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#111
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"Tom S." wrote in message ... That's what the Bell System thought on Long Distance calling back in the 70's and 80's regarding their industry. Bell was wrong, you can have more than one provider of long distance service. If more than one company attempts to provide separation nobody has separation. |
#112
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"Tom S." wrote in message ... Bull!! Seniority is a major (the major?) key in any bureaucracy or Union. Not when it isn't the driving force in anything but vacation days. |
#113
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Matthew S. Whiting wrote: Seniority is a nonfactor at the FAA. We only use it to bid our days off twice a year. That is truly good to know. Are annual increases merit based or COLA? What are the promotion criteria? Annual increases are the same as what every Social Security recipient gets. Usually in the 3-4% range, next year however it is about 2.5%. There are also increases based on your localities cost of living also added onto that. As for promotion I do not get promoted unless I put myself in a pool for a particular job opening. For example if Denver needs a controller or three that job will get posted for everyone to see. If I am interested in moving to Denver I will submit my paperwork. I may or may not get selected, none of the criteria is based simply upon years of experience. All promotions entail a paid move. Under no circumstances will I get to work one day and find I have been promoted to either another facility or into management of my current facility. |
#114
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Tom S. wrote: Seniority is a nonfactor at the FAA. We only use it to bid our days off twice a year. Bull!! Seniority is a major (the major?) key in any bureaucracy or Union. I am not in the union. The only thing based on seniority is the order in which you get to pick your days off every 6 months. The union local used to get to set their own seniority policy for their own facility. NATCA National put the kabosh on that several years ago and now we are all under the same seniority policy nationwide. There are only 5 union members at BIL ATCT out of 18 controllers. I will say that the FAA has bent over and let NATCA run ATC for many years now but as far as seniority goes it ain't nuthin' like say the UAW. |
#115
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"Tom S." wrote in message
... "Tarver Engineering" wrote in message ... "Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message nk.net... "Matthew S. Whiting" wrote in message ... I don't doubt that a private ATC would be more efficient, but it wouldn't matter as none of us could afford to fly privately any longer. Why would private ATC be more efficient? Automation, same as the post office. Profit motive (over the long term) is a great incentive. What is the FAA's incentive? The FAA's incentive for efficiency is the political reality that they are chronically underfunded and every time they fail to do something because of lack of funding, some Congressman playing to the cheap seats rakes them over the coals for failing to fulfill their mandate to provide the highest level of safety. Profit is not a factor in most proposals for ATC privatization. Costs, operational control, personnel, purchasing, and funding reliability are the main issues. |
#116
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"Tom S." wrote in message
... "Tarver Engineering" wrote in message ... "Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message ink.net... "Matthew S. Whiting" wrote in message ... Because most private companies that perform functions similar to governmental agencies are more efficient. Sure, susccessful private companies are forced by competition to be more efficient or fail. But you can't have competition in ATC. That's what the Bell System thought on Long Distance calling back in the 70's and 80's regarding their industry. If the phone company screws up, your call doesn't go through. If Tony's ATC Service and Aluminum Siding Company gets the low bid and then screws up, you die. If Big Jimbo's Fire Department and Auto Repair screws up, you die. If Slick Sammy's Police and Pet Grooming Station screws up, you die. There's a qualitative difference here, which is why historically we have tended not to privatize these functions, at least in the sense of auctioning it off to the lowest bidder who wants to make a profit at it. Within a few days, you'll be able to switch phone providers at will and keep your old phone number. You can't do that with ATC, switching contractors willy-nilly when one kills people or another comes along with a better price. Automation is the natural competitor of civil service. And if they fail to deliver the goods, someone else gets the deal (unless ATC is privatized the way Qwest, the Postal DisService, and most utilities are chartered. So are you volunteering to be the DOA from the ATC screw-up that gets Tony dumped for incompetence? As I said in my previous post, it's not about profitability. If we get ATC privatization, it likely will be a government-chartered corporation dominated by the airlines (with token representation for government, GA, and other stakeholders) to tailor the system to their needs - not the least of which will be keeping airline user costs to a minimum. Not that that is inherently bad, but look at what happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (two government chartered mortgage corporations set up to serve home buyers) when they realized that they could make big bucks using questionable accounting practices. The current system is far from perfect, but let's not kid ourselves. ATC privatization, whatever form it takes, will involve trade-offs that affect safety. The only relevant question is whether these could be managed so that we do not get unacceptable outcomes. -- John Mazor "The search for wisdom is asymptotic." "Except for Internet newsgroups, where it is divergent..." -- R J Carpenter |
#117
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"Newps" wrote in message
news:lkCub.180151$mZ5.1290067@attbi_s54... Tom S. wrote: Seniority is a nonfactor at the FAA. We only use it to bid our days off twice a year. Bull!! Seniority is a major (the major?) key in any bureaucracy or Union. I am not in the union. The only thing based on seniority is the order in which you get to pick your days off every 6 months. The union local used to get to set their own seniority policy for their own facility. NATCA National put the kabosh on that several years ago and now we are all under the same seniority policy nationwide. There are only 5 union members at BIL ATCT out of 18 controllers. I will say that the FAA has bent over and let NATCA run ATC for many years now but as far as seniority goes it ain't nuthin' like say the UAW. That's because, as Reagan proved in 1981, federal unions such as PATCO and NATCA are toothless tigers because they cannot strike. Their sole power resides in their ability to convince management by the logical force of argument - and we all know how well that works if management doesn't want to cooperate - or lobbying for political support on Capitol Hill. NATCA's expensive PR campaign to influence Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Bill, necessitated by the loss of the political support that they enjoyed during the Clinton years, proves that point. All of which confirms your response to Tom Ass that he has no clue about federal unions. |
#118
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message ink.net... "Tom S." wrote in message ... That's what the Bell System thought on Long Distance calling back in the 70's and 80's regarding their industry. Bell was wrong, you can have more than one provider of long distance service. That's what they found out the hard way. MCI was going on five eyars before AT&T began to even take notice. If more than one company attempts to provide separation nobody has separation. Wrong analogy. |
#119
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"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message ink.net... "Tom S." wrote in message ... Bull!! Seniority is a major (the major?) key in any bureaucracy or Union. Not when it isn't the driving force in anything but vacation days. Riggggghhhttt!! |
#120
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"Tom S." wrote in message news Wrong analogy. No, that's the precise analogy. |
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