The Latest Torment for Air Traffic Controllers: A Dress Code

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/09/21/dress-codes-is-just-the-latest-to-torment-air-traffic-controllers/

The Latest Torment for Air Traffic Controllers: A Dress Code

by Tula Connell, Sep 21, 2006

What is it about air traffic controllers that Republican administrations don’t like?

Or, another way to rephrase the question: What is it about ensuring passenger air safety that Republican administrations don’t like?

When Ronald Reagan was president, he broke the air traffic controllers union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), by firing 11,000 air traffic controllers who went out on strike in 1981 for a shorter workweek and higher pay.

The Bush administration’s preferred method of attack is death by a hundred cuts.

Over Labor Day weekend, Bush’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) unilaterally imposed a contract on air traffic controllers that will cut pay by as much as 30 percent, increase work hours, reduce pensions and cut back mandatory breaks that helped reduce fatigue.

Never mind that controller fatigue may have contributed to the fatal Comair crash that killed 49 people in Lexington, Ky., last month. The lone air traffic controller on duty had only nine hours between two work shifts—and only two hours sleep before going back on duty, according to the Associated Press.

FULL story at link above.



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[madrchsod]

1. there is a huge shortage of qualified workers in the usa

and the faa figures that qualified people are willing to work for nothing. my wife just got hired by a finish company here in the states. they start at 11+ and top at 17+ which around here is top wage. they have hired 11 people and 9 washed out the first week.why? they were late,didn`t show up,or couldn`t do the job. so my wife with less than 4 days is top in senority. i guess it takes a 52 year old woman with ten years of pressroom experience to show up the guys who got fired. ya the faa is going to find out just what kind of help there is out there...maybe they will hire teaching grads that can`t find a job....