"Unsafe to fly? Unions, GAO detail problems in the sky"

Monday, April 9, 2007

Unsafe to fly? Unions, auditors detail problems in the sky
By Mark Gruenberg
Press Associates News Service


WASHINGTON - Could U.S. skies be approaching the point where increasing
congestion of airplanes, accelerating retirements of veteran air traffic
controllers and Federal Aviation Administration labor policies increase the
risk of flying? 

Testimony at a recent congressional hearing raises that possibility. 

And it wasn't just union leaders who sounded dire warnings at the March 22
House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on reauthorizing the FAA. It was the
non-partisan independent Government Accountability Office--the government's
auditors--too. 

The picture painted by GAO, Machinists Transportation Vice President Robert
Roach, Association of Flight Attendants/CWA President Patricia Friend,
National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Patrick Forrey and
Air Line Pilots Association Safety Chairman Capt. Terry McVenes is not a
pretty one. 

It includes fatigued pilots, pooped flight attendants, outsourced
maintenance, too few FAA inspectors, controllers retiring in increasing
numbers, a doubling of safety incidents in the last two years, airlines
meeting only minimum requirements in a rush to cut costs, and FAA Bush
regime labor relations that are so bad that up to 72 percent of all air
traffic controllers will retire in the next decade. Key points they made
included: 

* FAA's unilateral declaration of an impasse in bargaining with its largest
union, NATCA, led to a 2-tier contract with lower wages for new hires and a
5-year wage freeze for pre-sent controllers, Forrey said. NATCA is lobbying
lawmakers for a measure to force Bush FAA Administrator Marion Blakey--who
will leave in September--to resume bargaining. FAA's second-largest union,
PASS, rejected a similar contract. 

"Unilateral implementation is a form of economic warfare not unlike a strike
or a lockout in the private sector," Forrey told lawmakers. Its impact on
the agency's workforce has been dire. "Morale among FAA employees is
extremely low. Retirements are far exceeding FAA's planning. Fatigue among
those employees remaining is a major concern. A lack of trust between
employees and their supervisors creates additional tension. Decisions based
on the desire to display authority rather than safety needs or common sense
have become pervasive." It's "staffing to budget," not to air traffic. 

GAO Infrastructure Director Gerald Dillingham backed that up. "FAA faces a
challenge in managing its human capital"--its workers--"due to contentious
relations with its labor unions," he testified, before discussing the
impasse and its impact. "The current contract situations have the potential
to hinder FAA's ability to retain and recruit skilled technical staff,"
including controllers and inspectors, Dillingham said. 

* Friend said flight attendants are often short of sleep when they board the
plane. Flight attendants are supposed to get a 9-hour rest period after 14
hours on duty. The airlines, at their discretion, can cut the rest to eight
hours. 

"Using the term 'rest period' can be misleading, because so much more must
be done other than simply sleeping," Friend explained. The "rest period"
starts "as soon as 15 minutes after the aircraft pulls into the gate and
continues until one hour" before the attendant's next flight out. So "rest"
includes getting off the plane, going through checkout, travel through the
airport and getting luggage, waiting for the crew shuttle to a nearby hotel,
checking in, meals--the airlines have cut out meals for attendants, too--and
doing all that in reverse, plus navigating airport security lines, before
the flight out. 

"Our members are constantly reporting the actual sleep time this schedule
allows," for workers who have seen their pay cut by up to 40 percent in the
last few years, "is in many cases only three to five hours," Friend said. 

The FAA's reaction? "A blind eye.An FAA spokesperson stated 'The rules on
flight time and rest for both pilots and fight attendants are fundamentally
sound. They serve aviation safety very well,'" Friend reported. "We
fundamentally disagree." Roach, whose union also includes flight attendants,
suggested Congress order FAA to require "a rest period exclusive of any
other job responsibilities." 

* The flight attendants aren't the only exhausted air travel workers under
the FAA's rules and the airlines' attempts to cut costs, McVenes said. The
pilots are, too. 

He called FAA's pilot fatigue rules "antiquated and dated." And McVenes said
airlines have "slashed pilot staffing and reduced rest periods to minimum
levels due to a belief such behavior would result in 'productivity'
increases necessary for economic survival." 

"For more and more pilots the bare minimums" mandated by FAA "have become a
way of life," McVenes added. That, plus five years of pay cuts, mean pilots
now feel "they're hanging on to barely tolerable jobs. 

"The return to airline profitability for Wall Street is being paid for by
the daily blood and toil of the airline pilots and other workers," including
the controllers, he concluded. 

* Roach concentrated on security as well as fatigue. He said airlines
outsource much of their maintenance overseas--and the FAA has too few
inspectors to probe those depots. "It is not hard to imagine how certified
foreign aircraft repair stations working on U.S. aircraft could provide
terrorists with an opportunity to sabotage U.S. aircraft or components that
will eventually re-enter the U.S.," Roach warned. Without security audits
and mandated changes, Congress should tell FAA to order those overseas
maintenance stations closed, he said.

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