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Fly Us Safe Campaign
America's air traffic controllers are highly dedicated men and women with a single priority: safety in the skies.
But serious FAA mismanagement is putting passenger safety at risk. Please learn about these critical issues and then take action! Call your Senator, toll free at 1-877-FLY-US-SAFE and use our email facility to contact your representatives in Washington.
Make your voice heard and help safeguard the future of America's air traffic control system.
The looming staffing crisis: Right now, a serious and dangerous staffing crisis is looming over the air traffic control system, meaning that fewer controllers are watching more and more planes. Air traffic is increasing to record levels, but already there are 1,000 fewer controllers than there were just two years ago. The FAA has failed to address the issue: in fiscal year 2004 only 13 air traffic controllers were hired. The FAA needs to address this problem and hire enough new controllers to ensure the continued safety of the aviation system.
Modernization "on hold": With air traffic increasing to record levels, it's more important than ever for the FAA to keep modernizing the air traffic control system, ensuring that new technologies make our skies safer and keep efficiently moving aircrafts. In public the FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says she agrees. But the reality? The FAA's current record of modernization is the story of slowing, cutting or derailing critical programs, seriously impacting passenger safety and wasting taxpayer dollars. From cancellations to the rollout of Global Positioning Technology to delays in the implementation of vital surface radar at airports, the FAA has failed the critical test of modernization.
Attacking its own employees: The FAA is seriously damaging relations with its own employees. In fact, it seems the agency believes that it can operate without working with or supporting the men and women in America's air traffic control centers and towers. This summer, at the same time the agency said it lacked the funding to modernize its air traffic control technologies, the FAA Administrator and her deputies embarked on an expensive and carefully coordinated 22-city press tour and media blitz to malign controllers and their union. As the FAA engages in collective bargaining with air traffic controllers and other dedicated public servants who operate, maintain and support our air traffic control system, the agency must commit itself to a process that will result in a resolution that ensures the safety, efficiency and integrity of the aviation system. Furthermore, the FAA appears intent on using questionable interpretation of federal law that allows it to use Congress to unilaterally impose contract terms at its discretion. This is not true collective bargaining, and it is creating an environment of mistrust and hostility.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: FAA Mismanagement is Jeopardizing Safety
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
America's air traffic controllers are dedicated men and women who have one single priority: safety in the skies.
But recently, the FAA has been jeopardizing the safety, efficiency and integrity of America's aviation system. I'm writing to ask you to help put an end to this mismanagement and safeguard the future of America's air traffic control.
First, the FAA must adequately staff the air traffic control system. Though air traffic is increasing to record high levels, there are already 1,000 fewer air traffic controllers than there were two years ago. That means fewer controllers guiding more planes, and that's not safe.
Second, the FAA must immediately commit to modernizing air traffic control facilities. From surface radar to global positioning systems, the FAA has cut or delayed many programs that are vital to passenger safety. That has to stop, and modernization needs to start.
Third, the FAA has to stop attacking its own workforce. The agency recently wasted taxpayer dollars by conducting a 22 city press tour to attack the men and women who run America's air traffic control. The FAA also appears intent on using Congress to unilaterally impose contract terms at its discretion. This is not true collective bargaining and will create an environment of mistrust and hostility.
We rely on our elected officials to take leadership positions on critical issues like safety in the skies. I call on you to send a message to the FAA today: stop jeopardizing America's aviation system.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
September 28, 2005
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Due to serious FAA mismanagement of the nation's air traffic control system, the stakes are extremely high: the safety, integrity and efficiency of the nation's aviation system is now on the line. Call your Senator, toll free at 1-877-FLY-US-SAFE and use our email facility to contact your representatives in Washington.
We need enough staff to run the air traffic control system safely. In the FAA's December 2004 staffing plan, it claimed that it planned to hire 1,248 air traffic controllers in FY06. The agency also finally acknowledged for the first time that its prior policy of one hire for one retirement is not adequate because of the time needed to train a controller. But so far, the FAA's actions fail to live up to its rhetoric. Its 2006 budget request provided for $24.9 million to hire 595 air traffic controllers and outlined plans to hire another 654 controllers using the old fashioned and inadequate "one for one" approach- far less than it had originally said, and far less than is needed to ensure the safety and integrity of the aviation system. We need a full-scale plan to address this problem immediately to safeguard the future of the aviation system.
The FAA must stop stalling vital modernization programs. In the same manner, the FAA is systematically failing to keep our air control technology up to date. One critical example is a new radar system that allows ATC's to better control tarmac movement, helping prevent the danger of an on-the-ground collision, which many industry experts fear is the most likely scenario for the next aviation accident. The project was supposed to be complete by 2007, but now due to cutbacks fewer than half of the airports slated to receive the technology will meet that target. The FAA must stop stalling on this and many other vital modernization projects.
Air traffic controllers must be treated fairly. The FAA must recognize the critical role that its own employees play in ensuring the safety of the traveling public. Unfortunately, early salvos and maneuvers by the FAA Administrator and her management team indicate they are prepared to put politics before safety.
In fact, the FAA has already engaged in an expensive and carefully orchestrated campaign to attack their own employees, questioning the competence and dedication of air traffic controllers who operate the safest air traffic control system in the world. Furthermore, the FAA appears intent on using a tortured and questionable interpretation of federal law to allow it to use Congress to unilaterally impose contract terms at its discretion. This is not true collective bargaining, and creating an environment of mistrust and hostility is a dangerous path. The FAA must stop maligning its own workers and engage in real collective bargaining.
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