Says "Off-The-Street" Hiring Undercuts Students Working On
Degrees
Why should a prospective air traffic controller spend many
thousands of dollars at college pursuing a degree that leads to a
job with the Federal Aviation Administration... when they could
simply respond to the FAA's many current "help wanted" ads on
MySpace, Craigslist or Facebook -- without needing that college
degree -- and land the same controller job?
That's the question the National Air Traffic Controllers
Association says many students and graduates of degree programs in
the Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) are asking, as they sit
next to fresh-off-the-street FAA hires at the FAA Academy in
Oklahoma City and wonder how their $18,732 salary is going to cover
their student loan payments.
According to students and NATCA officials monitoring the
situation, this new "class system" of hires has led to questions,
confusion, frustration and a lowering of morale and enthusiasm.
"The FAA's massive recruiting effort, despite its cheerful
talking points and rosy public statements, has angered students who
were told to go through the CTI program to get hired at a cost of
thousands of dollars," National Air Traffic Controllers Association
President Patrick Forrey said. "Our fear is that those great
schools will lose their students if they can get hired by simply
applying online or at a local job fair. This is a serious problem
because CTI students come to the agency armed with the experience
needed to comfortably fit into the incredibly demanding on-the-job
training program at their first air traffic control facility,
greatly increasing their chances of successfully becoming a fully
certified controller."
NATCA suggests one way the FAA could begin to solve the problem,
is by offering CTI grads the chance to participate in a student
loan repayment program. Interestingly, Ventris C. Gibson, the FAA
assistant administrator in charge of personnel management, told
reporter Stephen Barr of The Washington Post for a story in the
April 23 issue that the agency is taking the step of starting such
a program for student loans. Gibson also said the FAA plans to
offer child-care subsidies for employees at air traffic
centers.
However, NATCA states when the union proposed the creation of
both a student loan repayment program and a child-care subsidy
program during contract negotiations in early 2006, the FAA never
responded until the final day of mediation... and then rejected
both proposals "on their merits."
"We have seen nothing from the FAA on these two issues except in
Ms. Gibson's new comments to The Washington Post," Forrey said. "We
offered a student loan repayment program and child-care subsidies
at the contract table and the FAA rejected them. This now
constitutes an unfair labor practice and another example of bad
faith bargaining."
Forrey stressed the important thing is the well-being of the new
hires and their ability to succeed, develop a passion for the
important work of air traffic control and feel good about their
work environment and employer as they are handed the responsibility
of being the next generation workforce. Forrey maintains all of
those things are currently on the decline.
"This is another example of the FAA's lack of both integrity and
planning and its business-first attitude," Forrey concluded. "They
have caused a rift between two classes of new employees. Add to
that a list of 2,000 trainees the FAA promised a certain salary
upon full certification only to cut it by 30 percent with last
September's imposed work rules, and the 12,000 fully certified
controllers working today who will never see another pay raise and
you have a recipe for disaster."