[jjone20]

[QUOTE=ted;6003801]II suggest that FAA management is mostly at fault for agreeing to any controversial Union demands.
We can bash the Union but can you really say you are inspired by FAA management.

It would not be accurate to say that anyone is trying to lump all controllers into the same category, or to say that NATCA is entirely bad. But having been on both sides, I can say that managers typically give up after having their head handed to them enough times by senior "leadership". The Front Line Manager who actually tries to hold the line is typically denigrated, despised, and defeated. No wonder some of them resort to phoning it in.

Case in point: as a mid-level manager, I was responsible for coordinating the controller training of a new radar system. Naturally you can't stop air traffic, train everybody, and then throw the switch, so a schedule has to be developed which rotates controllers in for training and back out to serve the public (try using that phrase in mixed company). Normally, this process involves lots and lots of overtime, but my scheduling supervisor developed a plan which would accomplish the task in the time alotted using zero OT. Well, you'd have thought we were the incarnation of Satan himself: "You're punishing controllers"; "You're trying to balance the budget on our backs" wailed the union. Long story short, the union complained to senior "leadership" and we were directed to schedule OT to cover the training. That is how the FAA works.