Wed, Feb 11, 2004
Union Says Agency's Credibility Collapsed After Extension
NATCA, the air traffic
controller's union, is criticizing the FAA. So, what else is new?
This time, the group's beef is with the agreement concerning
Atlanta's air traffic.
NATCA claims the FAA is breaking apart its combined tower/radar
approach control facilities controlling Atlanta airspace,
penalizing air traffic controllers who are handling increasingly
heavy traffic demands. The union also claims the FAA has announced
the swift destruction of the nearly six-year-old agreements, which
governed the controllers who worked in both the control tower at
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the
three-year-old Atlanta Terminal Radar Approach Control facility
located in Peachtree City (GA). The Peachtree facility handles all
flights within a large area around the airport and Northern
Georgia.
Hartsfield-Jackson Tower is the second-busiest in the country,
handling 900,000 takeoffs and landings each year. Atlanta TRACON is
the country's fifth-busiest such facility, handling 1.3 million
operations annually.
"The FAA's integrity is
disappearing faster than Janet Jackson's wardrobe," NATCA President
John Carr said. "Even more distressing than the duplicity shown by
the FAA's action is the resulting disruption to the air traffic
control working environment at one of the country's busiest
airports. Abandoning an integrated approach to air traffic control
between the tower and radar approach control facilities causes
needless distraction at a time when our controllers' focus must be
on the task at hand."
"Unfortunately, it seems that the FAA continues to engage in
political gamesmanship," Carr added. "It is trying to undermine the
collective bargaining process by punishing dedicated air traffic
controllers. A signed agreement between an employer and employees -
dedicated public servants - means nothing to the FAA. And that's
just wrong."
Carr said he is weighing his union's option for legal action in
the matter but seemed resigned to the agency's "dishonorable
tactics" when he added, "I've challenged the highest levels of FAA
leadership to provide me the name of a person I can deal with who
will live by their signed agreements. I'm still waiting for them to
provide that name."
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