AFL-CIO letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
September 11, 2008

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader

U.S. Senate
S-221 Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

On behalf of the AFL-CIO and our Transportation Trades Department we are writing to ask for your assistance in enacting legislation to resolve the broken collective bargaining system at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is jeopardizing aviation safety. Specifically, we are asking you to ensure that language resolving this problem is included in legislation that will pass the House and Senate this session and be sent to the President for his signature.

The current state of affairs at the FAA could not be worse. FAA employees have endured more than seven years of scorched earth labor-management policies by hostile agency management. In 2006, FAA management unilaterally imposed work and pay rules on its air traffic controllers, represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). Four out of five bargaining units within the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) have been at impasse with the FAA for over five years. In addition, FAA headquarters employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCMF:) have been without a collective bargaining agreement since 2001, despite the fact that AFSCME members completed and ratified an agreement with the FAA in 2000.

This pattern of mismanaged labor relations is unacceptable. The Bush FAA has destroyed employee morale, caused chronic fatigue among employees, and created a poisoned operational environment that is slowing pressing air traffic control modernization initiatives. The FAA itself has warned of a "significant increase in operational errors."

Failed aircraft safety inspections are reflective of poor labor-management relations. Aviation safety was compromised earlier this year when FAA inspectors represented by PASS, were silenced b FAA management and not allowed to report aircraft safety violations. As a result, air carriers Dew aircraft in violation of federal aviation regulations.

The scorched earth policies of FAA management have provoked a massive number of employee retirements, especially among air traffic controllers. This situation worsens daily as veteran employees retire at an alarming rate, leaving the remaining workforce under-staffed and lacking in experience.

Attached is a policy statement adopted by the AFL-CIO Executive Council at its meeting earlier this month calling on Congress to take action to ensure the safety of our aviation system. As the statement explains, Congress must intervene to ensure that collective bargaining rights are restored and that pending disputes are settled in a fair and balanced manner.

As you know, the Senate attempted to address labor-management issues during consideration of the FAA Reauthorization bill. The Senate included language that would implement a system for mediation and binding arbitration of FAA labor-management contract disputes. An attempt to limit debate on the bill failed by a vote of 49 to 42 and the measure was pulled from the floor. Recently Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced the "FAA Employee Retention Act," (S. 3614) that would resolve the FAA bargaining impasse in a fair and balanced manner. We urge you to see that the Lautenberg/Inhofe language is included in legislation that will pass both chambers and be sent to the President's desk.

Fairness must be restored to an FAA bargaining system that is badly ruptured and is failing to meet the needs of the flying public. We deeply appreciate your strong support for our nation's workers and your unyielding commitment to strengthening basic collective bargaining rights.

Sincerely,

John J. Sweeney President AFL-CIO

Edward Wytkind President Transportation Trades Department AFL-CIO

White House Warns President May Veto Senate FAA Funding Bill



By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The White House budget office said Tuesday President Bush may veto a bill to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration if lawmakers include provisions considered too restrictive on the FAA.

In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House criticized the bill for leaving out Bush administration-backed reforms to re-vamp FAA funding and improve air-traffic control infrastructure. In addition, senators are crafting amendments to limit FAA's ability to manage airspace and free crowded airport facilities.

"If the President is presented with a bill that not only excludes the critical reforms proposed by the Administration but also includes provisions that would further exacerbate an untenable status quo, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto it," according to the Tuesday statement.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., may propose an amendment to the Senate bill that would halt a Transportation Department plan to require airlines to auction off a portion of their gates at LaGuardia Airport.

The Bush administration has proposed shifting to a fee-based system to fund aviation infrastructure improvements. The White House criticized the Senate FAA bill for rejecting this user-fee approach, and also for relying more on general tax revenue to replenish the trust fund.

"The bill's financing and spending provisions could shift aviation costs away from the system's users and onto the shoulders of taxpayers. This is movement in the wrong direction," the White House said.

On safety, the statement said the President will "oppose new mandates that would have little effect on safety but would encumber FAA with additional workload and divert needed resources from ongoing safety projects - and an overall safety agenda that to date has resulted in the safest period in aviation history."

New provisions in the Senate FAA bill would boost oversight of FAA's program that allows airlines to voluntarily disclose obligations, would create a tracking system to notify officials of overdue inspections, and would prohibit former FAA employees from representing an airline before the FAA for two years after they terminate employment.

But the White House did allow that the Senate FAA bill is preferable to House legislation to re-authorize FAA. It said it strongly opposes a House requirement that FAA inspect foreign repair stations twice a year, and labor provisions that would impact air traffic controllers' current labor contract.

The Senate began debate on the FAA bill Monday, and expects to consider amendments to the bill through the end of this week. A final vote could come as early as Thursday.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION - Back Pay
Oct. 24, 2007

Attached is a copy of a recent Order from the FLRA in a case involving an arbitration appeal filed by the FAA in a NATCA case. Even though the case does not involve PASS, the FLRA is permitting PASS to submit a legal brief because the Authority's ultimate decision will impact PASS and all other FAA unions and employees. The issue involves whether the Agency has legal authority to pay backpay. As you can see, the FLRA Chairman, Dale Cabannis [who single handedly has done more damage to Federal unions that any previous FLRA Member] filed a dissenting opinion supporting the notion that FAA employees are not legally entitled to receive backpay. Apparently, and somewhat surprisingly, the Chairman was unable to persuade the relatively new Authority Member, Wayne C. Beyer, to join her dissenting opinion. Rather, he and Member Carol Pope decided to seek the submission of supplemental briefs prior to rendering a decision. 
You will recall that the MSPB has already ruled that, since the Back Pay Act [5 USC 5596] does not apply to the FAA under FAA Personnel Reform laws, the FAA is not allowed to pay backpay, including interest and attorney's fees, in MSPB cases. 
In this case, the same issue was raised by the FAA in the context of an arbitration decision in which the arbitrator ordered backpay and interest in a Sunday premium Pay case. In essence, the FAA is arguing that there is no unambiguous waiver of sovereign immunity in the FAA Personnel Reform laws allowing the FAA to pay backpay. Therefore, the arbitrator was without authority to order the payment of backpay as a remedy in arbitration, even though the FAA's own regulations and CBAs specifically permit such payments. For example, in practical terms, what this means is that if PASS wins an arbitration case for an employee who was improperly suspended for thirty (30) days, the suspension would be removed from the employee's OPF, but the employee would not receive any backpay for the period of the wrongful suspension. 
Obviously, the outcome of this case will have major implications for all PASS bargaining unit employees. If the decision is unfavorable, we will need to pursue a legislative fix. Nonmembers of PASS might be interested in knowing about what the FAA is trying to do to them, and that PASS and the other FAA unions are the only entities fighting on their behalf. 
There are interesting legal issues involved in this matter and the outcome is difficult to predict. We will be coordinating with the other unions and submitting a brief on November 6 as directed by the FLRA. 
Please let me know if you have any questions. 


Mike Derby, PASS Counsel

October 17, 2007

Professional Airways Systems Specialists blasts FAA's new navigation approach 
By Aliya Sternstein - govexec.com 

A labor union that represents Federal Aviation Administration workers is criticizing a contract the agency recently awarded for a satellite-based navigation program, claiming that the approach may impair aviation safety.

Tom Brantley, president of the Professional Airways Systems Specialists, said in written testimony that the contract to implement the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, which will replace the current radar system -- and "could be a very useful tool" for increasing airspace capacity -- "places control of the system entirely in the hands of the vendor."

The approach "is one that discounts decades of responsibly ensuring the safety of the flying public," he said at a Wednesday hearing.

Brantley and other officials involved in the program testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee about the contract awarded to ITT in August. The goal of ADS-B is to enable more precise flight navigation, thereby permitting airplanes to fly closer to one another without colliding. The system will use signals from global positioning system data instead of radar data to pinpoint flight position.

ADS-B has been estimated to save the FAA $5 billion between 2007 and 2035. The FAA's cost for nationwide service through 2025 is estimated at $1.9 billion, and the agency anticipates significant savings from decommissioning many secondary surveillance radars around 2020.

Brantley said he is troubled by the "severe cut in redundancy" that retiring radars would bring. He said he also is disturbed by the FAA's documented history of troubled contract management -- a point the Transportation Department's inspector general noted in his written testimony.

Much of Brantley's testimony focused on the elimination of FAA certification -- or the process in which an FAA employee checks and tests equipment periodically to ensure the parts can be safely returned to service and do not negatively impact any aspect of the national airspace system. Radar always has been certified by the FAA.

"Without a true certification of ADS-B, the controllers will have to rely on [pilots or the contractor] to tell the FAA that the service is wrong," Brantley said.

Transportation IG Calvin Scovel noted that the type of award -- a service contract -- means the government will only own the service, not the infrastructure. FAA will certify the service.

Because FAA will not own the architecture, Scovel said, "We are concerned that FAA could find itself in a situation where it knows very little about the system that is expected to be the foundation of NextGen [navigation]."

ITT has a 60-year history of work in air-traffic control technology, said ITT program manager John Kefaliotis. He added that the contract provides for "continuous government monitoring" and "significant financial incentives for performance" during the deployment and operational phases.

FAA's Vincent Capezzuto testified that the contract is structured as it is to ensure "long-term buy-in by the contractor and the industry while the FAA retains control over system performance and data transmitted." He added, "FAA is a safety oversight agency, first and foremost, and the certification of the data is critical to our mission."

Congress Probes 'Major Failure' at FAA

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Oct. 11) - Ron Carpenter and his fellow air traffic controllers were busy keeping more than 200 airplanes on course over seven states when their communication system crashed. Suddenly they couldn't talk to pilots or call for help.

Photo Gallery: Air Traffic Control Falls Silent

 

A phone outage last month at the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Memphis kept air traffic from landing and taking off at the city's airport, shown above on Sept. 25.

"Somebody just pulled out a cell phone," Carpenter said. "Then everybody else says, `Hey, that's not a bad idea."'

So at a major Federal Aviation Administration center, controllers were reduced to using their personal cell phones to ask other centers to help keep planes on course and avert disaster.

They succeeded, but now members of Congress want to know if the Memphis failure last month was an isolated breakdown or evidence of a design flaw in a $2.4 billion project to upgrade telecommunications at air-control centers and other FAA installations across the country.

The FAA blames the disruption on the failure of a major AT&T phone line, but critics say that the trouble is deeper - that the new communications network being installed lacks sufficient backups.

"It's engineered this way, and it's going to happen again," said Dave Spero, a vice president of the union representing FAA technicians.

During the breakdown, 100,000 square miles of airspace were closed off for more than three hours and flights around the country were canceled, delayed or diverted, adding to the woes of a flying public already fed up with disruptions.

The upgrade is called the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure project, or FTI. The prime contractor on the 15-year project is Florida-based Harris Corp ., which said in September that nearly 90 percent of the FAA's entire system of more than 4,000 installations had been switched over.

The FAA told a congressional subcommittee that the Memphis outage was an AT&T problem and that an investigation was under way.

FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto said the network has backup phone lines for emergencies and each center is served by more than one communications carrier.

"The failure was in a network we don't own or operate," Takemoto said. "It was a massive failure, according to what BellSouth has told us, that has never been experienced before and affected all of the customers in that region, not just the FAA."

But aviation consultant Michael Goldfarb said backup at the Memphis center was obviously insufficient.

"Wal-Mart losing its power is one thing, but for the FAA to lose power when planes are in the air is another thing," said Goldfarb, a former FAA chief of staff. "And to only have one line take down an air-control center, something is very wrong with that picture."

Over a 10-year period that ended last month, the U.S. air accident fatality rate dropped 65 percent -- to one fatal accident for every 4.5 million departures. The fatalities do not include those from terrorist attacks.

AT&T refused to talk about the breakdown except to say its cause was under investigation. Harris, which landed the contract in 2002, also had no comment.

The Memphis breakdown was the latest in a string of similar but less serious failures of the upgraded system at other air-control centers, said Spero of the technicians union. "This is the first time a whole center has gone down," he said.

His union, Professional Airways Systems Specialists, has long been at odds with the FAA over the upgrade and other projects.

The Transportation Department's inspector general has criticized the project for falling behind schedule and running over the original cost of $1.9 billion.

The Air Route Traffic Control Center at Memphis is one of 20 such FAA centers around the country.

When communications failed, controllers at other centers - summoned by cell phone - directed planes out of the Memphis airspace, which covers parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.

All airline traffic within a 250-mile radius of Memphis was shut down and flights heading into the region were rerouted. Flight disruptions were reported in Nashville, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Miami and other cities.

The FAA is under pressure from Congress and President Bush to reduce flight delays. In the first seven months of 2007, the industry turned in its worst on-time performance since the government began collecting comparable data in 1995.

"The delays are a major concern, but my first thought is about planes being up there without controls and that could jeopardize lives," said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a member of the House aviation subcommittee.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said his panel plans to look into the project.

"What makes our air-traffic control system so safe is it's heavily reliant on backups, overlaps and redundancies," Oberstar said. "If one system fails, there's another to pick up for it. Something did happen and this backup was not available."

Sept. 21, 2007

Sept. 20, 2007
The original FAA proposed legislation H.R. 1356 recommended the pilot program for airport takeover of NAS equipment at up to 10 medium and large sized hubs.  The House created their own version of the bill and gave it a new bill number H.R. 2881 which will be voted on this week and basically replaces the FAA's proposal.  Through extensive lobbying efforts, PASS was able to prevent the inclusion of language regarding a pilot program for airport takeover of air navigation facilities in the House Bill H.R. 2881 which is this bill that we're asking members to support and will be voted on this week.