration, but the FAA said the law gives it the right to impose its last, best offer.

A section of the contract says, "Sick leave cannot be granted for rest or minor inconveniences," according to a briefing guide for the FAA's collective bargaining agreement with the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers... Air traffic controllers say fatigue is a symptom of a nationwide staffing shortage.

(snip)

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15425908.htm

[90-percent]

1. a question

I was talking to a buddy at work recently.

His home town is close to Oberlin, Ohio. This is the east coast hub for a lot of air traffic controlling.

He said that when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union in the very early 80's, there was a local guy that was an aircraft fellow that happened to have a TALK RADIO SHOW, locally, I think.

This guy had inside info and would report all the near misses and near catastrophes as a result of the inexperienced scabs that took over. (scabs = military types not equipped to deal with commerical air traffic)

A few weeks later he got a visit from the FBI and was never heard on the air again!

Your input is appreciated.

-85% jimmy

[question everything]

13. More than 20 years ago... might be hard to find even on snopes..

[WhiteTara]

29. scabs=those who cross picket lines for work

An analogy that comes to mind...I never could figure out how a woman could go with a guy she knew beat the crap out of the woman before her. The controllers who crossed the picket lines for those jobs in the 80's did not do this country a service and now they are getting the crap beat out themselves.

The strike in the 80 's was not about money, but about equipment and how it was not longer safe. Today we use the same old unsafe equipment and the near misses and accidents increase.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Last time the controllers complained about these unreasonable and

dangerous working conditions, they went out on strike and Reagan fired them all. The union movement generally has yet to recover.

[prole_for_peace]

3. "Sick leave cannot be granted for rest or minor inconveniences,"

minor inconveniences?? what assholes!

[MercutioATC]

4. They impose the new contract on Sunday.

Pay cuts, dress codes, the ability to cancel vacation time up until the day it's scheduled, and yes...they've eliminated the article that requires us to work traffic no more than two consecutive hours without at least a short break.

We're a work force of about 15,000. The FAA began contract negotiations demanding $2 BILLION in concessions over 5 years. We began by insisting they hire more controllers and asking for a raise. After 9 months of negotiations, we had offered $1.4 BILLION dollars in concessions. Their position hadn't budged...they still demanded $2B.

So they declared impasse and imposed a contract...

[Solo_in_MD]

6. Googled for some of the new policies

and could not find clear or concise list of them. Do you have a link handy? Esp interested in sick/annual leave and dress code sections.

[MercutioATC]

7. Here ya go:

http://www.employees.faa.gov/news/natca_negotiations/media/06-06_FAA_NATCA_Contract.pdf

[Solo_in_MD]

10. Thanks,

Read through it, looks like the std Federal boilerplate in many ways. Is there synopsis of changes? The media is really making hash of this story, and getting good gouge seems to be immpossible. I have a nephew who is in the selection process and am forwarding this stuff to him.

[MercutioATC]

18. I've got some of the changes in print form, but no link. Here are some:

... our union handed them out a couple of days ago.

The biggies:

1) New pay scale for the new controllers...average 30%+ below what we make. The FAA promised it would grandfather controllers who are currently in training, but they seem to have lied about that.

2) 5-year pay freeze for existing certified controllers. Add that to the loss of differential pay and it's actually a complete freeze with a pay cut thrown in.

3) The manner in which we pick our vacation time has been changed (to benefit the FAA). In addition, they have the right to cancel vacations at any time (Got tickets to Hawaii? They can call you an hour before your plane leaves and cancel your vacation time).

4) The manner in which we pick our work schedules. This policy used to differ by facility. Each facility's management chose whichever method worked best for its needs. Management and labor collaborated (under management's rules) to find a scheduling plan that worked. NATCA did the majority of the work in creating those schedules. Now, the FAA will have full control of all scheduling. We don't quite know how they're going to implement that, yet.

5) New dress code. I work in a big building with no windows surrounded by a fence with armed guards to keep people out. However, the FAA claims that the public's confidence in my competence is decreased if I wear shorts, shirts without a collar or tennis shoes. I am now prohibited from wearing jeans, shorts, sandals, hats of any kind or shirts without a collar to work. Do you feel safer now?

There are other programs that are being implemented in concert with the new "nontract", but those are technically separate issues.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

[libnnc]

12. Kick. What MercutioATC said...

Pretty pissed here in our household this weekend. :mad:

[MercutioATC]

14. I'm fully complying with the dress code tomorrow...I'll send you a pic.

[libnnc]

22. LOL

At Charlotte, NATCA members are having a cookout tomorrow. I told my spousal unit she should wear black and that they should treat the cookout like a wake...a celebration in memory of their once fair and safe work environment. I think they'll be at least one woman in fishnets and "fuck me" heels.
;-) :evilgrin:

[MasonJar]

5. That is interesting since, according to news reports here in Ky.

the FAA told the controller from Lexington that if he was tired he could have called in sick. This is on Reagan's doorstep, the controllers have never recovered.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. K&R

[FloridaPat]

9. As a former controller (fired by R) I have a few comments.

I've worked in towers. Midnight shifts are usually so quiet the controllers sleep. There was a case out in Washington state (I think) several years ago. Pilot in small airplane was cleared to land and then taxi to where he was going. The controllers were watching the Monday night football show. Plane crashed on final killing the pilot. His son spent the rest of the night crawling to a road to flag down someone The controllers never noticed the plane had crashed.

When things were slow we also let people go home and kept one person there. Why did he have two hours sleep? He might try going to bed. We use to work a 7-3 shift then come back for the midnight shift. That would be 16 hours in a 24 hour period. To not watch a pilot take off and make sure the runway is clear is not a good practice. Several times I've had to stop a plane from taking off because something was on the runway. One time we had a pilot not talking to us landing in from the opposite end of the runway.

This is a stupid pilot that unfortunately had to take off during the shift of an equally stupid controller.

[gulliver]

11. The question I have is about redundancy.

Was there no co-pilot? Was there only one controller for a reason? It's the "two stupid things happening at once" case that redundancy corrects.

People not thinking about two things happening together is what gets us into trouble. If the chance of a pilot error of this magnitude is 1% and the chance of a similar controller error is 1%, then a double error of this kind happens .01% of the time. That's a lot considering the number of take-offs/landings and the consequences of failure.

Unfortunately, thanks to the GOPs habits of cost-cutting important things and big spending on stupid things, I worry when I read about "controller error." I worry that the cost of a second controller came up on some GOP spreadsheet. With the anti-science, anti-numbers attituded of the Republicans, I can see redundancy for fault tolerance being completely ignored by them. They would delete the second controller without a second thought.

[MercutioATC]

15. The "stupid controller" in this case wasn't sleeping...he was doing

the "other duties" that the FAA requires us to do.

There's also no requirement that he check to make sure the pilot's actually done what he's been told to do (line up on the correct runway).



If the FAA wouldn't short-staff us, our attention might not be divided in situations like this.

[FloridaPat]

24. THere's no requirement. But it's your job to make sure the runway

is clear and that the pilot is on the right runway. If that isn't you job, there's not point in you even being in the tower. Might as well stay home and control from you radio. I've seen cars on runways without permission, dogs, deer. Lost airplanes wandering around because ground control wasn't watching. So if you have two planes landing and you tell the first plane to turn off at an intersection, you don't bother to make sure he does it before the next plane lands?

[N90ATC]

25. I don't work at a tower...

so I won't comment on your posts. All the controllers I know are quite diligent about their jobs. Even though we're going the current craziness, we're still committed to getting planes where they're supposed to go safely & expeditiously. Would that our employer felt the same way.

[MercutioATC]

26. If you PM me an e-mail address, I'll send you a pic of my response to the

dress code today...

I was really disappointed with ZOB. Only a few of us did anything special to ring in the new dress code. Almost everybody just rolled over and wore dress pants and collared shirts.

At least I got to have fun...

[N90ATC]

28. Can't PM

R, I can't PM as I don't have enough posts yet. In my building, most of us dressed up to code. We were emailed that we should. The only ones who didn't that I know of were those who had been on vacation. All I know is being fashion forward has really helped me improve my productivity...

[MercutioATC]

27. And I'm sure he would have done that had the FAA adequately staffed

the tower.

Sorry, I'm just a little peeved about some of the PATCO controllers' attacks on NATCA controllers. I don't mean to take it out on you.

[hollowdweller]

16. Sounds like they need to strike again, and take revenge on any scabs

That might try to replace them. Now is the time to start kicking ass.

[MercutioATC]

17. Us striking is a lot different than most people striking...

...it's illegal.


That's the issue with this new "nontract"...the FAA chose not to use the collective bargaining process and imposed a contract on a workforce that has absolutely no way to fight it.


The U.S. has the safest and most efficient ATC system in the world. That doesn't seem to be something most sane people would want to mess with.

[N90ATC]

19. The Non-tract!

The FAA just spent $14.5 million flying supervsiors/managers from around the country to learn about the new nontract. Your tax $ at work. I just got home from a rainy NY night and it's brutal out there. I can't wait to retire although since I'm not a "scab" it'll be a few more years. As soon as I can though...and I'll drive when I want to travel!

[MercutioATC]

20. They had 40 hours to learn the nontract. We got one hour.

Does that mean that:

1) They're a little slow, or

2) We're friggin' geniuses, or

3) Paying management (he highest-paid employees) for 40 hours of off-site work when labor (yes, we're the slow ones) can learn the same material in one hour on-site is an incredible waste of money.


Oddly, there seem to be multiple correct answers to this question (and I'm not the counting the "We're friggin' geniuses" option)...

[N90ATC]

21. LOL

Yeah, I'll take #1 & #3 for sure! Can't wait to go to work tomorrow. It's rare that a man's wardrobe takes on such vital importance. November can't come soon enough.

[libnnc]

23. Spending big bucks flying mangle-ment to St Louis--exact-um-undo...

My partner just mentioned that today when she got home from work (CLT). She's been in the agency since '86. Ain't it funny how the FAA will spend precious dough on hotels and travel stipends for mangle-ment? Basitds.