FAA: Crisis? WHAT Crisis?
Nobody doubts air traffic controllers have a legitimate labor
dispute with the FAA. In 2006, after contract negotiations reached
an impasse, the FAA used the authority granted it by Congress to
simply impose what it called its "last, best offer," and the union
is prohibited by law from striking.
So...what do you do if you're the union? The National Air
Traffic Controllers Association fell back on a strategy of
attempting to make the FAA look buffoonish whenever possible --
something the agency seemed to take every advantage of doing
-- and scaring the public and Congress into believing safety
is compromised by controllers who are deprived of needed rest and
retiring as soon as they're eligible.
And throughout 2007, there were signs it was working. In
Congress, House Resolution 2881 funded the FAA for another five
years, but included a requirement that the FAA submit to binding
arbitration. It was killed by lack of Senate action and a promise
of a veto from the Whie House.
NATCA may have carried its rhetoric just a little over the top
earlier this month, when it declared a "staffing emergency" at busy
facilities in Atlanta, New York, Chicago and California. At a union
press conference Thursday at Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport, NATCA Regional VP Darrell Meachum told reporters that 23
of the 65 controllers there are eligible to retire right now, and
that number will reach 32 by year's end.
He said this "staffing emergency" means up to half of the
flights landing at DFW might have to be cut if the FAA didn't
negotiate better starting pay for new recruits. This final
hyperbole appears to have pushed the mainstream press too far.
The Fort Worth Star Telegram went to the FAA for comment. The
FAA said, yes, 32 controllers will be eligible to retire this year,
but the agency believes only 13 actually will, and 13 transfers and
33 new trainees from Oklahoma City will follow. And, the FAA
pointed out, controllers at the Dallas-Fort Worth TRACON are
earning annual salaries ranging from $140,000 to $160,000.
The union tells the paper between half and three-quarters of its
members at the facility are working overtime. The FAA notes that
overtime pay is on top of the aforementioned salaries.
Have the union's hysterical headlines finally managed to make
the FAA sound like the reasonable party in this dispute? One has to
ask -- if controllers are really tripping over each other heading
for the retirement door as soon as they reach eligibility, why have
23 guys at DFW, who are already eligible for retirement, stuck
around?