Fear of Flying

Retired controllers beg to differ. They say they earn executive salaries by making split-second decisions that keep thousands of passengers safe.

"The thing to understand is, our job is 24-7," says Randy Meyer, who retired on August 3. "We work crappy hours over holidays and nights and weekends, and our career is over at 52 or 53. You get burned out, and you physically can't work until you're 59 or 60, like some people. So we should be paid more."

NATCA's Blankenship disputes the figures that Blakey and FAA spokespeople use to illustrate the average controller's salary. He argues that the averages cited by Blakey and Cory are inflated because so many controllers are making high salaries at the end of their careers. Those controllers are leaving, he argues, so the FAA's numbers aren't an accurate portrayal of the agency's financial future.

"The people who bring that average up are retiring and will retire. Now they are retiring earlier than they would have."

And they're leaving their younger co-workers to deal with a staffing crisis.

s an example of the indignities controllers endured under Blakey's administration, Peterson and other union members point bitterly to Pat Kowal.

Kowal worked as a controller for 17 years in Wichita before moving his wife and five kids to Kansas City. He wanted to handle more traffic, and the pay was better.

On August 19, 2003, the family had been in Kansas City for just two weeks. That day, Kowal's 17-year-old son, Michael, started football practice at Mill Valley High School. Positioned at defensive strong safety, he tackled an oncoming running back. The players' helmets collided, and Michael's C4 vertebra crunched inward, pinching his spinal cord and paralyzing him from his midchest down.

Kowal took time off to adjust to his family's new situation and learn how to care for Michael. When his sick leave ran out, he enrolled in the FAA controllers' Voluntary Leave Transfer Program — a system that lets controllers around the country donate their sick leave or annual leave to others who need it in an emergency.

Kowal returned to work after four months, but he couldn't stay long. He'd work for a month and take time off again if his wife, who by then was Michael's primary caretaker, was called away. Eventually they hired a professional caretaker, but sometimes the caretaker would be late or unable to work.

On March 18, 2006, Kowal received a letter from the FAA informing him that he'd been terminated from the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program because his situation was no longer considered an emergency. The FAA took back all the hours of donated leave that he had saved up.

So Kowal relied on the Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires federal agencies to grant workers up to 12 weeks off every year if they're caring for a family member with a serious health condition.

Last October 21, a month after the white book's new rules went into effect, Michael's caretaker called to tell Kowal he was sick and unable to be with Michael. Kowal's wife was out of town.

His shift was to start at 3:45 the next two mornings. He put in a request to use sick leave so he could take off an hour and 45 minutes early on both days to help his son out of bed and through his morning routine (which can take three hours). His supervisor denied the request.

"I didn't know what to do," Kowal says. "Michael was expecting me to be home when he needed me." It was the first time his sick leave had been denied, and the first time he'd heard of anyone's Family and Medical Leave Act request being denied.

He sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore's office. "I have not abused sick leave, nor has my supervisor ever advised me of any concern ... I truly hope this is not the direction the FAA wants to take, but only the actions of a rogue manager," Kowal wrote.

After Moore's office checked into the matter, the FAA's Regional Administrator, Christopher R. Blum, sent a letter to Moore. "The facility manager has asked Mr. Kowal's supervisor to address any needs Mr. Kowal has to take care of his son and communicate more effectively in the future," Blum wrote.

The FAA's response is of little consolation to Kowal, who comes to work when he's ill so he can save his sick days for when Michael may need him.

"This is supposed to be one of the perks of working for the government. You may not become a millionaire, but you get these certain benefits that make you feel secure in your career," he says.

The way Peterson sees it, Kowal's situation wasn't just about sick leave. It was about managers' fundamental lack of respect toward controllers — and it's been that way ever since the FAA painted its employees as underworked and overpaid.

Peterson says managers routinely address controllers as "a bunch of crybabies" or "fucking kindergartners." And though verbal altercations are nothing new in the tower's stressful atmosphere, the yelling and screaming are more frequent, controllers say.

The tension came to a breaking point on July 13.