Retirements of Air Controllers Surge (Congress, Reagan, spokesman, cost)

[bily4]

Something to ponder next time you are flying the friendly skies. This is scary stuff!
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A total of 828 controllers retired in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the FAA said late Friday. That's 28.8 percent more than the 643 retirements the agency predicted at the beginning of fiscal 2007, though it upped its estimate twice during the year, to 700 and then 800.

The union said it found another 24 who confirmed their retirements before Sept. 30 but have not yet shown up in agency retirement records. Union spokesman Doug Church added that only 16 of all the year's retirees had reached 56, the mandatory retirement age.

In addition, during September 2006 — the month before fiscal 2007 — 97 controllers retired, compared with the 39 the FAA predicted, according to the Transportation Department inspector general, who said the jump "was a result of the breakdown in contract talks."

That month began with the FAA ending an impasse in negotiations by imposing a contract with new work rules, including staffing cuts and a dress code, and a 30 percent cut in the pay of starting controllers. The agency tossed out staffing levels negotiated in the 1998 contract, and targeted all 314 control facilities for staff cuts, ranging from 9 percent to 26 percent.

"The surge in retirements just shows that the FAA's imposed work rules and pay system have exacerbated an already critical staffing issue," union president Patrick Forrey said. "Now we have controllers retiring with five and six years of eligible service left because they can't stand the environment any more, the Draconian work rules, six-day workweeks and forced overtime. They're concerned about making a big mistake due to the fatigue."

Retirements of air controllers surge - Yahoo! News (broken link)

[GregW]

I think it is a great money saving program to replace over paid long-term employees with much cheaper trainees whenever possible. Why should the poor overburdened taxpayer have to put up with these people? Imagine wanting to work a 40 hr week and dress comfortably while at your computer. They have the nerve of being in a union. Good riddance to them. All the private jets do not need control anyway. They have direct GPS systems.

One reason the taxpayer should pay attention to this is that the aforesaid taxpayer is generally a business class white-collar person that has to fly on what will become far more dangerous airways. I think the Bushistas may want to rethink this before a couple of plane loads (say 5-600 people) die all at once and not because of terrorists but because of managerial incompetence by this government.

[tigerlily]

I wonder how many planes would have collided, crashed, etc., if we had inexperienced air traffic controllers on the job. My cousin was an air traffic controller and I know the stress is unbelievable. The dress code rule is ridiculous for any occupation that sits in front of a computer all day and does not meet the public.

[GregW]

Administrative controls are more important than public safety. They have to make the workers humble and respectful of the bosses’ arbitrary authority as well as destroy any pesky unions.

This is just another bureaucracy to clean up after we get some decent people in the Congress and White House. It may just come before the Defense Procurement but after the Justice Department.

[bily4]

I understand Bush trying to put down the workers. That is no surprise. But why pick air traffic controllers, for goodness sake??? Nice to see public safety is high on their list of priorities.

[Minnehahapolitan]

The SOBs that Reagan put onto the jobs after he busted the unions 25 years ago should be calling it quits about now. Permanent scabs, I'll be damned. Anyways, there are quite a few "near-misses" every year. If we truly cared about aviation safety, we would put more emphasis on technology and workers instead of trying to find 3 oz. of shampoo. Better yet, we can repeal a trillion dollar tax cut and do both!

[GCSTroop]

Not that I am defending the lack of ATC's but new technology is actually making it easier for airplanes to fly without air traffic controllers. Many international flights have computers that automatically do all the talking to ATC and the computers on the other end do the talking with the airplane. The ATC'er just has to monitor this.However, I think it'll be a LONG time before ATC is completely phased out, if any of you have kids unsure of what they want to do, I'd recommend this career option.

[GregW]

Maybe we could privatize the ATC system and then the airlines could bid on the routes they wanted and the level of security they considered necessary. Then they could price the tickets appropriately. Straight connections with few potential accidents would cost several times as much as indirect routs with higher risk. See how well the market system would ration flights and distribute the risk.

[Willys]

Higher price for tickets to pay for ATC's is a good idea. There are way toooo many people trying to get nowhere fast. If the gov' really needs to waste the cash, improve the rails around the country. Some of those people in too much hurry might do well to get some geography exposure.

Air travel has gotten as nasty as Greyhound Bus.