tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34690855.post5701817930657219784..comments2024-03-24T10:57:10.838-04:00Comments on Get the Flick: Can’t Stop SleepingDon Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10219887691182501386noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34690855.post-25938723239405452532011-04-19T21:14:33.933-04:002011-04-19T21:14:33.933-04:00I am a controller from Mississippi. There is a hug...I am a controller from Mississippi. There is a huge story behind the controller fatigue issue but no media seems interested in the truth.I have been a controller for 33 years and will soon retire. The schedules that are being discussed and criticized have been in place for 30 years. To say controllers desire this is a stretch. The compressed schedule basically does this: Your work week is 3,2,10,8,6. This is a typical non mid schedule. Your first day back starts at 3 and your last day you get off at 2. Still 2 days off. Now, here are the facts. In 2006 the FAA cut controller pay 30% and froze that pay for 4 years. The already aging workforce (56 mandatory retirement) began retiring in record numbers. The contract was fixed last year in order to put a finger in the dam. Still less pay than 2006. The union was working with the FAA about the fatigue problem, but both sides had a problem. To fix the staffing crisis controllers began having to work 10 hour days and 6 day work weeks. In order to reverse the schedule to implement the NTSB recommendations in would make it illegal for a controller to work overtime because it would put them past their maximum 6 days of work in a row. So, the 6 day work week is needed to staff facilities with MINIMUM coverage. The FAA doesn’t want to admit they have a staffing crisis and the union doesn’t want to make Obama and Lahood look bad. At my facility we have 12 certified controllers and 10 trainees with 3 more by August. We should have 23 certified controllers. It takes 2 to 3 years to be certified to work alone. No media has come close to getting this story right. One Fox news commentator wondered if this being a stressful job was a myth and maybe we are really bored. Go to the FAA school then enter training and let me know if you think we are bored. That is absurd. If there isn’t a staffing problem then why are we working 6 day work weeks and 10 hour days? Why are they not implementing the number one recommendation of reversing the schedule? They can’t make it work. 9 hours will make 0 difference.Now Obama's wife's plane gets too close to another. The FAA wants us to work more airplanes(combined sectors, no data, TRACONS combined to tower cabs)with less controllers.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07910016439230081511noreply@blogger.com