deadstick

It would have been very easy for him to say that at the time. He wouldn't have to worry about ATC shortages since they clear the sky when AF1 comes in for a landing or takeoff. I would have liked to see him say that and then get into a commercial craft on a holiday knowing that there weren't enough eyes to get him through traffic and down safely.

miker1369

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HSLD

Hi Miker1369,

Welcome to the forums and I feel your pain, it's pretty familar with pilots for sure.

Would you like to engage in some dialog or do you just want to advertise your web site using the APC forum?

miker1369

Sure, I am open to dialog, I put links and information out to inform, but wouldn't mind chatting.
It is not my web site it is NATCA's. Any questions about the ATC system or whats going on right now in the ATC system, please ask, I will try to answer them as best I can for you.

miker1369

NATCA ACCEPTS FAA’S PUBLIC OFFER TO RETURN TO BARGAINING TABLE

WASHINGTON – National Air Traffic Controllers Association President John Carr announced today that NATCA is accepting the Federal Aviation Administration’s public offer to return to the contract bargaining table. Carr called upon the agency to rescind its declaration of impasse and bring to the new talks a renewed spirit of good faith bargaining and a desire to reach a voluntary agreement.

“We are anxious to return to the table immediately and we accept the FAA’s public offer to re-open the talks,” Carr said. “We have always been dedicated to good faith bargaining and a voluntary agreement and we still believe both good faith and an agreement are possible. We want to continue bargaining with the agency in hopes that both sides can find that elusive common ground. The FAA wants a voluntary agreement and so do we. The place to find that agreement is at the table, not in the Congress.”

Carr said he is confident that the agency will rescind the submission it sent to the Congress upon declaring an impasse on April 5.

“The talks are either ongoing or they’re at impasse. They cannot be both,” Carr said. “In order to proceed with the agency’s desire that talks reopen, both parties will need to retract their last best offers so that our negotiating teams can continue working on a voluntary agreement.”

The FAA’s official spokesperson was quoted in a published account on April 17 as saying, “We welcome the opportunity to go back to the bargaining table,” and expressed the FAA’s desire to see “movement on the fundamental issue of pay for new hires.”

“NATCA has shown significant movement at the table,” Carr said. “We proposed $1.4 billion in concessions, and we are still willing to get back to the table and work on our proposal and theirs, continuing to negotiate in good faith to secure a voluntary agreement.”

The FAA’s public offer comes after intense bipartisan pressure from Capitol Hill on the Agency to return to the bargaining table. Late last week, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, issued a press release calling on both sides to return to the table. Said Snowe: "I believe that the FAA moved too quickly in declaring an impasse in the ongoing negotiations with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and sending the matter to Congress. An impasse is not in the best interest of either party - politicizing the negotiations and putting the question of a reasonable settlement at risk. I believe they should instead come back to the negotiating table to find an equitable resolution.”

cactusmike

The fiasco in New York TRACON with the sick pay scam doesn't help the cause.

Controller pay has gone up 75% since 1998, pay and benefits make up 80% of the FAA's budget. Salaries for controllers are over $200,000 per year. Next time you ask for direct and you can't get it due to the inability of the FAAs antiquated computer system to figure out your routing think of that. Can't pay for hardware upgrades because the budget is gone due to payroll for controllers. And reflect on your salary decrease compared to ATC's increases.

Sorry, I can't shed a tear for you guys this time.

fireman0174

Cactus - I'll admit that I'm not particularly well versed on the subject as far as the controllers are concerned, but isn't this really the same type of complaining that management has made over the years regarding pilot pay?

Somehow or another I just cannot see the FAA going out and modernizing their equipment if controllers pay gets reduced. However, I could see Blakley telling the world how she helped reduce the FAA's budget.

JMHO.

miker1369

AWEMIKE,
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, however the items that you mention, do you truely know about or is it just what you have read in a newspaper?

New York Tracon Fiasco
Our Union does not have control of the schedule, everytime someone was called in on OT, it was management calling not the union. If we had staffing, then when someone calls in sick, we wouldn't have to call in OT. The majority of this was the FAA attacking its work force, with the mind set to disturb the public and put them against us. I am not saying that everything New York Tracon did was something for us to be proud of, but I am saying it was blown way out of proportion. Also this a very small minority of the overall system, to say you don't care or shed a tear for us becuase of the actions of one facility out of hundreds. I guess I shouldn't ever fly Cactus becuase of that one drunk pilot a couple of years ago. Sounds kind of stupid when you look at it doesn't it.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/08/pilots.trial/

Salaries
We do not make $200,000 a year, I work at the busiest center in the country and I make $118,000. While that is excellent pay, the administrator wants to cut it by 30 %. If you truely looked at the facts of our pay, instead of just reading some press release from the FAA, you can go the governments own web site and see for yourself:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos108.htm

Air traffic controllers earn relatively high pay and have good benefits. Median annual earnings of air traffic controllers in May 2004 were $102,030. The middle 50 percent earned between $78,170 and $126,260. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $57,720, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $139,210.

You not getting direct honestly has nothing to with our Radar or systems, it is becuase we are busy or the next sector down the road is busy, or reroutes or mile in trail exist, there could be hundred of different scenarios. You are not the only plane in the sky.

I respect pilots and the work that you do. I also like being to able to step on a plane and feel comfortable about my safety. I take pride in our avaition system, even though it has seen better days. All I am asking for is your help, go to www.fairfaa.com . Look at all the facts, not just the ones from the FAA. I don't believe that the airlines are in trouble finacailly becuase of thier unions, it is mismagement, but if I believed every press release I read that is what they have said repeatedly. The fact of the matter is most of the true union airlines are doing pretty good. Southwest is doing awesome and mostly union, Delta is only 13 or 14 % unionized and isn't doing to hot. But everytime Delta complains it is the unions fault.

Just do your research, before you come on here and rip me and 14,000 other people who are dedicated to keeping you and your passengers safe and try our best to keep you ontime.

SkyBusDriver

Brilliant summation, Mike. It's unfortunate that a guy who's supposedly an Airline Captain has such a myopic view of the world.

miker1369

Aviation Daily: FAA Rules Out Return To Table In Controller Contract Dispute

FAA yesterday dismissed speculation that the agency was preparing to return to the negotiating table with its controllers union, and said the impasse process will continue.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association yesterday said it was accepting a public offer from FAA to return to the bargaining table. NATCA called on the agency to rescind its declaration of impasse, and the union said both sides should retract their best and final offers and return to negotiations.

FAA denied, however, that it had made such an offer. The NATCA statement was based on an inaccurate media report, and the union misinterpreted FAA comments in the article, an FAA spokesman said.

FAA earlier this month declared that impasse had been reached in its contract negotiations with NATCA after nine months at the table (DAILY, April 6). FAA is allowed to send its final contract proposal to Congress in the event of an impasse, and it can then impose a contract if Congress takes no action within 60 days.

The FAA spokesman said the clock has started ticking on the 60-day congressional review, and the agency will not interrupt that process to resume negotiations. "There is no invitation out there to return to the table...The current process will remain in place." -AS