Wants To Force Agency Back To Labor Negotiations

In part one of this report, you read about NATCA's concern with the FAA's staffing policies. Atlanta tower controller Gary Brittain related an incident that almost led to disaster when a controller cleared a jet for takeoff into landing traffic -- an incident he blames on fatigue resulting from inadequate staffing. Today ANN concludes its coverage of NATCA's press conference. Click here to read part one.

Jeff Richards with Chicago ARTCC recounted another incident where he believes staffing affected safety. He said a Skywest commuter inbound to O'Hare and a Northwest 757 out of Detroit came within 1.79 miles of each other as two controllers discussed new equipment -- under evaluation at Chicago ARTCC -- designed to meter traffic into busy airports.

According to Richards, one of the two controllers was not certified to use the equipment because he had received no training. Richards said tight staffing precluded time off the floor for training. The non-certified controller asked the other a question about using the equipment which distracted her as she cleared the Skywest plane to descend through the 757's flight path. The two aircraft were nose to nose at under two miles before the Skywest aircraft descended clear of the 757.

Tony Vella of SoCal TRACON said he's concerned about the number of new controllers inbound to his facility. He says his TRACON should be manned at 261 controllers, but over the last three years has seen the number drop to 188, plus 23 trainees. He said between now and October, SoCal TRACON is to receive 55 - 65 new controllers, only 10 with prior experience.

"Looking at those numbers it really indicates the agency is starting to understand how drastically and severely it's underestimated the wave of controller retirements," said Vella. "The agency is trying to make up on lost time, but they're out of time -- the time has come and gone."

And Vella is very concerned about training the incoming controllers. Under the old contract, new hires with the FAA started at less busy, less stressful facilities while they learned the skills necessary to do the job. Now, new hires go directly to facilities like SoCal TRACON, which Vella said handled 2.3 million operations last year -- that's upward of 7,200 aircraft on the busiest days.

Vella said what used to be a six- to fifteen-month process to prepare an experienced controller for operations at SoCal will now take three to five years -- because new hires come to the facility with little to no experience.

And it all comes down to money said NATCA's communications director Doug Church. "They'd rather bring someone in under a "B" scale pay system and put them in these busy facilities and take their chances on whether they make it or not," he said.

With 58 controllers becoming eligible to retire at SoCal TRACON between now and December, Vella sees no improvement in staffing either. "The way things are going it will be nothing more that a 'tread water' situation for probably three to five years," he said.

Additionally, Vella believes putting a new hire to work in the world's busiest TRACON does that person a disservice. "There is already enough pressure as it is. It's busy; it's extreme; it's relentless; and it does not stop," he said.

NATCA expects to publish in the next few weeks washout rates for new hires it believes will raise many eyebrows. Forrey said the FAA has those numbers, but refuses to share them. NATCA is compiling the data for themselves.

Vella believes short staffing is directly related to the number of operational errors at SoCal TRACON. He claims the facility logged eight errors in 2004 with staffing under the old contract. In 2006, the facility saw 22 errors -- almost triple the 2004 number.

Besides staffing and training, Church claims oppressive new work rules are destroying morale saying, "It resonates, day in and day out."

Added to the sour feelings, he said, is knowing those rules were forced on them without benefit of negotiations. "We would like to have some semblance of a relationship with our employers," Church added.

Church said the prevailing attitude among the most senior controllers is disgust with the work environment which leads to apathy. "They tell me it's just not worth it to come to work anymore. They say, 'I've made a good living; I've got a decent retirement; I've done my time -- let someone else put up with the problems we have here.'"

The FAA has publicly responded to NATCA's repeated warnings of short staffing with assurances its facilities are manned appropriately and safely. ANN asked Forrey if he believes the FAA is lying. Forrey said if it comes to a credibility contest "all you have to do is look at what [the FAA has] reported in the past. Go back to Lexington where they say they should have two people on position at midnight. They only had one, and they knew it. And the reason they didn't do it is because they didn't want to pay the overtime; they didn't want to put another body there because they didn't feel they needed another body there."

Church said the bottom line for controllers is safety. "What we continue to push as conditions deteriorate is that they slow the system down and put in more controls to reduce the number of planes in the air at any given time, or the arrival rates at our airports."

Meanwhile, he said, the FAA wants to run itself like a private business allocating costs on a per-operation basis like a private business -- a development he believes has serious implications. ANN asked Church if he sees parallels in the FAA's latest funding proposal and the way it's handled staffing recently.

While declining to say specifically he believes the FAA's proposal is wrong, he did say NATCA opposes user fees because they usually lead to privatization, which he believes would be a disaster for the FAA. He also said NATCA is troubled about the part of the FAA's proposal that would give control of the nation's aviation system to a committee headed mostly by the airlines.

"NATCA is very concerned about a small contingency of users essentially running the system under the FAA's proposed user fee funding plan," he said.

FMI: www.natca.org