Air Traffic Controllers Tell FAA They're Dangerously Understaffed, Overworked

The Reagan policy not only hurt the workers, it hurt the airlines. They have gone out of business
right an left because of deregulation and hostile corporate takeovers that anti-trust should have outlawed. Meanwhile Virgin Air in Socialist England has thrived and is invading the US market as our ailine companies fail.

Branson says he will soon run ethanol jets at Virgin. American Airlines and Delta say they can't make enough profit to make the investment in altrnate fuels and still pay their CEOs.

thank reagan for that the great communicator.

things have been going down hill since he broke up the union and deregulated the airlines.

Hey, ya gotta pay for those tax cuts somehow.

Thanks to the actor Ronald Reagan!!!

One of the things the repukes did to break the unions!!!!!!

Wake up America to the repukes devious ways to make this a 2 class society the have's and the have nots!

Ronnie Raygun - who before he married Nancy with the Republican stepfather - was a liberal Democrat and a union president.

In 1981, Raygun fired the Air Traffic Controllers on strike. The scabs he hired spent 25 years and guess what : 2007 has arrived.

The Corporatists only want scabs without rights doing any work anywhere.

A suggestion: Why not get rid of the bloated, bullshit Department of Homeland Security and devote its money to the FAA's air traffic control system?

Ronald Reagan vs. George W. Bush. Dumb vs. Dumber. History will laugh and laugh and laugh....

Back in 1980, the air traffic controllers union, PATCO, went on strike. Most of PATCO"s grievances were for safer working conditions, a 32-hr work week, updated computer equipment, and retirement after 20 years of service. The U.S. controllers were the only ones worldwide forced to work 40-hr weeks. They also worked 8 hr shifts without breaks and had mandatory overtime up to 20 hours each week.
What many people don"t know is that PATCO endorsed Reagan with his promise he would do all he could for them. However, he chose corporate America over the Americans who trusted him. He fired 13,000 men and women for demanding safer working conditions. With the help of Drew Lewis (Sec. of Transportation), Reagan"s assault on working class Americans began. A legacy George Bush and those Republican candidates wish to emulate.
Imagine being responsible for the safety of a dozen or so airplanes, carrying hundreds of people. You"re sitting there in your tower, watching little dots on a screen all fluttering around, and all of a sudden, the screen goes black. Equipment failure. Stress? You bet.

Then they had the audacity to name an airport after the guy¦ Reagan sucked.

Just one more chance for Baby Bush to show American that government doesn't work.

Which is true, when he is in charge.


Worst. Administration. Ever.

The Reagan legacy lives on. This is just one of the minor effects of the destruction of our country he started - the destruction that Bush is trying to complete.

Excuse me. Haven't we been here before. The ATC situation has been SNAFU since St. Ronald the Raygun fired all the pro's.

According to the Bush appointee in CHARGE of the FAA, "Air traffic control really isn't needed. Pilots can and should look out the cockpit windows for each other. Most planes today have RADAR, and like the meatpacking industry, they should simply "see and avoid" oncoming traffic using this miraculouts technology. Self regulation and personal responsiblity is the proper solution for this industry as it has been for food safety, environmental issue, and mine safety.

One more area where government guts an agency, crows loudly about efficiency, and then just waits for the next disaster to happen. When it does there is the usual Congressional hearing, money allocated, yet once again nothing meaningful is accomplished. Except of course someones bank account gets a little fatter, and people die.

Just business as usual. So predictable, and so it goes.

Things won't change dramatically until we have an in-air collision over some major airport. That means anywhere from about a hundred to three hundred people will have to die first. Pretty high price to pay for something preventable. At the risk of sounding like a Republican (ugh!), remember 9/11? "Al Quedea determined to strike in U.S." We overlook things like this at our own peril.

You know this is true and it's scary. The Cons have compromised the quality of every single agency in this country to the detriment of the American people. they always jump right in and say "it's saving the American people ?? million dollars," more money they cans plough into Iraq.