Fri, Jul 16, 2004
Fired Controllers Want First Dibs At ATC Jobs
On Monday,air traffic controllers from all three major New York
airports, the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) --
the nation's second-busiest -- and New York Air Route Traffic
Control Center -- the nation's fourth-busiest - - will meet with
reporters to talk about both the serious controller shortages
facing their facilities and the potential travel and safety
concerns associated with having too few eyes handling planes.
The Federal Aviation Administration itself anticipates a
controller shortage nationwide of up to 50 percent in the next 10
years. Timing is particularly critical given upcoming votes in the
House and Senate Appropriations Committees authorizing funding for
the FAA and other transportation-related agencies. A bipartisan
group of Senate committee members have asked their colleagues to
give $14 million to FAA to begin the critical hiring process.
What About PATCO?
But Ron Taylor says the answer is in plain sight: Rehire PATCO
controllers. In fact, Taylor, president of the fired controllers'
union, says he has 3,500 highly qualified air traffic controllers
ready to go back to work with a minimum of training. And Taylor
says he plans to file an injunction against hiring any other
controllers until all the PATCO members are offered their old jobs
back.
"We're not lepers," Taylor told Aero-News. "They've already
rehired 846 PATCO controllers."
Taylor said he's fed up with complaints that there aren't enough
controllers to go around when his members are languishing in jobs
outside aviation. "These guys and NATCA are crying the blues, but
they won't even ask us [to return]."
Taylor said he would file for an injunction in one of two class
action suits involving fired controllers -- one in Tennessee and
one in Texas. There are several hundred smaller suits still pending
from the mass firing of controllers in the 1980s, most of them
accusing the FAA of age discrimination in failing to hire them
back.
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