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At some time in the life cycle of virtually every organization, its ability to succeed in spite of itself runs out.
That is a fair description of the FAA at this moment. In air traffic we have valiantly made it work with less and less for long time but as poor resources degrade to worse, our ability to pull off the miracle of the best safety record in the world is being challenged from all sides. This and other poor policy decisions on the Agency’s part make participation in the Fly-Us-Safe campaign so critical. It’s come down to the need for congressional intervention and this is starting to get some real traction. I don’t relish the thought, professionally or personally, of working with poor staffing, draconian work rules, little to no investment in equipment modernization or maintenance, all for an employer that no longer sees its mission or the public good as a priority.
Halloween is just around the corner. Our employer is “treating” us to stalling in contract talks in a rush to presumably declaring a unilateral impasse; continuing under or non funded modernization, anemic action to replace soon to retire controllers and trying to disregard every significant work rule of the last 40 years. In fact, they just fired 11 controllers for clerical errors and you need to be ready for this sort of treatment to come to a facility near you. Hopefully we can respond with a “trick” to their “treat” in the form of congressional intervention. This, of course, brings me back to the www.flyussafe.org and 1-877-FlyUsSafe campaigns. The overall response nationwide is good and many facilities in the Central region have responded well to put us up there with the leaders. Unfortunately, a few facilities have responded with little to no activity. If you work in DSM, CID, ICT, R90 or SUS you may want to ask your leadership what they are doing about this. If you are a FacRep or e-board member at a facility in this region and haven’t participated yet … well … ‘nuff said. Let’s get to work; your Union needs your attention on a matter of extreme importance. Even with 100% participation this might not work, but I like our chances. Either way, it is better to have a horrible ending than to have horrors without end.
In other news, just when you thought that 3.1% raise was secure, several members of the Senate are proposing eliminating the raise for all but the military, the FBI, and law enforcement personnel. Oh well, the Agency is proposing freezing our pay for years anyway. The members of this self named “Fiscal Watch Team are John Ensign (R-NV), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John McCain (R-AZ), and John Sununu (R-NH).
The remaining flight service employees in AK and elsewhere are getting their own Halloween treat. The FAA is moving to decertify their Union (NAATS) on the justification that their bargaining unit has shrunk from over 2000 to 116 after the out-sourcing. No wait it gets better. The Agency is also declaring that the GS-12 wage structure for AFSS is now unrealistic and is formally proposing a WD reduction to GS-9. I’m sure of one thing … I don’t relish the thought of ATC being contracted out with this sort of “benevolence” being thrown around. To say nothing of the impact to safety and public trust inherent in such a move. |
