Rooster
New Member
I believe that the FAA's actions indicate that they do not care about the future of the controller workforce. I believe that they are deliberately trying to completely clear out the highly-paid previous generation of controllers with draconian work rules so that the new and politically-naive rookie majority in NATCA will vote to agree on a 5% pay raise (after the 30% cut) and the ability to wear jeans to work (that had been arbitrarilly revoked) in return for dropping all the complaints made by the previous generation of controllers and waiving their right to a negotiated contract. I also believe that they FAA won't reach this endgame because they didn't count on hemmoraging new hires as quickly as their retirees.
As the ratio of certified controllers to trainees gets worse and worse with retirements, there will inevitably be a breaking point where a crisis is declared and the case will be made before Congress that we just don't have enough trained controllers to work traffic and must fork over our airspace to the lowest bidder.
"Wouldn't management lose their jobs if air traffic control was privitized? Isn't this against their best interests?"
It isn't.
On September 10th 2008, the private, for-profit Raytheon Technical Services received a $437 million contract to provide training support for FAA air traffic controllers. Charlie Keegan is Raytheon's Program Manager. In 2006 Charlie Keegan resigned from his position of Vice President for Operation Planning at the FAA. Keegan, and others like him from FAA management, are maneuvering themselves into profitable positions away from the FAA before the upcoming fallout.
In short, I believe controllers are already headed toward privitization whether we like it or not, and that the people running those private companies will be the same people who are running the FAA now, only they will be much richer.
I don't see this playing out any other way.
Do you?
As the ratio of certified controllers to trainees gets worse and worse with retirements, there will inevitably be a breaking point where a crisis is declared and the case will be made before Congress that we just don't have enough trained controllers to work traffic and must fork over our airspace to the lowest bidder.
"Wouldn't management lose their jobs if air traffic control was privitized? Isn't this against their best interests?"
It isn't.
On September 10th 2008, the private, for-profit Raytheon Technical Services received a $437 million contract to provide training support for FAA air traffic controllers. Charlie Keegan is Raytheon's Program Manager. In 2006 Charlie Keegan resigned from his position of Vice President for Operation Planning at the FAA. Keegan, and others like him from FAA management, are maneuvering themselves into profitable positions away from the FAA before the upcoming fallout.
In short, I believe controllers are already headed toward privitization whether we like it or not, and that the people running those private companies will be the same people who are running the FAA now, only they will be much richer.
I don't see this playing out any other way.
Do you?