by Mike Hall, Jun 6, 2006

Acting before Congress has the opportunity to force the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resume bargaining with the nation’s air traffic controllers, the FAA imposed a new contract yesterday on more than 14,000 workers.

The proposal cuts pay for current controllers, slashes pay rates for the next generation of hires and reduces pensions for experienced controllers if they stay on the job. Along with imposing pay cuts of up to 30 percent, the contract could lead to as many as 4,000 of the 14,000 controllers in the already short-staffed FAA towers to retire, according to some estimates. 

John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, says:

Sixty days ago the FAA Administrator Marion Blakey got up and walked out on our nation’s air traffic controllers, preferring to impose her will on them rather than complete voluntary bargaining on a new contract. She unilaterally terminated bargaining, breaking up with dedicated public servants who are asking for nothing more than fairness and accountability at the table. 

The FAA declared an impasse in bargaining in April and under federal law was able to unilaterally impose the contract terms 60 days later on June 5. But the U.S. House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on a bipartisan bill (H.R. 5449) that would force the FAA to return to the bargaining table and lift the imposed contract terms.

Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, says the bill, authored by Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), will:

restore sanity to a bargaining process that is broken at the FAA. The LaTourette bill will negate today’s action by simply referring the unresolved contract issues to negotiations, mediation and, if necessary, binding arbitration. This bill does not take sides in this bargaining stalemate but it does ensure fairness for air traffic controllers and all FAA employees who engage in negotiations with the agency.

Click here to urge your U.S. representative to vote “yes” on the bill.

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