Against the Wind - National Air Traffic Controllers Association

46
1982
Against the Wind
9
July
experience. On the surface, the policy appeared to be
profiling. It favored new-hires with more education,
a group that might be less likely to harbor pro-union
sentiments.
But, rather than
quell another uprising,
the agency sparked a
fire. Angry trainees with
more seniority watched
helplessly as they were
passed over. Ex-military
controllers in the
FAA were particularly
incensed. Despite their
years at military air bases
or onboard aircraft carriers,
they were relegated to
passing out flight strips
and assisting radar controllers.
Meanwhile, less
experienced colleagues,
many of whom had no
aviation background,
advanced in the training program and enjoyed accompanying
pay raises.
“The academy was tough enough,” says Atlanta
Center controller Don Brown, whose class in Oklahoma
City lost 65 percent. “Once we got back, we had
to do just about as much work all over again before
A Pan American World Airways 727 departing from New Orleans International
Airport encounters wind shear and crashes, killing all 145 aboard
and eight on the ground. A subsequent study recommends wider use of
we got on the floor. And then we got on the floor and
that was tough. But we survived this process—where
you had to be superhuman to do it because the vast
majority of us didn’t make it—and what was our
reward? They held us up
six months.”
The issue involved
more than money. For
“
academy graduates who’d
been told they could check
out at their en route center
in two years and two
days—an impractical goal
for such a complex job,
they realized later—this
constituted the “first big
lie” from their employer.
The FAA also proposed
a variation of Structured
— Washington Center controller Staffing for towers and
TRACONs, but never
implemented it.
For the Washington
Center controllers who had gathered after work,
the mere prospect of Structured Staffing was the last
straw. Most of them had been fully trained long ago.
But the center dearly needed more radar controllers
so they could cut back on their overtime hours. Nor
did the old guard like how the program would delay
My head, my stomach, my
whole body is spinning
around. I can’t keep up with
the workload. You either need
more people to do the work
or you need less work—it’s a
simple equation.
Low-Level Wind Shear Alert Systems at airports, and in October 1983 the
FAA orders fifty-one more systems. By October 1991, LLWAS units are
installed at 110 airports across the country.