FAA-Imposed Labor Day Contract Means Less Sleep for Air Traffic Controller

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/09/05/faa-imposed-labor-day-contract-means-less-sleep-for-air-traffic-controllers/

Organizing & Bargaining, Bush & Co.

Sep 5

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FAA-Imposed Labor Day Contract Means Less Sleep for Air Traffic Controllers

The Bush Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) used the Labor Day weekend to unilaterally impose work rules on its air traffic controllers—rules that air traffic controllers say will reduce passenger safety.

The move was a “brazen, arrogant trampling of the collective bargaining process,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Pat Forrey says:

It’s like getting fired on Christmas. It’s the worst, punch-in-the-gut blow to the morale of this workforce imaginable. But our position is very simple: We do not consider the imposed work rules to be valid because they were not negotiated and have not been ratified by the NATCA membership.

Some of the new rules pose real and potentially dangerous consequences for the safety of airline passengers and crews, NATCA says. For example:

* The new rules cut pay for current and future traffic controllers by as much as 30 percent, reduce pensions and, according to some aviation experts, could prompt more than 4,000 of the current 14,000 controller workforce to retire, exacerbating an already critical controller shortage.
* Under the imposed rules, controllers who do not feel they have gotten enough rest before a shift would be forced to work anyway. Controllers also can no longer take a break after two hours on the job, a longstanding practice that controllers say was a major way to fight fatigue.

Controller fatigue may have contributed to the fatal Comair crash in Lexington, Ky., last month. The lone air traffic controller on duty had only nine hours between two work shifts—and had only two hours sleep before going back on duty, according to the Associated Press.

With control towers already short of staff, controllers are forced to work overtime to ensure air travel is safe. The FAA claims the workers make enough money to be able to absorb a 30 percent pay cut. However, a big factor in controllers’ pay is forced overtime. On average, in some locations, controllers can be assigned 52 overtime shifts per year just to keep up with the huge number of planes in the air, NATCA says.

The result is massive fatigue across the air traffic control system. Overtime and fatigue were the controllers’ key issues in the contract negotiations.

In April, despite NATCA’s offer of more than $1.4 billion in pay and benefit cuts, the FAA cut off talks and declared an impasse. The U.S. House of Representatives on June 5 failed to pass a bill that would have forced the FAA to go back to the bargaining table with the nation’s air traffic controllers, enabling the FAA to impose the contract.

by James Parks

[FloridaPat]

1. They are civil service jobs. The gov't just can't take someone off

civil service whenever they feel like it. I'd like to hear the how they are going to do that. And 30% is unbelieveable. But then, that's certainly compassionate conservatism. They can't reduce pensions because again, those our federal gov't pensions.

As for the 2 hours the guy got in the 9 hours he had off, he should have gone to bed. It's a normal schedule. One goes to bed when one gets off work if one has a midnight shift.

[Omaha Steve]

2. FAA Imposes New Work Rules Independent Aviation news

September 4, 2006
FAA Imposes New Work Rules
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By Russ Niles, Newswriter, Editor



If your clearances are a little clipped, your handoffs a little brisk, it could be the controller working your flight is a little hot under the collar -- the collar he or she likely now has to wear while at work. Now, it's hard to tell if the agency was sending a message to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) or whether senior brass were oblivious to organized labor's affinity for this particular statutory holiday but the FAA's choice to impose hated new work rules on the Labor Day weekend was not lost on the union. "It's like getting fired on Christmas. It's the worst, punch-in-the-gut blow to the morale of this workforce imaginable," said NATCA President Pat Forrey. "But our position is very simple: We do not consider the imposed work rules to be valid because they were not negotiated and have not been ratified by the NATCA membership." Forrey took over the president's post from John Carr on Sept. 1, about three months after the FAA imposed a contract on the union, ending almost a year of, at times, acrimonious negotiations. The union has vowed to fight the imposed contract but for now, at least, will have to live with it.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/12_36a/leadnews/labor_day_193112-1.html

[Omaha Steve]

3. Controllers attack FAA over contract AP

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

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.

"We would never have a controller controlling traffic who was too tired to work," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. The FAA's air traffic manager at Washington Center, which directs high-altitude traffic in the District of Columbia region, said Friday that he would discipline any controllers who called in sick because they were fatigued, said Paul Rinaldi, NATCA executive vice president.

Air traffic controllers say fatigue is a symptom of a nationwide staffing shortage.

Short staffing has forced some controllers to handle double duty, simultaneously directing airplanes on the ground and monitoring air traffic by radar, much like the controller in Kentucky.

Short staffing can also mean little time to rest between shifts, which was also the case in Lexington.

Two years ago, Los Angeles International Airport's control tower was staffed at about half the normal level when a tired air traffic controller was involved in the near-crash of two airliners, according to safety investigators.

On Friday, New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg requested a hearing to determine the risks of short-staffed control towers.

"My personal belief is that the FAA must move swiftly to hire many new air traffic controllers," Lautenberg wrote to the aviation subcommittee chairman, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. The union has said that the FAA is hostile to controllers and that its contract will result in a wave of retirements.

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has said controllers make much more money than other public servants, control scheduling and hold back modernization.

In the tower

Some U.S. airports, with authorized staffing levels and the number of air traffic controllers actually employed by the FAA.

Chicago O'Hare 71 52
Atlanta Hartsfield 55 39
Dallas/Fort Worth 59 48
Dallas Love Field 24 22
Tulsa 39 31
Phoenix Int. 39 36
Miami 100 87
Memphis 75 68

Source: "Saving Pennies and Wasting Dollars," a National Air Traffic Controllers Association report, May 8, 2006.

[MercutioATC]

4. Who's suggesting the FAA is "taking" us "off" Civil Service?

...and who's talking about reducing pensions?


Have you ever had a night when you couldn't sleep? It's interesting how you're so quick to put the blame on the controller for being irresponsible about getting sleep between shifts. Perhaps he tried and couldn't...it's not like he could have taken any medication to help him sleep.

That's not the issue, though. The issue is that EVERYBODY may feel fatigued on occasion. With the FAA's new Nontract, controllers will have no option but to show up for work whether they'ree fatigued or not...and that's dangerous.

For an agency that claims safety as its primary goal, the FAA has been making a lot of decisions that have a direct negative impact on safety lately...

[FloridaPat]

5. The report said controllers were getting a 30% cut in pay and their

pensions would be cut. My question is how could that happen unless they were taken out of civil service.

As for blaming the controller, having spent 9 years doing the same thing, I've been there. That was the point of the 1981 strike. Now you're back to square one with the gov't.

[MercutioATC]

6. New pay bands...the nontract makes that a "management right".

"Pension cuts" are just the result of the effects of the pay cuts on the high three...they're not actually messing with the pension plan.

...and I've been doing this for over 15 years. There have been nights when I stayed up with my son when he was sick. There have been nights when I just couldn't sleep. One of the first things I was told 15 years ago was that if I didn't feel up to working, to call in sick...the job is just too serious to do when you're tired.

A responsible surgeon would cancel operations if he were fatigued. A responsible controller shouldn't be working planes if he's fatigued. The FAA has mandated that we do just that, work regardless of whether we're up for it or not...and they did it in the wake of a fatal air disaster.

Yes, unless/until NATCA's legal challenges to the nontract are successful, we ARE back to square one with the government. That creates situations that the public should be aware of.