Aviation Unions Raise Concerns

Air Safety Week, June 1, 2009

The nation's aviation labor unions told Congress recently that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must improve its labor management relations after a contentious eight years under the Bush administration while at the same time address flight crew fatigue and tighten monitoring of foreign repair stations.

At a Senate aviation subcommittee hearing on the FAA reauthorization bill, Patrick Forrey, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), told the panel restoring relations with the FAA is only possible with a new collective bargaining agreement. Air traffic controllers have been working under FAA-imposed work and pay rules since 2006 after the Bush administration rejected NATCA's call for mediation and walked away from the bargaining table.

Said Forrey: "A resolution to the dispute is critical to stabilizing the controller workforce, restoring a collaborative working relationship between controllers and the FAA. Not only are controllers working longer on position, but the workload during that time has increased as well. A controller working without an assistant is responsible not only for communication with aircraft, but also for coordination with other controller positions and facilities, as well as updating flight progress information."

Mediation aimed at ending the ongoing contract dispute between the FAA and the NATCA is now ongoing. Both parties signed a process agreement to move the negotiations forward. The agreement provides for extensive mediation sessions and for binding resolution of any unresolved issues.

"One of my highest priorities, since coming to DOT, has been to resolve this issue so that we can move forward to make our commercial aviation system even better than it already is," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in announcing that Jane Garvey, a former FAA Administrator, would lead the mediation team.

Garvey is heading the mediation as part of a three-member panel that also includes Mediators Richard Bloch and George Cohen, who have extensive experience in mediating high profile disputes.

It is expected that the bargaining will continue through early June 2009.

At the same time, Tom Brantley, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), said change must be made in the contract negotiations process with the FAA. For the past six years, four PASS bargaining units have been at an impasse with the FAA.

Stated Brantley: "Over the past several years, labor-management relations within the FAA have been largely dysfunctional. This has resulted in low employee morale, stressful working conditions and overwhelming tension between labor and management--all of which impact the productivity of FAA employees and the efficiency of the aviation system."

Air Line Pilots Association President Captain John Prater and William McGlashen, assistant to the president of the Flight Attendants (AFA), both called on the FAA to address the issue of flight crew fatigue.

Said Prater: "One of the many hardships that the post-9/11 era brought to airline flying is pilots flying right up to the FAA regulatory limit. This has resulted in adverse safety impacts, fatigue, and more stress. Sixteen-hour domestic duty days are facts of life for many airline pilots."

McGlashen said "fatigue is a very real and serious concern for the flight attendant workforce in this country as well. As the deep concessions demanded of flight attendants during the recent and ongoing financial turmoil of the airline industry have taken hold it has become clear that airline management hopes to keep our members working for as long as possible with greatly reduced time off between duty."

Flight attendants, he continued, are so exhausted that they have in some cases forgotten to perform critical safety functions, including the arming of doors and even fallen asleep on the jump seats. "Even more troubling is that the FAA continues to allow the carriers to schedule reduced rest periods, making them more routine, and has failed to recognize or show any concern for the impact that flight attendant fatigue has on the overall safety of the aviation system," he testified.

Machinists (IAM) Vice President Robert A. Roach Jr. said "the aviation industry is at a crossroads. Thirty years of airline deregulation, reckless management decisions and more than a hundred bankruptcies have left it hobbled. Airline workers have shouldered more than their fair share to help revitalize their employers and their industry.

"As a consequence of putting dollars ahead of sense, maintenance of U.S. aircraft has been exported across the globe, at a faster pace than the FAA could respond. The FAA needs adequate funding to hire a sufficient number of inspectors to ensure aviation maintenance safety at home and abroad...to safeguard the U.S. aviation industry," Roach believes.

That same sentiment was expressed by Ken Hall, vice president at large, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who said "U.S. air carriers have ever- increasing amounts of significant maintenance performed on their aircraft by FAA-certified foreign repair stations or their contractors that are not subject to the same safety and security standards as domestic repair stations. This trend has eroded passenger safety, increased homeland security risk, and decimated a skilled workforce of American aircraft mechanics."