Stalin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2008
- Messages
- 3,749
reagan's great triumph over unions in the 1980s has lead to a dnagerous situation
Last week, air traffic controllers responsible for Newark airspace at Philadelphia TRACON experienced the unthinkable. The equipment that controllers rely upon for making split-second decisions every minute of the day to keep air travelers safe suddenly died. Radar screens went dark and radios suddenly were silent.
For about 90 seconds, airliners and other aircraft hurtled through the airspace of one of the busiest airports in the US with no one watching the big picture or controlling the operation. Controllers sat helplessly, electronically blind and deaf, sitting in a windowless and dark control room. They did not know when or if their equipment would turn on again.
..
This equipment failure did not have a fatal result this time, but it illustrates the crumbling nature of the National Airspace System (NAS) in the United States. The NAS has been neglected by Congress and the FAA for decades. Small, mostly meaningless equipment “upgrades” came in the form of expensive contracts to companies like Raytheon and Orion Systems and have been mostly obsolete even before implementation.
In the largest facilities, the Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC), the upgrade to ERAM from HOST, removed the old system as an important backup, leaving controllers with the unwieldy DARC/EBUS system from the 80s and 90s as an unsafe backup if the new system were to fail during a busy period.
Staffing and other critical problems in the US ATC system date back over 45 years, to the time when an older generation of controllers were struggling with the same problems. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union was fighting for a substantial pay increase, reduced work hours, improved benefits and improved working conditions.
Today, most US air traffic controllers are being forced into mandatory overtime, six-day workweeks or holdover overtime which can make 10-hour workdays. Where PATCO went on strike to decrease hours and increase pay, NATCA has successfully prevented any meaningful work action from taking place to prevent conditions from getting even worse.
comrade stalin
moscow
Last week, air traffic controllers responsible for Newark airspace at Philadelphia TRACON experienced the unthinkable. The equipment that controllers rely upon for making split-second decisions every minute of the day to keep air travelers safe suddenly died. Radar screens went dark and radios suddenly were silent.
For about 90 seconds, airliners and other aircraft hurtled through the airspace of one of the busiest airports in the US with no one watching the big picture or controlling the operation. Controllers sat helplessly, electronically blind and deaf, sitting in a windowless and dark control room. They did not know when or if their equipment would turn on again.
..
This equipment failure did not have a fatal result this time, but it illustrates the crumbling nature of the National Airspace System (NAS) in the United States. The NAS has been neglected by Congress and the FAA for decades. Small, mostly meaningless equipment “upgrades” came in the form of expensive contracts to companies like Raytheon and Orion Systems and have been mostly obsolete even before implementation.
In the largest facilities, the Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC), the upgrade to ERAM from HOST, removed the old system as an important backup, leaving controllers with the unwieldy DARC/EBUS system from the 80s and 90s as an unsafe backup if the new system were to fail during a busy period.
Staffing and other critical problems in the US ATC system date back over 45 years, to the time when an older generation of controllers were struggling with the same problems. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union was fighting for a substantial pay increase, reduced work hours, improved benefits and improved working conditions.
Today, most US air traffic controllers are being forced into mandatory overtime, six-day workweeks or holdover overtime which can make 10-hour workdays. Where PATCO went on strike to decrease hours and increase pay, NATCA has successfully prevented any meaningful work action from taking place to prevent conditions from getting even worse.
Air traffic controllers outraged over union bureaucrats’ junket to Hawaii
Air traffic controllers took umbrage at the brazen misuse of their dues money for luxury travel by the union bureaucrats.
www.wsws.org
comrade stalin
moscow
