Airline Unions- it’s time to speak up
Union pilots within the United States, the FAA has recently announced they will be slashing the target amount of air traffic controllers by roughly 2000 people from 14,500 down to about 12,500 and your safety is in jeopardy.
This post isn’t about people losing their jobs, in fact nobody will be fired to achieve the FAA’s goal. But this is about the FAA compromising safety to try and appear they’re well-staffed.
For the past 10+ years, many of the controllers you talk to daily are working mandatory 6 day work weeks, and some even 10 hour days (60hr weeks). That’s 4 days off per month. This is happening because the FAA is so critically staffed. Controllers are exhausted, fed up, and lacking motivation which all plays into their job performance. But now, instead of trying to fix it, the FAA wants to make that the norm.
This is all for perception. Nobody can say the FAA is critically staffed if they lower their “100%” staffed guideline to something very close to what exists today.
This compromises safety and comes on the back of DCA and LGA, two recent incidents where ATC played a hefty role.
Airline Unions- controllers need your help. NATCA has failed the controllers. The airline unions are the heavy hitters in this industry. You are the customers, you have the power, and you have the strength in numbers.
Contact those with power in your unions to make waves about this where it matters, both publicly and in Washington. You all know better than most how fragile the ATC system is. It’s your lives up there- now is the time to step up and speak up in the interest of your own safety.