Air traffic controller union is … out of control – Latest News
As the air traffic control disaster drags on, placing lives at risk and snarling logistics at key journey hubs, a new villain has emerged: the controllers union.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got here up with a good, fast repair to the fast staffing disaster (which brings critical security issues in addition to delayed/canceled flight chaos): Keep senior controllers working a bit longer.
He’d offer money bonuses to controllers beneath the obligatory retirement age of 56 to keep them on the job, and possibly work out waivers so some might serve previous 56 till turning 61.
(He has different, longer-term plans as properly, together with shifting fast to deal with the aging-equipment mess left behind by his Biden-era predecessor, Pete Buttigieg.)
Extra pay for essential work, on a completely voluntary foundation with an eye to ending a horrible and worsening drawback: Who might have a drawback with that?
Why, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association: The union hates the concept, and has voted to punish any controller who indicators a waiver with a seniority cap (i.e., you stop accruing seniority the day you are taking Duffy’s offer).
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The union’s rationale: “Each waiver puts early retirement at risk by showing the Agency [the FAA] and Congress that mandatory retirement is unnecessary.”
That is, a coverage that performs a essential function in driving controller shortages is likely to be “unnecessary,” and NATCA doesn’t need that reality uncovered: It would slightly the disaster proceed.
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And the union has the chutzpah to state this publicly.
Looks like President Ronald Reagan didn’t go far enough after smashing PATCO, the unique controllers union: He ought to’ve salted the earth slightly than let NATCA type.
Via NATCA, todays controllers are performing neither within the best pursuits of the taxpayers who cowl their salaries nor the air vacationers for whose security they’re accountable.
Duffy and the president need to hit back twice as onerous, earlier than this disaster spirals totally out of control.
