On 4 Sep 2006 05:04:28 -0700, "Jay Honeck" wrote
in .com:

Unbelievable! They're [NATCA union members] actually going to fight
against their employer for dictating what they must wear to work...

Actually, the union is fulfilling its role of representing their
membership's voice to management. That's what unions do. What would
you have the union do to earn its member's dues? If the union is seen
as capitulating at every one of management's demands, they won't be
perceived as a useful entity worthy of attracting members.

Apparently their [the union members] right to look like bums in a
professional setting has been violated, and the union is going on
the offensive!

I will say, that I was a little surprised at the casual attire with
which SoCal TRACON personnel were clad during an Operation Raincheck
visit, but given that it was a darkened room, and not generally open
to the public, it didn't seem entirely inappropriate. And you have to
realize, that ATC personnel work at odd hours 24 hours a day.

Given the drastic recent evolution in corporate dress codes (just
recall how Wilbur and Oval were attired in that photograph of their
first powered flight), probably fostered by the laissez-faire dot-com
era of the '90s, and the fact that ATC employees apparently had a
history of absence of dress code, I don't see the employees' stand as
unreasonable.

However, it would seem more appropriate for highly skilled
professionals charged with the safety of thousands of airline
passengers' to have a personal desire to elevate their status in the
eyes of the public by dressing in a style of formality commensurate
with magnitude of their responsibility.