The issue is not with new hires. The demand is being met with tons of applicants Most of which aren't capable of doing the job the FAA is advertising on facebook and myspace, now there's who I want controlling my airplane, that's quality. The issue is with current CPCs. Prior to the new scale it was very natural for a CPC at lower lever to move up to a busier location for an increase in pay. But with the new scale, They would lose their salary and potentialy make a lot less when moving to the new scale, all while doing more work! And this is the CPCs fault how? Somehow I see the IWRs, new pay-scale, and non-tract to blame for them not wanting to move.
Now the higher level facilities have to take rookies right out of OKC which just increases training expenses If you've read some of the posts on here most of these new guys are REQUESTING to go to the lvl. 12 facilities because they want the "challenge" and think they can handle it. Most 10-12 facilities just are not used to training fresh meat and have not been doing a good job leading to many new hires washing out meaning that all the money spent training them at OKC and how ever long they lasted at the facility is now down the toilet. And thats ALOT OF MONEY. Contribute most of the wash outs to OKCs inability to act as a screen between training and the facility like it used to (>20% of people going through passed). Then to send them to facilities such as ATL, LAX, DFW etc., do you really think it's right to take someone whose never spoken to an airplane and throw them into the busiest facilities in the world and expect them to succeed where those who have controlled traffic at lvl. 10-11 facilities have failed? Especially with their work ethic (watching TV during breaks from the class room, coming back from breaks late, etc.)
They take every transfer as case by case and are giving out different one time packages. but that is just a quick fix and will not work on everyone to fill the current and upcoming void. However it looks like the FAA thinks this will work. It won't work but it will be a few years before a change. My only concern is what about us. What type of clause will there be for hired after 2008 & ect...
Like i said, the applicant pool is high, they will not throw more money at us because they don't need too! I hope they can stand their ground when all of their currently hired trainees and those that they will hire quit/wash out and their applicant pool has dried up (The CTI and VRA pool is even now pretty much non-existant). There are those that have already completed their R school (or RADAR training) at ZTLamong other facilities and are resigning. Throwing people at the problem is not helping and the FAA is going to figure that out after more than half of the PUBNAT applicants that will be hired this year and next year have either washed out or resigned for the various complications that the IWRs and "contract" have caused.