Air Traffic Controllers-FAA Talks Dispute Future of Airspace Safety

In August 1981, 11,500 air traffic controllers who belonged to the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, known as PATCO, were permanently fired by President Ronald Reagan, two days after their strike began, due to their violation of federal law. The president felt that the union did not seriously consider the 'no-strike' provision of their contract and had no other choice, in order to avoid a disastrous disruption in United States airspace. PATCO workers were then replaced with non-unionized employees. Further to the firing, President Reagan through an Executive Order in 1982, prevented any of the fired air traffic controllers from being rehired in the future by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), which oversees U.S. air traffic control. Over the next 3-4 year period new controllers were hired and trained in order to replace those fired, provided with supplementation by the U.S. military, in order to keep planes in the air. In 1993, also by Executive Order, President Bill Clinton rescinded Reagan's Order, allowing previously fired PATCO workers to be hired again by the FAA, which presently includes several hundred of the previously dismissed. Now, nearly 25 years later, the newly named air traffic controllers union, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), is in prolonged contract negotiations once again with the FAA, which began July 13, 2005. The present contract, which expired in 2003 was extended until September 30, 2005, with salaries frozen and benefits continued until new terms were met. As of September 30, 2005, the contract has expired but continues under an "evergreen clause," allowing for the original contract to remain in effect as long as talks continue. Similarly to the negotiations which led to the 1981 strike are the issues of increased salaries and reduced working hours. But more differences than similarities exist in the present talks. Since the last agreement was negotiated in 1998, NATCA members are working longer hours and have more security responsibilities in the wake of September 11, 2001. In addition, after the initial tailing off of air travel at the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002, there are now more flights in the air at any one time in the history of aviation travel, but with fewer controllers watching over more airplanes in the U.S., which has the world's busiest airspace. However, in the last two years, the FAA has lost 1,000 controllers. But at the crux of the problem is that many of the controllers today are those who were hired in the early 1980's and are set for retirement either immediately or in the near future. There is a federal mandate which requires all controllers to retire at age 56 whether or not there are employees to replace them. The FAA admits that 2,580 controllers are set to retire between 2005 and 2007 while only hiring an additional 13 in 2004. Additionally, there are not enough replacements in waiting in order to fill the quota. Instead of the originally promised 1,248 hires for Fiscal Year 2006, the FAA will now only hire 595 and phase in the remaining 654, by replacing one retiree at a time. With 9,000 of its 14,500 current number of air traffic controllers having been hired in the early 1980's, the FAA has dragged its heels on implementing a replenishment system known about for years. In a Government Accountability Office report issued in June 2002, it stated that "The FAA has not done enough to plan for the impending staffing crisis and needs to do so as soon as possible. It has not developed such a comprehensive workforce strategy to address all of the challenges it faces in responding to its impending need for thousands of new air traffic controllers, thus increasing the risk that the FAA will not have enough qualified controllers when necessary to meet air traffic demands." Sadly, the FAA took two more years to acknowledge their shortcomings regarding staffing needs, publishing a similar report of their own in 2004, but has recently promised to add 12,50