Activities Related to Controller Workforce Issues

A reported $300,000 was spent by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association during the first quarter of 2008 to lobby the US government on pay equality and other work related issues.

Currently embroiled in a contract dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration, NATCA also lobbied on FAA funding and modernization, training initiatives, and system safety and efficiency among other things according to a form posted by the House clerk's office in late April.

NATCA spent nearly $1.3 million in lobbying activities in all of 2007, according to the Associated Press.

NATCA continues to criticize the FAA for what it considers to be a shortage of experienced controllers as veteran controllers retire faster than the government expected. Controllers in training comprise 25 percent of the national work force, up from 15 percent a few years ago.

According to NATCA statistics, nearly 20 percent of the workforce have departed over nearly two years. A total of 2,687 controllers and trainees have left their jobs through retirement, resignations, transfers to other FAA jobs and other reasons from September 3, 2006 through March 31, 2008.

NATCA feels the FAA started hiring far too late to have any hope of keeping up with the attrition rate stating only 153 of the 1,800 new hires the FAA made in FY 2007 have become fully certified controllers.

The FAA contends it has replaced the departing controllers with new hires, which require about three years to fully train.

The union blames attrition soaring well beyond all FAA predictions due to workforce anger and low morale caused by the agency's imposed work and pay rules that began on September 3, 2006.

Besides Congress, NATCA lobbied the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development in the first three months of the year.

FMI: www.natca.org, http://clerk.house.gov