Debrief du Jour

I’d like to begin a new section of these essays, focusing on what comes next for the profession, but before that I’d like to summarize the key points of the previous posts.

There’s a difference between “safety first” and “cost-effective safety”, which is a euphemism for “profitable safety”. Corporations will always prioritize profit.

Success in Government-Industry conflicts is determined in the public forum through the media, not a technical forum with operational understanding.

Recent years have seen an active role of Industry and Contractors in replacing government-employed air traffic controllers with for-profit contractors.

Industry prefers large, complex facilities because they’re more profitable than small distributed facilities. They see air traffic facilities as cash-cow phone centers.

We gave up Flight Service without a fight. We’ve lost people and influence, and we’ve given Industry credibility in running an air traffic operation.  LockMart Flight Service is a success in the public’s perspective.

We’re giving up training and procedures staff jobs (in facilities and headquarters) to Contractors. Contractors are our Competitors. Replacing well-paid professional union positions with lower-paid contractors is union busting. Replacing essential knowledge workers with competitors is suicidal.

We no longer have the ability to do procedures, training, or change without Contractor support. We rely on our Competitors for necessary processes. We need attendants to do for us what we once did for ourselves.

The Bush Administration wanted to fundamentally change the nature of our field. We’re still being driven by Bush’s Flight Plan.

Future changes in the flight plan, and future changes to our profession, are still driven by Bush’s flight plan framework. Long range plans and changes embedded in the Flight Plan continue to pursue the Industry/Bush agenda.

Next Article: Losing 1/3 of Terminal Controller Jobs