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Help Americas Air Traffic Controllers

Old 04-16-2006, 08:21 AM
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Default Help Americas Air Traffic Controllers

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS NEED YOUR HELP!
Don't let the FAA fly in the face of Fairness and Safety.
Sign up and take action, for more information go to WWW.FAIRFAA.COM
Tell congress to support S2201 & HR4755.
Call 1-877-FAIR-FAA
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Old 04-16-2006, 05:12 PM
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Default John Carr & Marion Blakey on C-Span links

http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.a...35&image1.y=14

http://www.c-span.org/Search/basic.a...=Marion+Blakey

John Carrs Blog
http://themainbang.typepad.com/blog/

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Old 04-16-2006, 05:18 PM
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WTSP-TV (TAMPA): TIA air traffic controllers concerned about staffing

Tampa International Airport, Tampa - Air traffic controllers in Tampa are voicing their concerns about working conditions and passenger safety. They’re speaking out as contract talks with the FAA have stalled.

The president of the air traffic controllers union at the Tampa tower says 67 controllers are needed to safely operate the skies of Tampa, but they’re down to 61.

And of those, 10 are eligible to retire now, and 30 can retire next year.

Local union president Pat McCormick says three controllers at TIA have walked off the job in the past year.

Pat McCormick, President, NATCA TampaTower:

“And they’re going on break and they’re working too many airplanes, too long of a time working those airplanes with not enough break time to clear their heads so they can go back and they’re retiring on the spot, that second.”

FAA administrator Marion Blakey says there is no safety risk to air travelers that has to do with contract negotiations.

The controllers union is urging Congress to force both sides back to the bargaining table.

If Congress does not pass the Fair FAA Act within 60 days, controllers will be forced to accept the FAA’s last offer, which freezes pay for most controllers, and cuts wages for some.
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Old 04-16-2006, 05:32 PM
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ORLANDO SENTINEL: Air-traffic controllers fear impasse; As the fight over a new contract drags on, controllers say the workload is rising.

By Beth Kassab

Orlando air-traffic controllers are worried that a contract impasse between their national union and the federal government could lead to a drastically understaffed radar center and control towers at a time when local air traffic is booming.

Such a scenario would mean more overtime -- and more fatigue -- among the men and women tasked with ensuring 2,000 safe takeoffs and landings at Central Florida airports each day, the Orlando controllers say.

Last week, after nine months of negotiations, the Federal Aviation Administration announced contract talks broke down with the union representing 15,000 air-traffic controllers. At the center of the dispute are proposed pay cuts for new hires and changes in retirement benefits.

While both sides have said a strike is unlikely, some fear the impasse could result in serious safety compromises.

The proposed contract by the FAA cuts pay for new hires and affects certain retirement benefits, essentially acting as an incentive for those who are eligible to retire soon under the current contract.

Orlando has 68 of 74 air-traffic controller jobs filled with 15 people eligible to retire. An additional 11 people will become eligible to retire in the next year.

"If these people go, we'll be in dire straits," said Patrick Sugrue, a union member and controller who has worked in Orlando since 1991.

Because of the certification and training required to work in a high-volume city such as Orlando, new hires can't get into the jobs fast enough, he said.

The FAA acknowledges that it faces a large number of retirements over the next few years as many of its workers become eligible at the same time because they were hired after President Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.

But FAA spokesman Geoffrey Basye said the FAA is not cutting current controllers' wages. Instead, he said, the agency is trying to make the wages of future controllers more in line with what other agency professionals make. The average controller earns $166,000 a year.

"It takes a lot of people to get a plane on and off the ground safely," Basye said.

He has called the union's request for more money "unnerving a bit."

More people will be hired to replace those who are retiring, Basye said, dismissing the union's concerns about safety.

"If they're so concerned about safety, why are they asking for an automatic two-week vacation in the summer -- our heaviest travel season?" he asked.

Just Friday, the Orlando area experienced a record volume day, Sugrue said, with 2,520 takeoffs, landings and planes passing through Orlando air space in a 16-hour period.

The radar system based at Orlando International Airport controls air traffic for a number of surrounding airports and will extend to Cape Canaveral in July.

Increased volume has already stressed the Orlando tower and radar center in some ways, records show, with seven operational errors in Orlando since Oct. 1. There were just three such errors in all of fiscal 2005, records show.

One of those errors in February sent a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 and an AirTran Airways Boeing 717 on a near-collision course at Orlando International Airport, the state's busiest in terms of passenger volume.

Pilots in both planes took corrective action to avert a collision in the sky. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association says its proposal would have included a flat payroll for five years that it says would have saved $1.4 billion, a claim the FAA disputes.

Now the contract is in the hands of Congress, which has 60 days to review the FAA's proposal and the union's objections. If Congress does not act within 60 days, the FAA has said it will be able to impose its contract proposal.
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Old 04-16-2006, 06:08 PM
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FAA Walks Out On Contract Talks With Air Traffic Controllers

Washington - Contract talks between the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Federal Aviation Administration, which broke down last week over economic proposals, have officially concluded with the FAA walking out of the negotiations and declaring impasse after rejecting an offer that would have saved taxpayers $1.4 billion. The agency is expected to send the contract to Congress almost immediately, failing to solicit the union’s formal objections as required by law.

As first reported by NATCA late last week, the parties held a very brief meeting on Tuesday night in order to exchange new proposals on pay. NATCA’s proposal included a revised offer meeting goals described by the FAA administrator in discussions with NATCA this weekend. The proposal maintains previous levels of taxpayer savings, estimated at over $1.4 billion. Unfortunately, the FAA was not prepared to engage in meaningful discussion - the meeting, held at approximately 10 pm Eastern time, was characterized by one union participant as lasting no more than five minutes, the majority of which was spent by NATCA discussing its proposal.

The parties met again on Wednesday in a formal session to exchange typewritten proposals and to read statements into the record. No bargaining of any kind took place. While the union invited FMCS mediators to join the meeting and observe the proceedings – a request the agency originally agreed to – no formal mediation took place. The union, in consultation with the mediator, made a formal request to continue talks under the auspices of federal mediation, but that offer was rejected by the agency. The FAA in effect walked out on federally mediated talks aimed at reaching a voluntary agreement.

As of this date, the parties have concluded all meetings and no further meetings, mediations or negotiating sessions are planned.
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Old 04-17-2006, 06:01 AM
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Dear Senator Frist and Speaker Hastert,

As President of the National Consumers League (NCL), I urge the Congress to take action to prevent the unilateral imposition of the labor contract covering the air traffic controllers submitted by the Federal Aviation Administration. This contract could pose a serious threat to our nation’s aviation system by aggravating an already critical shortage of air traffic controllers watching the skies.

For several years now, aviation stakeholders and consumer advocates like ourselves have warned of a potential staffing crisis in the nation’s air traffic control towers. The contract submitted to Congress by FAA Administrator Blakey not only brings us closer to realizing that crisis, but actually sets up a situation to encourage it.

Quite simply, the FAA submission jeopardizes the safety of America’s aviation system by potentially sparking a massive wave of air traffic controller retirements. Under the FAA’s proposal, veteran eligible controllers are better off retiring than continuing to guide air traffic.

In fact, pending retirements, spurred by the provisions of the FAA’s contract, could cause 1 in 4 controllers – over 4,000 – to retire by next year. Over the coming five years, the problem would grow worse, as over 40% of current controllers become eligible for retirement. If within the next five years, nearly half of our nation’s air traffic controllers are encouraged to leave their jobs, the safety of millions of Americans who travel through the skies every day will be in jeopardy.

As the head of an organization that has spoken for the U.S. consumer for over a century, I feel confident in saying that you would be hard-pressed to find a traveler at any of our nation’s airports who would support any move that would add to the challenges controllers face as they move planes through the sky. Our traveling public takes for granted, as well they should be able to, that the millions of planes that take off and land every year in this country get to each of their destinations safely. They expect their government to do everything in its power to ensure that critical consistency continues.

With the FAA’s submission to Congress, you and your colleagues are now in a position to demonstrate to the American people your commitment to the safety of our skies. You can do nothing, in essence authorizing the massive staffing shortage to begin; or you can act to bring the contract up for debate, ensuring that these issues can be publicly and fairly debated, and resolved to address the potential crisis.

For 100 years, the NCL has worked tirelessly to protect the interests of American families. We have worked cooperatively with the U.S. Congress on several occasions to make the citizens of our country stronger and safer. Today we call on you to join with us in protecting the flying public, so our air traffic controllers can continue to guide our nation’s families safely home.

Sincerely,

Linda Golodner

President, National Consumers League

Cc: FAA Administrator Marion Blakey

Secretary Norman Mineta
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Old 04-17-2006, 08:38 AM
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Well,
I guess everyone in this industry is being hit with pay and benefit cuts in times of record business. Really makes the small business owner wonder what he would do if he / she were operating at near capacity and still taking a loss. Hmm maybe raising the price of the product and operating a smaller business in the black could actually be better than a larger corporation that is continually in and out of bankruptcy? Nahh probably not, we should just continue on this way so maybe we can push for an industry wide strike including controlers right? Really makes you wonder what our future holds doesn't it?

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Old 04-17-2006, 08:40 AM
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WDTN-TV (Dayton, Ohio): Air Traffic Contollers In Contract Talks

Dated: 04/13/2006 10:49:30 AMUpdated: 04/13/2006 10:56:36 AM

Contract talks are failing at Dayton International Airport, and that could put your flight in danger.

Air traffic controllers and the FAA have been negotiating for about nine months.

Controllers say the FAA wants to impose drastic pay cuts and offer early retirements.

Controllers believe that would lead to a massive staffing crisis, and a safety issue.

"Fewer controllers with record amounts of traffic is not a good thing in our vision. Their vision seems to be about dollars, not about public safety," said Jim Reedy of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Reedy says Dayton's control tower is operating at about 80 percent, and half of those employees may retire in the next five years.
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Old 04-17-2006, 08:43 AM
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Chicago Daily Herald: FAA ordered own radar line to be cut

The afternoon following a plane-grounding snowstorm in early March, O'Hare International Airport's radar system suddenly went down. It took engineers more than three hours to find out why and fix it.

Scores of planes across the nation were grounded as O'Hare had to significantly cut landings, and numerous flights nationwide were delayed up to six hours.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees national radar systems, blamed the March 6 incident on a local telephone company for mistakenly cutting a key communication line during routine maintenance between a radar station in Elgin and O'Hare's main tower.

But according to the FAA's own incident report obtained by the Daily Herald, the agency actually ordered that line cut months earlier, and it simply forgot to cancel the order when a switch to a new line failed.

The costly mistake is now fueling another bout between FAA employees and administrators, underlining a growing tension as union negotiations tank and O'Hare launches into its biggest makeover in history.

PATRICK KUNZER/DAILY HERALD Planes navigate the labyrinth of taxiways and runways at O'Hare International Airport as the main tower watches in the background, directing pilots. A March 6 radar mishap cut landings at O'Hare and stifled flights across the nation for hours.

FAA employees blame the March line-cutting mishap on mismanagement. Troy Swanberg, a local union leader, alleges entry-level engineers were put in charge of the complex line-switching that led to the never-canceled order to cut the line.

"They didn't have someone looking at the whole program," said Swanberg, president of the local engineers and architects division of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "I hope the agency can see the error and change to make sure this doesn't happen numerous times over the life of this project."

Swanberg says more mistakes are likely as O'Hare starts a decade-plus long expansion because entry-level engineers will be in charge of more projects like new radar systems and towers. As the project gets under way, the FAA is set to send about 100 engineers in Des Plaines to Texas.

FAA spokesman Elizabeth Cory says the union is blowing the incident out of proportion. She said no engineers critical to the expansion plan will be moved from Des Plaines. A final list of engineers to move this year is not yet drafted, she said.

"They will be jobs that could be done just as easily long distance," Cory said. "(The radar outage) and the move just aren't really connected."

The move is part of a national consolidation of nine FAA offices to three to save millions of dollars over the years.

Cory said the agency didn't mean to misinform the public about the cause of the March radar breakdown. The agency gave out all the information it had at the time, and she said they didn't follow up with the public because no one asked.

Meanwhile, the FAA is reviewing the process by which such disconnect orders are made, and she said no employees have been faulted in the incident.

Whether the line cut is emblematic of bigger problems or just a simple error is debatable, says Joseph Del Balzo, a former FAA head and current aviation consultant.

"Truth is most likely somewhere in between," said Del Balzo, who has recently done studies on O'Hare's expansion for critics of the project. "I would take what both sides say with a grain of salt."

Both sides' views should be placed in the context of ongoing contract negotiations and the fight over moving local employees to Texas, he said.

Just last week, contract negotiations broke down between the FAA and the Air Traffic Controllers Association.

The controllers are not allowed to strike under federal laws. The FAA has sent its last contract proposal as well as the union's to Congress for a vote.

Plus, local traffic controllers have long been citing the FAA for failing to ensure there will be enough radar operators to handle the new O'Hare traffic after expansion. The controllers union includes Swanberg's engineers and architects in the Des Plaines office.

All this comes to a head as the O'Hare expansion project is rounding its first year of as many as 12. For their part, Chicago officials in charge of the landmark project aren't giving any public indication about their thoughts on the FAA turmoil.

Chicago spokesman Roderick Drew refused to comment on questions about whether the FAA issues will affect the project, which has already been delayed by at least a year.
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Old 04-17-2006, 10:59 AM
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I say fire them all and start over at half pay.

Ronald Reagan
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