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FAA Management Threatens Safety, Maligns Workers
Washington, DC –Equating the Federal Aviation Administration’s “scorched-earth” approach to collective bargaining to the “irresponsible conduct from anti-worker corporate giants like Wal-Mart,” transportation labor leaders today called upon Congress to pass bipartisan legislation which would ensure fairness in FAA labor-management negotiations.
At its biannual Executive Committee meeting, leaders of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD) condemned the conduct of the FAA, which it said is, “intent on unilaterally imposing unfair terms and conditions on its workers… the FAA fails to see the value of its own workers in carrying out the agency’s safety mission.”
The transportation labor leaders noted that in contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the Professional Airways Systems Specialists, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the FAA has, “embarked on a campaign to malign its workers and impose pay and working conditions outside the normal bargaining process.” TTD noted the inherent dangers in this approach, which not only damages morale, but also ignores both short-staffing of critical safety positions at the FAA and a looming retirement crisis among air traffic controllers and safety inspectors and specialists.
TTD’s 30 member unions endorsed legislation, S. 2201 by Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and H.R. 4755 by Representatives Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Jerry Costello (D-IL), which would prevent the FAA from unilaterally imposing contracts. It would establish a three-step process for resolving bargaining disputes: first, calling on the services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; second, giving Congress the option of resolving disputed portions of a contract; and third, if Congress takes no action within 60 days, submitting the bargaining dispute to binding arbitration.
Please visit www.ttd.org for a copy of the full statement.
TTD represents 30 member unions in the rail, aviation, transit, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org.
