Flying the Emptier Skies

By WALTER ISAACSON

PATCO loses another round, and so do air travelers

The decision may have been the final blow for the former air controllers. The Federal Labor Relations Authority, which grants unions the right to represent a given group of workers, last week revoked that status from the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. The FLRA ruled that PATCO "willfully and intentionally" violated federal laws by striking three months ago and, as a result, "is no longer a labor organization." It was the first time that a union representing federal employees has been decreed out of existence, though the precedent is clouded: the bulk of the union's members who struck have already been severed for violating the no-strike oath in their employment contracts. Said Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis: "The ruling reaffirms a basic principle of our democracy, that no person or organization is above the law."

Union President Robert Poli vowed that his union would appeal the decision to the federal courts. "We are still PATCO," he declared. "We are still proud." A federal court in Washington agreed to hear the case this week and has granted PATCO a temporary delay of the ruling. But some of Poll's members are pessimistic. Robert Westra, a former controller at Chicago's O'Hare Airport who is now trying to support himself as a carpenter, pronounced the decision "incredible." He saw only "a 5% hope" that he will be able to return to work. That slim possibility is based on the faith that, as O'Hare Striker Andrew Price put it, "the system can't possibly survive without us."

In fact, it seems that the system can survive without the controllers, albeit at a lower level of air traffic. The time required to rebuild the system is taking a toll on the nation's airlines and, most visibly, on the patience and stamina of the traveling public. Three major airlines (Delta, TWA and United) reported last week that third-quarter earnings had slumped as a result of the reduced air traffic. Air New England, the boon and bane of that region's travelers, decided to fold its wings at the end of the month after eleven years of operation. The shutdown will mean layoffs for 400 employees. A company announcement partly blamed "the decline in traffic and revenues because of the ongoing PATCO strike." The airline had been forced to cut scheduled flights by 25% as a result of the firings. Air New England's celebrated clientele, which had long used the airline for transportation to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape Cod and other resort areas, are being picked up by Provincetown-Boston Airline and New York Air.

The greatest burden on passengers thus far has been an increase in the number and length of flight delays caused by the strike. During the first three weeks of October, takeoff waits of more than 30 min. occurred on 649 flights, a tenfold increase over the same period a year ago.

Looming on the horizon, however, is a more serious problem: the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent Government agency, found in a study of 41 air-control facilities that work pressures in the towers are mounting and could pose a risk. About 70% of the controllers are working 48 hours a week, and a few are even working 52 hours, investigators found. (Average work week before the strike: 40 hours.) New York's La Guardia Airport is now operating with only twelve fully qualified controllers, down from 25 before the strike. Said 30-year-veteran Controller Gerald Ferguson, who is now a supervisor in La Guardia's control tower: "I find my legs swell now. I'm not used to standing eight hours a day any more. I'm 49 years old, and this is a young man's job."

The safety board recommended that controllers be constantly monitored for signs of stress, that a back-up supervisor or qualified controller always be available to aid colleagues in the event of a crisis, and that noncommercial flights be curtailed. That final piece of advice was put into practice last week when the FAA set new, generally lower limits on takeoffs and landings of private planes. In addition, the FAA will further reduce scheduled airline traffic, now running at just over 80% of normal levels, by another 5% before the bad weather winter months begin in December.

The Aviation Safety Institute, a private group supported primarily by the airline industry, filed a lawsuit this week charging that the FAA has suppressed information about recent airborne near accidents. The institute claims, for instance, that TWA and Air Canada jetliners came within 800 ft. of each other over Syracuse a week ago. Another word of warning came from the majority staff of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Its preliminary report praised the FAA for keeping the system operating post-PATCO but warned that only two-thirds of the controllers needed to continue that success will be on for duty by January 1983. "The picture for rebuilding the system as a whole is grim," the report said. Its recommendation: "Rehire a substantial number of the striking workers."

That the Administration adamantly refuses to consider. Said Transportation Secretary Lewis: "We feel very strongly that we have an obligation to the people that lived up to their oath and stuck with us. We can't let them down." In fact, the Office of Personnel Management is preparing a directive to all departments and agencies telling them to be careful that no former controllers "slip through the cracks" and get any Government job. Lewis said he would submit a pay package for controllers on the job giving them the 11.4% raises that PATCO rejected. When Union President Poli called Lewis a month ago to propose a "secret meeting" to try to work out an accommodation, Lewis says he replied: "Bob, we have as much chance of having a secret meeting in Washington as Brezhnev might have in the White House." Having won another round, Lewis remained firm. Said he after PATCO was decertified: "I never had any intention of negotiating with Mr. Poli and never will.'' --By Walter Isaacson.

Reported by Gisela Bolte/Washington

With reporting by Gisela Bolte

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