Degradation of ATC Training in Oklahoma City Leads to 50% Failure Rate of Latest Air Traffic Control Students. (Enroute Class #XX01X lost 50% on 4/4/2014)
Well, there's good news and bad news; The bad news is that a student's chances of successfully completing the ATC Training course(s) here in Oklahoma City has decreased, the good news is that until the FAA puts their house in order, ANYBODY who fails here has a legitimate reason to file a grievance and return for training, and it's not complicated. Hand-in-hand with the rampant conflict of interest by the FAA choosing a privately-owned aerospace company to train Security-Sensitive Government employees, the FAA are now in sync with this corporation (Raytheon), to force the ATC Instructors here to work double-shifts (at straight pay by the way - no compensation) to train our new FAA ATC Students. This is simply a no-brainer; the student trained at 7am by Instructor X is going to get better training than the student getting trained by (the same) Instructor X at 1130pm. Although, to be fair, Instructor X may be coming back at 7am after working an 18 or 19 hour day just the day before, so the training here now may be equally crappy all day long, and not at the fault of our instructors.
FORCED to work double-shifts? To be clear, for the record (Raytheon has them, trust me), the instructors can't legally be forced to work double shifts, but that's like saying the sweatshops in Asia simply take "volunteers" to work 20 hour days for 33 cents an hour. Most of us here are retired FAA Air Traffic Controllers, forced to leave the Government on or near our 56th birthday. That's part of the deal when you're an Air Traffic Controller, we are told that on day one. Some of us plan for this early retirement, and some us don't. Well, most of us don't. While some Instructors here are paying for their Summer homes and Harleys, most of us are sending money back home to feed our spouses and children. So when we interview for these jobs, it's made clear that there are 500 jobs available for 5000 applicants, and they would "appreciate" people who are willing to work long or double shifts. It's not surprising that those of us who like to eat and keep our families off the streets are very agreeable to get the job. And one of the ways the the FAA and Raytheon "appreciate" us is to pay us a flat hourly wage regardless of the time worked. No compensation for extra hours or night shifts, and forget about benefits.
"Downsizing" the US Government? Doesn't that sound great, Dear Taxpayer!?! Less of your tax dollars going to fund an over-inflated Federal Government? Yes, it SOUNDS great, but it's (another) lie propagated onto the American Public. The general formula is that for every (tax) $1.00 spent on a Government employee (including benefits and EVERYTHING), when we "award" a contract to a private company to streamline the Government, it then takes approximately $1.50 of your tax dollars to fund that EXACT position. The primary difference is that the same job has little or no benefits, very little job security, and the employee is now outside the boundaries of being a Federal Employee, so the rules no longer apply. You get a much less happy employee for 1.5 times the previous rate! So where does that more than 50% tax-dollar suck go? Let's just say that the Golden Parachutes being stuffed for the Muckity-$!#%cks at Raytheon, are adequately funded by YOU. Yes, when they choose the color of their new yachts they really should be sending all of us thank you cards.
Loopholes. When I was a kid it was pretty clear that we had a 40 hour work week and that overtime meant being paid 1.5x the regular rate. While things didn't always work out this way, it was pretty standard if we weren't in management on salary expected to put in the extra time for our higher pay check. Raytheon, in cahoots with the FAA, are abusing loopholes in the law, and attempting to change more laws, that will allow them to more openly force longer work weeks. Should YOU be alarmed? You'd better be. If they can do this with us, how long before your employer can "appreciate" you working a 50, 60, or 80 hour work week? And by apprecaite, I mean pick candidates for positions based on their willingness to do anything for a job. But the point of this article is not about the criminal abuse of the law by our Federal Government and the corrupt relationship(s) with Private Industry, although I would greatly appreciate it if someone would look into that.
The point here is that we (the FAA Academy ATC Instructors) LOVE Air Traffic Control, we want to continue to create a top-notch ATC Community, and we would be thrilled to see a 100% success rate for all the new ATC Students. While that 100% isn't realistic (some kids don't study, others just don't "get" it), we can certainly do better than a 50% failure rate. That is what we dealt with 20 years ago, and it's not progress. Once upon a time we failed 50% of the students here at the FAA Academy, and ONLY 50% of those actually made it as controllers. A one in four success rate for Air Traffic Controllers is an incredible waste of your tax dollars, not to mention that this isn't a career path you really want influenced by the lowest bidder, especially when we aren't even supposed to allow Raytheon to buy us even a pencil the day before we start work here as contractors (conflict of interest). At one point we had an educatiuonal institution handling this same training issue instead of Raytheon, although it was still at that special tax $1.50 (per Government $1.00) rate. That worked better, but nothing is perfect, even putting this training where it belongs, in the hands of the FAA, ONLY.
I don't want a bloated Government any more than you do, but let's be realistic. Most of us here are getting paid $60K (or more) in retirement money from the Federal Government, and we're working for another $50K (or so), funded by the Federal Government at the rate of $75K or more in tax dollars. But removing every other factor mentioned above, the most significant fact remains; The young, new, Air Traffic Control Traing Developmentals leaving here successfully, are not getting the level of training they deserve - that the general flying public deserves. We regulate how long truckers can drive, pilots can fly, and Air Traffic Controllers can work on position. Do you really want a new generation of potential Air Traffic Control Specialists spending time with attorneys to sue their way back into school because they failed due to this issue? Do you want the level of training to continue to degrade? We don't. Air Traffic Control is simply a fantastic career, and we want the best people on the scopes, in the towers, and on the radios. Please spread the word that something has gone terribly wrong out here at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.
Well, there's good news and bad news; The bad news is that a student's chances of successfully completing the ATC Training course(s) here in Oklahoma City has decreased, the good news is that until the FAA puts their house in order, ANYBODY who fails here has a legitimate reason to file a grievance and return for training, and it's not complicated. Hand-in-hand with the rampant conflict of interest by the FAA choosing a privately-owned aerospace company to train Security-Sensitive Government employees, the FAA are now in sync with this corporation (Raytheon), to force the ATC Instructors here to work double-shifts (at straight pay by the way - no compensation) to train our new FAA ATC Students. This is simply a no-brainer; the student trained at 7am by Instructor X is going to get better training than the student getting trained by (the same) Instructor X at 1130pm. Although, to be fair, Instructor X may be coming back at 7am after working an 18 or 19 hour day just the day before, so the training here now may be equally crappy all day long, and not at the fault of our instructors.
FORCED to work double-shifts? To be clear, for the record (Raytheon has them, trust me), the instructors can't legally be forced to work double shifts, but that's like saying the sweatshops in Asia simply take "volunteers" to work 20 hour days for 33 cents an hour. Most of us here are retired FAA Air Traffic Controllers, forced to leave the Government on or near our 56th birthday. That's part of the deal when you're an Air Traffic Controller, we are told that on day one. Some of us plan for this early retirement, and some us don't. Well, most of us don't. While some Instructors here are paying for their Summer homes and Harleys, most of us are sending money back home to feed our spouses and children. So when we interview for these jobs, it's made clear that there are 500 jobs available for 5000 applicants, and they would "appreciate" people who are willing to work long or double shifts. It's not surprising that those of us who like to eat and keep our families off the streets are very agreeable to get the job. And one of the ways the the FAA and Raytheon "appreciate" us is to pay us a flat hourly wage regardless of the time worked. No compensation for extra hours or night shifts, and forget about benefits.
"Downsizing" the US Government? Doesn't that sound great, Dear Taxpayer!?! Less of your tax dollars going to fund an over-inflated Federal Government? Yes, it SOUNDS great, but it's (another) lie propagated onto the American Public. The general formula is that for every (tax) $1.00 spent on a Government employee (including benefits and EVERYTHING), when we "award" a contract to a private company to streamline the Government, it then takes approximately $1.50 of your tax dollars to fund that EXACT position. The primary difference is that the same job has little or no benefits, very little job security, and the employee is now outside the boundaries of being a Federal Employee, so the rules no longer apply. You get a much less happy employee for 1.5 times the previous rate! So where does that more than 50% tax-dollar suck go? Let's just say that the Golden Parachutes being stuffed for the Muckity-$!#%cks at Raytheon, are adequately funded by YOU. Yes, when they choose the color of their new yachts they really should be sending all of us thank you cards.
Loopholes. When I was a kid it was pretty clear that we had a 40 hour work week and that overtime meant being paid 1.5x the regular rate. While things didn't always work out this way, it was pretty standard if we weren't in management on salary expected to put in the extra time for our higher pay check. Raytheon, in cahoots with the FAA, are abusing loopholes in the law, and attempting to change more laws, that will allow them to more openly force longer work weeks. Should YOU be alarmed? You'd better be. If they can do this with us, how long before your employer can "appreciate" you working a 50, 60, or 80 hour work week? And by apprecaite, I mean pick candidates for positions based on their willingness to do anything for a job. But the point of this article is not about the criminal abuse of the law by our Federal Government and the corrupt relationship(s) with Private Industry, although I would greatly appreciate it if someone would look into that.
The point here is that we (the FAA Academy ATC Instructors) LOVE Air Traffic Control, we want to continue to create a top-notch ATC Community, and we would be thrilled to see a 100% success rate for all the new ATC Students. While that 100% isn't realistic (some kids don't study, others just don't "get" it), we can certainly do better than a 50% failure rate. That is what we dealt with 20 years ago, and it's not progress. Once upon a time we failed 50% of the students here at the FAA Academy, and ONLY 50% of those actually made it as controllers. A one in four success rate for Air Traffic Controllers is an incredible waste of your tax dollars, not to mention that this isn't a career path you really want influenced by the lowest bidder, especially when we aren't even supposed to allow Raytheon to buy us even a pencil the day before we start work here as contractors (conflict of interest). At one point we had an educatiuonal institution handling this same training issue instead of Raytheon, although it was still at that special tax $1.50 (per Government $1.00) rate. That worked better, but nothing is perfect, even putting this training where it belongs, in the hands of the FAA, ONLY.
I don't want a bloated Government any more than you do, but let's be realistic. Most of us here are getting paid $60K (or more) in retirement money from the Federal Government, and we're working for another $50K (or so), funded by the Federal Government at the rate of $75K or more in tax dollars. But removing every other factor mentioned above, the most significant fact remains; The young, new, Air Traffic Control Traing Developmentals leaving here successfully, are not getting the level of training they deserve - that the general flying public deserves. We regulate how long truckers can drive, pilots can fly, and Air Traffic Controllers can work on position. Do you really want a new generation of potential Air Traffic Control Specialists spending time with attorneys to sue their way back into school because they failed due to this issue? Do you want the level of training to continue to degrade? We don't. Air Traffic Control is simply a fantastic career, and we want the best people on the scopes, in the towers, and on the radios. Please spread the word that something has gone terribly wrong out here at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.
