THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH

THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH
By Dick Meister

It’s not easy for air traffic controllers with a Republican in the White
House. First, it was Ronald W. Reagan firing 11,000 of them in 1981 for
striking to try to better their onerous working conditions. Now, it’s George
W. Bush making the conditions even worse.

The controllers aren’t the only ones involved. Millions of airline
passengers and employees and many fliers who pilot their own aircraft face
serious threats to their safety because of what’s being done by the
controllers’ bosses -- Bush appointees who run the Federal Aviation
Administration.

FAA policies have kept many air traffic control towers badly understaffed,
subjecting the clearly demoralized men and women who operate them to long,
fatiguing work shifts with little time to rest. Listen, for instance, to
what one veteran controller says of the work schedules (anonymously, for
fear of employer retaliation):

“Hundreds, if not thousands of air traffic controllers work a day shift --
typically from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- then report back to work that night,
eight or nine hours later… On a good evening, I get four hours sleep. A
typical evening I get 2 1/2. That’s right,
2 1/2 hours of sleep for an already sleep-deprived mind and body that has
been going all week. Then it’s in the shower, a snack, pack up and drive
back to work to separate airplanes from the ground and from each other.”

Under such circumstances, the potential for serious accidents is obvious.
Consider the crash of a Conair jet on takeoff from the Lexington, Ky.,
airport last August that killed all 49 passengers and crew members. Only one
controller was on duty, although staffing requirements called for two, and
the lone controller had had only nine hours between shifts – and only two
hours sleep.

The controllers have tried through their union to improve the situation. But
the FAA, as unabashedly anti-labor as all other federal agencies under Bush,
rejected union demands for improvements during negotiations for a new
contract last year. The agency then unilaterally imposed new work rules
that made the situation even worse.

Previously, controllers were guaranteed rest breaks after every two hours of
their eye-straining high-anxiety work of following aircraft paths across
radar screens. But no more. And they can now be forced to work overtime,
however fatigued or stressed they may be. Nor are controllers any longer
guaranteed two consecutive weeks of vacation.

Newly-hired controllers will be paid 30 percent less than those now on the
job, creating a two-tier system that’s bound to cause friction among the
controllers and give the FAA a great incentive to force veteran controllers
out in favor of cheaper newcomers. And whether they be long-time or
recently-hired employees, the FAA is aiming to increase their workloads by
an average of 10 percent each over the next few years.

That’s not all, either. The agency imposed a dress code on controllers. No
jeans, no T-shirts, no sneakers or sandals. The FAA said it wanted to make
certain that controllers’ attire would not “erode public confidence” in
them, although most work in windowless rooms, unseen by the public.

Not surprisingly, the controllers’ morale appears to be near rock-bottom.
Recent FAA surveys indicate that two-thirds of them are unhappy with how the
agency is managed. What’s more, they’ve filed more than 280.000 formal
grievances charging the FAA with violating their union rights.

The number of controllers, about 15,000 when President Bush took office, has
been steadily declining at the same time that air traffic has been steadily
increasing. In the past three years alone, the controllers’ ranks have
shrunk by 1,100. The union says that has caused “massive fatigue” among the
remaining controllers who’ve had to take on extra workloads, including
10-hour shifts and six-day work weeks. Some control towers have had to be
shut down for hours at a time for lack of controllers.

Nearly 70 percent of the current controllers are expected to retire over the
next decade, and an undetermined but significant number expected to resign
because of the working conditions imposed by George Bush’s FAA – conditions
that threaten the safety of millions.

But give Bush his due. He’s actually managed to outdo Ronald Reagan, long
proclaimed the greatest of all union-busters.

Copyright © 2007 Dick Meister

Story ID:	2239
Written by:	Dick Meister (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Musings, Essays and Such
Location:	Washington DC USA
Year:	2007
Person:	Air Traffic Controllers