"
There's nothing noble or worthwhile about being an RPO."
I get that, but how many people do you think really give a shit about being a controller, or grinding out years of college for an IT or finance job to wind up with debt in a new jobs that pays the same rate? Lots of people end up picking up these RPO gigs and do them for years because it's a great way to make money relative to pulling twelve hours day-on, day-off at the 7/11, or WalMart or a better alternative to working oilfields, or sure even a great way to use as a stepping stone to pay for college to transfer out of OK entirely or use this job as a means to take care of an ill parent/grandparent by being able to have the flexibility and time off to take care of that person. Come live in Oklahoma City on our wages and tell us it's not worthwhile, while the alternative is absolute garbage.
One guy and his wife, brother, and father all work here, and have been working here for YEARS. There are people that have tried to make it into the academy in the 90's that aged out that still work here, or one guy worked for the FAA in a remote FSS in Alaska, and picked Oklahoma City as his home. A plethora of us have been military controllers and prior military with family here. Sure, I get it -




them,




us, it's our fault for staying here, and we deserve it for giving you that right turn when you said, "Turn right", when you meant, "Turn left heading 310, maintain 3000...". Come on, man, we're asking for so little, here, just a little reprieve for the rest of us that never got our TOLs or didn't want them in the first place.
As far as the PATCO controllers ala
1981, Reagan had them all terminated because their walkouts, slowdowns, spinning planes at the boundaries for refusing to take handoffs were directly impacting public safety. As it turns out, when you were at the academy, you weren't talking to actual planes - it was just us on computers in a separate lab all along

- Magic. As far as striking goes and aftershocks affecting public safety, it means you get your trainees a day behind, FAA loses out cash on a whole day of training which then gets mushed into the next several weeks, en route students end up feeling rushed and wash out.
The FAA is expanding it's efforts to provide a higher volume of students to attending the academy specifically for the TETRA track - you know this. Spreading the already low amount of RPOs thinly over more students WHILE taking a pay cut is significantly low for morale.