Says Agency Should Have Standard Staffing Policies

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is on a mission: to educate the US airline traveling public about its concerns with FAA management practices. As part of that process, the association held a telephone press conference Tuesday to which it invited ANN.

Making statements and answering questions were the association's president, Patrick Forrey, as well as its director of communications Doug Church, Tony Vella from the southern California terminal radar approach control (SoCal TRACON) facility in San Diego, Gary Briton a tower controller from Atlanta and Chicago air route traffic control center (ARTCC) controller Jeff Richards.

NATCA's biggest beef with the FAA is staffing.

"The FAA is losing controllers at a staggering rate," said Forrey, adding the agency is losing controllers at the rate of three per day. Forrey claims the FAA has underestimated controller loss rates for three years running, and the agency is now 1,100 short.

How did that happen? Forrey said it all started with the controller strike in the early eighties when President Reagan fired the whole workforce. That meant a tremendous number of controllers were hired all at once, and now they all are -- or soon will be -- eligible for retirement.

Forrey said by 2012 over 7,000 controllers will have come eligible for retirement -- and he believes most will accept even though the majority could work longer.

Why? Forrey said flawed labor negotiations from just over a year ago -- during which NATCA and the FAA reached impasse -- resulted in "jailhouse work rules" and a two-tiered pay system that eliminated raises for a large portion of the workforce.

Under current law, when the FAA and controllers can't agree on a labor contract, Congress has 60 days to intervene. Should Congress decline, the law allows the FAA to unilaterally impose its last offer.

"It's not a fair process," said Forrey. NATCA wants to see that law changed and force the FAA back to the bargaining table, perhaps even under independent binding arbitration such as that enjoyed by most other labor organizations.

Forrey said the FAA claims a large pool from which it may hire potential controllers. But, he said, that pool will soon dry up as those seeking jobs come to understand the current realities. He said 56 newly-hired controllers recently resigned when they didn't receive pay raises promised before the FAA imposed its latest work contract.

Under the new contract, according to Forrey, a salary cap now in place means many experienced controllers will never see another pay raise before reaching mandatory retirement age. That eliminates the biggest incentive to stay as a pay raise would increase a controller's pension as well.

In an oft repeated mantra during the conference, Forrey said, "We believe the FAA is managing to budget instead of managing to safety."

So how is safety affected? Forrey said some controllers are working six-day weeks because of the low staffing levels. Additionally, he said the new work rules mean the FAA can force controllers to man a position for more than two hours.

Forrey said he doesn't see staffing levels improving any time soon. "The FAA is not hiring controllers, it's hiring trainees, and trainees take two to four years to get certified and become useful to the system. The gap between who can work and who can't is growing larger," he said.

Atlanta tower's Gary Brittain said controllers there perform duties for six to six-and-a-half hours per eight hour work day -- usually two hours actively handling traffic. He said there are 200 planes per hour going through the airport.

Under the old contract, FAA conducted manning studies to determine staffing levels at ATC facilities. Then, Atlanta's tower was authorized 56 controllers. Under the new contract, Atlanta has 34 fully-qualified controllers with five trainees. Of the 34 qualified, 12 are eligible to retire with nine of those expressing plans to do so. Brittain said four have retired since October when the new work rules went into effect.

And Atlanta's staffing dropped despite the addition of a new runway which further added to the work load.

Brittain said the biggest issue for the remaining controllers is fatigue. He claims the new rule limiting breaks to 20 minutes doesn't give enough time to recover in a high-stress work environment. Add in constant overtime, and Brittain said you have a recipe for disaster. "We believe we're prime in Atlanta for a human-factor error," claims Brittain.

He recounted a near-disaster that occurred at Atlanta on January 10 where a veteran controller issued a takeoff clearance for a 757 directly into oncoming traffic. Brittain said the controller noticed his error and canceled the clearance as the jet reached 140 knots -- just two knots before rotation speed. Luckily, the jet was using Atlanta's longest runway and was able to stop, but not without overheating its brakes and blowing tires.

Brittain believes fatigue played a big role in the incident. He said fatigue is cumulative and insidious. "When fatigue sets in, you're the last guy to know you forgot something," he said.

In the January 10 incident, the controller who issued the clearance had just taken over the position. Brittain said, the off-going controller had worked 13 overtime shifts in the previous six months, while the oncoming controller had worked seven overtime shifts in the previous 15 weeks -- including an overtime shift the day before.

Before a controller can leave a position he or she must brief the current situation to the on-coming controller. Brittain said shorter break times add to the pressure to get off position and to the break area; in this case that pressure resulted in an incomplete hand-off briefing.

Brittain adds the looming loss of experience makes the situation even more scary. "Would a less-experienced controller have caught and reacted appropriately to his error?" he asked. "We need to hold on to experienced controllers and we're giving them incentive to leave rather than stay."

Brittain wonders why Atlanta -- the world's busiest airport -- is staffed lower than Chicago. With the staggering number of operations at both airports, the 30,000 fewer per year at Chicago are insignificant according to Brittain, who says the work loads at both are essentially identical.

So why then does Atlanta have only 34 qualified controllers while Chicago enjoys 59?

Brittain said it's because regional leadership is free to staff as they see fit. In Atlanta's case, he believes management seeks to boost its annual bonuses by cutting costs -- one of the benchmarks used to rate management's performance under the FAA's desire to run itself as a business rather than a government service.

Brittain said NATCA doesn't understand the standards FAA uses to determine manning levels. He said the tower manning disparity between Atlanta and Chicago reflect differing priorities between the regional leadership with "one prioritizing safety; the other prioritizing costs."

Check back tomorrow to read about another harrowing near miss NATCA claims was due to controller staffing, in Part Two of this report.

FMI: www.natca.org