Flight Service Sigmet

We want to take this opportunity to re-visit a topic mentioned in our post of 8/30/05 (“The Lies of Ventris Gibson”). There, we dissected Ms. Gibson’s claim as evidence of 'good faith' that the fired AFSS controllers would have a two-year re-hire preference on jobs for which they are “well qualified.” At the time we called this “an empty benefit.”

After almost 6 months our description seems accurate. Since the Lockheed takeover on 10/4/05, very few controllers have been able to find positions elsewhere in the FAA despite control facilities that are begging for people. One employee who passed the controller screen has sent out 50 applications and made only one interview list. Again, Ms. Gibson is lying when she says “We went all out” to place employees within the agency.

News arrived today that Fight Service controllers will soon be able to vote on bargaining unit representation. The National Association of Air Traffic Controllers (NAATS) and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement that can be seen here. The first thoughts on this from the parties can be seen here and here. This is welcome news, and we’ll be looking at this over the coming days.

Daily posting is the life-blood of the blogosphere. Without fresh material the operation withers on the vine. As you can see, we have not posted for two months, an unpardonable sin in the blogging world. We apologize for the lack of output, but such is our situation, as well as the narrow topic range we cover.

We'd like to be able to say "We'll do better." but can't make such a promise. The topic hasn't completely been drained of content, but there's less to say this year than last. Still there are things to be voiced, and perhaps we can bring these to you.