Flight Service Sigmet

As we were writing the previous post, specifically those parts dealing with contracting out of services, we couldn’t help but recall that it is a negotiating year for the air traffic specialists represented by NATCA (National Air Traffic Controllers Association). The contract is up and the battle has been joined. From our view, NATCA has not made an auspicious beginning.

Take first of all, the plea for more staffing. NATCA President Mr. Carr complains about how the controllers he represents are overworked and facilities understaffed. Yet cause and effect have not been demonstrated by Mr. Carr.

Some background; whenever two controlled aircraft come closer together than allowed by the rules, it’s called an ‘operational error’, or OE. Every day, a report is issued on the previous day’s errors. The staffing patterns indicate that numbers are not a common factor. Many OEs occur in situations where half or more of the controllers are on break.

To be sure, this ‘on break’ ratio is not universal when OEs occur, but neither can it be shown that errors are more likely when staffing is below the level Mr. Carr seems to desire. Yes, the FAA faces a future controller shortage for which they have not adequately planned (as recognized by the GAO and IG), but Mr. Carr overstates his case for the present.

To compound his error, Mr. Carr did little or nothing when he could have bolstered his numbers during the recent contracting out of Flight Service. There were, and still are, hundreds of controllers in that service that can step into facility training right now, saving hundreds of hours of early off-the-street training. But Mr. Carr rebuffed this source of manpower just as the FAA continues to do.

Secondly, Mr. Carr presents a demeanor that indicates he believes he is facing the type of labor-management dispute that has been experienced in the past. That is a grave error. Unlike the ‘roll over and play dead’ style of past administrators like Jane Garvey, today’s FAA will fight like a pit bull to bring the NATCA contract to heel. New tools are available to them; Congress released the FAA from some requirements of Title V that govern labor relations.

Yes, NATCA can pitch advertisments about how they are responsible for keeping aircraft from banging together. But the public is going to be a tough sell on someone making $150,000 to $200,000 a year, working 40 hours a week, maybe only half that time actually controlling traffic, with early retirement (including medical benefits) to boot. In the real aviation world (and elsewhere), wages, workforces, benefits, and retirements are being reduced.

Third, Mr. Carr admits no error or fault on the part of the controllers. Publicly, the FAA has at least given lip service to historical mistakes and mismanagement. Not so Mr. Carr. New York TRACON (known as N90) is a cesspool of abuse and featherbedding. It is a national embarrassment. Mr. Carr won’t declare such situations as unacceptable, even in the mildest of terms; in fact, he defends N90s record, despite the obvious. If there were any doubt that as the union president, his word cannot be taken seriously, those doubts have now vanished.

Like aircraft mechanics and pilots before them, Mr. Carr and the controllers he represents have come to a fork in the road. They can admit that the FAA can no longer afford them as is and get the best reasonable offer, or they can fight the old fashioned way and go down in flames.