FAA EMPLOYEES AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS) represents approximately 11,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees in five separate bargaining units throughout the United States and in several foreign locations. The largest PASS bargaining unit is the Air Traffic Organization Technical Operations unit, consisting of technical employees (systems specialists, electronics technicians and computer specialists) who install, maintain, repair and certify the radar, navigation, communication and environmental systems making up the air traffic control system. The Flight Standards and Manufacturing Inspector (MIDO) units consist primarily of aviation safety inspectors responsible for inspecting every aspect of the commercial and general aviation industries. Additionally, PASS represents flight inspection pilots, procedures development specialists and airborne technicians in Aviation System Standards (AVN), examiners in the FAA’s Civil Aviation Registry (AFS-700), and support staff.

History of Contract Negotiations

·       The FY 1996 Department of Transportation Appropriations Act (P.L. 104-50) exempted the FAA from most of the federal personnel system under Title 5 of the U.S. Code and ordered the agency to develop its own personnel system.

·       The FAA Reauthorization Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-264) established a new process for resolving certain bargaining impasses that were related to the new personnel system, which involved mediation before the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) and involvement by Congress.

·       The 1996 FAA Reauthorization Act does not clearly define the types of disputes covered under the new process. The FAA interpreted the provision to mean that it had authority to impose its terms unilaterally without the agreement of employees’ representatives or ratification by the employees themselves.

·       According to the FAA’s misinterpretation of the law, if the FAA declares that negotiations are at an impasse, the administrator can send the matter to Congress. If Congress does not act on the contract within 60 days, the FAA’s offer will be automatically imposed on employees. The FAA’s view of personnel reform completely ignores the fact that Congress specifically and completely restored Chapter 71 of the U.S. Code as part of the system.

·       The FAA’s view of personnel reform removes any independent third-party involvement in resolving bargaining disputes and provides no incentive for the agency to bargain in good faith. The agency is operating under the belief that it does not need to make bargaining concessions if it can simply wait 60 days and unilaterally impose all of its bargaining demands.

Current Status of PASS Contract Negotiations

Currently, contract negotiations are at impasse with four of PASS’s five bargaining units, representing 3,500 employees across the United States in the Flight Standards, AVN, AFS-700 and MIDO bargaining units. Negotiations over new contracts for these employees have been at impasse for six years. Many of the issues over which the parties are at impasse are already included in other collective bargaining agreements in the FAA, such as changes in work schedules, duration of the agreement, inadequate and unsafe staffing levels, job security, pay system, pay adjustments during the life of the contract, and the performance management system. There are no foreseeable next steps regarding these impasses as the FAA has only threatened to submit the contracts to Congress but no action has been taken.

In PASS’s largest bargaining unit, Technical Operations, the FAA showed little interest in reaching a mutual agreement with PASS. As a result, when the agency’s final proposal was submitted for a vote, it was rejected by 98 percent of the employees. The agency’s insulting contract demands included reduced pay and benefits for most employees over the term of the agreement, no alternate work schedules, no bargaining over watch schedules, and no regional or local negotiations over changes to working conditions. It is unclear when the negotiations process will begin again due to pending legal proceedings initiated and unnecessarily prolonged by the FAA. Until PASS members successfully ratify a new collective bargaining agreement, the current agreement remains in effect. 

Congressional Action Requested

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009 (H.R. 915) introduced in the House includes language to clarify that the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) has jurisdiction over the FAA and that binding arbitration before a board of experienced arbitrators is the preferred method of resolving bargaining disputes such as those currently facing the parties. PASS supports this language and believes that rather than forcing Congress to be directly involved in resolving disputes over internal agency personnel matters, it is more appropriate to require both parties to submit all outstanding bargaining impasse issues to binding arbitration under the direction of the FSIP, an impartial third party with special expertise in these matters. PASS requests that identical language be included in the Senate version of the FAA reauthorization legislation.