Mike,

A full and complete response would be so far off track from what belongs on this board, so I'm not going to go too much into detail. But I will hit a few points.

First, I'd love to see the academy running at full capacity in the way it was designed, which was as a screening facility, not as a training facility. The training that the academy did for centers was a three-week long introduction to radar. Most centers stopped having students take this class at the academy about 12 years ago. So now, yes, the recruits come straight from Minnesota to centers. Even while this class was offered, and if it is still offered for some centers, it can't really qualify as training when a controller needs to go back to their facility and train on the job for 2-3 years with someone watching their every move. In the old days, the academy would fail more than half of the people who entered for the basic three-month ATC course that started controllers' careers. This was a great way to screen applicants who didn't have the aptitude. For centers and, I believe, for most of the other specialties, this screening process has long passed by the wayside. The result being less-qualified and less-talented controllers.

As for the pay, you're right, you're not going to go back and get a retroactive pay raise for a position you did not hold, nor will your pay be as a high as it would be if you never left your field facility. So, yes, in some ways you got a raw deal. If you did go back though, in most cases you're going to get some raise and continue to earn at higher levels than in your present position.

One of the motivating factors in the pay reclassification was that many field facilities couldn't get staffing. Now, for the first time since the strike, previously hard-to-staff facilities such as Oakland Center are having a better time attracting and retaining controllers and morale has shown a marked improvement. If you go back to a pay scale similar to the old one, the same staffing problems will return. Why work traffic when you can sit at a desk and make the same money?

I don't begrudge your efforts. However, I felt this thread was inappropriate here as it packaged a pay issue as a safety issue and tried to frighten frequent fliers into action on what is an internal pay issue. Though you try to present it as an equal pay/equal work issue, it's not. Nor was it a crack in the system, it was a deliberate move to get controllers working airplanes.

I sincerely wish you good luck with your efforts. BTW, I'm not a controller.




[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 10-11-2000).]