US air controllers trying to halt privatization
 |
Story Tools
|
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. air traffic controllers have launched an advertising campaign to defeat a bid in Congress to privatize their jobs at dozens of airports, the controllers union said Thursday.
With lawmakers set to return from summer recess next week, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association is stepping up pressure to derail legislation that negotiators from the House and Senate have approved in a deal with the White House.
The legislation would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to contract work at 69 small and medium size airport towers.
While companies are already responsible for air traffic control at more than 200 small airports, controllers consider the current proposal the first step in privatizing the whole system.
"Our air traffic control system should simply not be entrusted to companies more concerned with profit than with safety," said John Carr, the union's president.
The House could take up the bill as early as next week. There is no timetable for Senate action on the compromise plan that authorizes the government's aviation priorities for the next four years.
A compromise was forged after the White House threatened to veto the $59 billion bill over a provision that would have prohibited any privatization of air traffic services.
The union has turned to television and radio commercials featuring a Delta Air Lines pilot echoing the safety concerns about privatizing air traffic. The aviator is also a member of the Air Line Pilots Association, the largest pilots union.
The 30-second ads are airing in Pennsylvania and five other states home to at least a dozen congressional Republicans, who are considered key votes in the union's bid to overturn the privatization language.
FAA administrator Marion Blakey has said there are no plans to privatize the air traffic system, but the union claims the White House would like to do so eventually.
President Bush has reclassified air traffic control as a commercial entity, meaning it is no longer a necessary function of government.
Copyright 2003
Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
