FAA Administrator Blakey is out stumping on issues near and dear to her heart... but a succinct summation of the labor difficulties she has with the ATC folks seems tailor-made for your perusal. The following remarks were made during her speech to the City Club of Cleveland, in Cleveland, OH, on May 19, 2006.

Excerpt From Administrator Blakey's Speech

"On a related note, I know that some of you have been following our contract negotiations with our air traffic controllers. The majority of our operational costs come from personnel — about 60 percent of our 14 billion dollar budget. That’s why our contract negotiations with our controllers’ union, NATCA, are so important. Our proposal comes on the heels of a 1998 contract that just spiraled out of control in terms of cost. We couldn’t sign another one like that. The salary and benefits for our 14 thousand-plus controllers right now is over 166 thousand dollars. Our contract proposal keeps that in place. New controllers, however, would start much lower and rise to salary and benefits of 127 thousand after five years on the job.

For the record we did not propose a pay cut. To the contrary, every offer we made, including the last one now before Congress, explicitly “grandfathered” the salary and benefits, and, on average, 82 percent of premium pay, for our current controllers. 

I’ve said it on several occasions: I cannot and will not sign a contract we cannot afford. More than a decade ago, Congress set up “personnel reform” for the FAA, which gave our employees the almost unique privilege in the federal government of negotiating pay. Congress also told us to achieve cost savings and greater productivity, and that if contract negotiations reached impasse, that we should forward those proposals to it for a 60-day period. After that if Congress elected to take no action the FAA would have the right to implement our proposal.

We’re waiting for Congress to complete its review by early June. Because we have protected the salaries of the existing controller workforce, what you’ve been hearing about — a rash of retirements by controllers dissatisfied with their pay — simply will not happen. The system will continue to fly smoothly, safely, and efficiently, just as it always has."

FMI: www.faa.gov