FAA Negotiates With Air Traffic Controllers
Jul. 20–Feeling the money crunch from passenger airline losses, the Federal Aviation Administration hopes to cut costs in a new contract with air traffic controllers.
The FAA brought that message to Memphis and 22 other cities Tuesday, the day it exchanged proposals for the first time with officials of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
“We’d like to have an agreement in place quickly so we can turn to safety and modernization issues,” said Diane Spitaliere, the FAA spokeswoman who drew the trip to Memphis. That was part of what she called an FAA effort to go on record with its position.
NATCA had a different view.
“This highly coordinated media assault is a disappointing indication of how much time and energy the FAA is prepared to expend in attacking air traffic controllers — time and energy that would be so much better spent actually engaging in a good faith negotiation on how best to ensure the safety and modernization of our aviation system,” said NATCA president John Carr.
Spitaliere had praise for the nation’s 14,500 air traffic controllers, 376 of whom work in the Memphis tower.
“They are dedicated professionals who do a fine job for air travelers every day,” she said. “They should be paid well, and they are.”
But their five-year contract, signed in 1998 and extended for two years in 2003, is too expensive, given the drop in receipts going into the FAA Trust fund as so many airlines lose money, Spitaliere said.
That agreement was supposed to produce $200 million in efficiency and productivity gains. Instead, the air traffic control payroll rose from $1.4 billion to $2.4 billion by 2004 as the average pay and benefit package for a controller reached $156,400, she said.
In addition, work rules in the contract hamper the FAA efforts to move controllers from one city to another as air traffic patterns change, Spitaliere said.
She declined to discuss specific changes FAA officials want in a new contract, saying that was the subject of negotiations.
Talks start Monday.
The old contract stays in force until a new one is signed, and controllers, as federal employees, may not go on strike.
They did once — when negotiations with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) broke down in 1981 — and President Reagan fired the strikers.
Carr did talk about NATCA’s agenda.
–Modernization — investment in technology.
–Added staffing. As air traffic has increased, the FAA has 1,000 fewer controllers than seven years ago, Carr said.
Also, controllers hired after PATCO members were fired in 1981 are approaching retirement.
–Fairness. Despite the FAA’s run to the media before talks start, the union hopes for good faith negotiations, Carr said.
That is an FAA goal, Spitaliere said.
“We want a contract that is fair to the controllers, the taxpayers and the traveling public,” she said.
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