'Morale just really plummets': Air traffic controllers rail against Trump's new proposal
When a recent midair collision and a slew of radar failures brought attention to the plight of America’s overworked and dwindling legion air traffic controllers, employees hoped there was finally a fix in the works.
But then controllers watched with disappointment as the federal response boiled down to equipment upgrades and proposals to ramp up hiring. NPR reports these plans fail to address decades of burdensome problems including grueling schedules, stagnating pay and a byzantine process for air traffic controllers to take paid leave.
"The morale just really plummets at this point," said one controller, speaking anonymously to NPR over fear of retaliation from the Federal Aviation Administration. “Not a word of [these plans] is about anything that's going to actually help controllers, not even just short term, but the mid-term. Honestly, it's more demoralizing than if they weren't talking about us at all.”
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NPR reports Congress just approved $12.5 billion to overhaul the aging technology in air-traffic control towers, but employees say glitches run miles deeper than outdated equipment. The five current and former controllers speaking with NPR said they were skeptical of the Trump administration quickly making improvements. And all of them said the FAA is ignoring critical quality-of-life concerns that have been driving controllers into retirement and discouraging new recruits for decades.
The root of the industry shortage goes all the way back to then-President Ronald Reagan firing more than 11,000 controllers who went on strike over low wages and long work hours. NPR reports the resulting scramble to replace dismissed controllers only replenished some areas, while other zones remain understaffed decades later. Combined with the consequences of the pandemic, nagging unsolved problems have left the industry with fewer than 11,000 certified controllers, according to the FAA—roughly the same number Reagan first fired.
Being more than 3,000 short of its nationwide target leaves many current employees regularly assigned to work a sixth workday, says NPR. And According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, more than 41 percent of certified air traffic controllers work "10-hour days, six days a week."
"We can't have an off day. We can't have a day where we come in and say, 'oh, I'm just kind of not feeling it today. I'm just going to, you know, kind of cruise through the day.' We don't get that chance," one controller said. "You walk into work and you have to be 100 percent mistake-free essentially in your entire career or … people die."
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Under these circumstances, NPR reports controllers must "bid" for leave in the fall for the following year based on seniority. Short notice time off is often denied due to a lack of staffing.
"It became harder and harder to take leave, to plan family vacations, to even get spot leave if you needed time off for your kid's baseball game or soccer game," said one retired air traffic controller.
Pay is another problem facing employees, especially considering the amount of work and dedication the job demands.
“We're missing huge chunks of the prime time of our lives with our families to keep airplanes moving," said an anonymous controller who works high-altitude traffic. "We love our job. But, you know, I want to be paid fairly."
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NPR reports the air traffic controllers’ union has not pushed publicly for pay raises, especially with the Trump administration slashing staffing across the federal government.
Read the full NPR report at this link.
