FAA Inspector Receives Award for his Efforts to Elevate Safety Concerns at Northwest Airlines

BOSTON, MA – Mark Lund, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety inspector and Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS) member who uncovered serious safety issues during the August 2005 aircraft mechanics strike at Northwest Airlines, was honored today by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). When the FAA failed to address his safety concerns and instead became more interested with discrediting him as an inspector, Lund enlisted the aid of former Sen. Mark Dayton, who helped to engage the Inspector General (IG) to conduct an independent review of Lund’s concerns and possible mistreatment by the FAA. In October 2007, the IG validated Lund’s concerns and admonished the FAA for its treatment of him during this time. The IG report concluded that the FAA needed improved internal procedures to ensure that “comprehensive, independent investigations of safety allegations and recommendations are consistently performed.”

Read more ...

FAA’s Telecommunications System Now Affecting International Air Travel

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last Friday's telecommunications outage in Toronto, Canada, is the latest in a long series of outages according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), the union that represents Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) technicians.  Now that the international operations are being impacted, PASS is left wondering if the FAA will finally feel compelled to address serious deficiencies in Harris Corporation's Federal Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI), which provides circuitry and communications by the FAA.

Read more ...

PASS Commends House Passage of Aviation Safety Enhancement Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO, the union that represents over 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) including aviation safety inspectors, is calling yesterday’s unanimous passage of the Aviation Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 6493) a long overdue step in instilling real change at the FAA. The bill stems from the recent Inspector General (IG) report, which outlined several recommendations to the FAA in addressing safety issues, some of which the FAA refused to consider.

Read more ...

Bipartisan Senate Bill Calls On FAA to Restore Fairness in its Contract Negotiations Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), recognizing the need to correct what Inhofe described as a “very unfair process imposed upon employees of the Federal Aviation Administration,” have introduced bipartisan legislation that would ensure good faith collective bargaining for FAA employees and provide for an impartial impasse resolution process. Additionally, the bill would restart contract talks between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), with the process going to binding arbitration if negotiations are not successful at reaching agreement.

Read more ...

PASS Endorses Barack Obama for President

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS), the union that represents over 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Defense (DoD), today announced its support for Sen. Barack Obama for president of the United States. With a focus on matters that impact union members and aviation safety, such as privatization of the aviation system and supporting the workers who keep the system safe, PASS’s Executive Board decided that Sen. Obama displayed a record of commitment to the issues critical to the PASS membership.

Read more ...

Efforts By Natca And PASS To Press Faa To Install Defibrillators In Facilities Finally Pays Off, For The Benefit Of 46,000 Employees

NEWS ITEM: On Sept. 26, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it will install automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in all agency facilities with 50 or more employees during the next year. The agency says it will then evaluate implementation costs and whether a sufficient number of employees are volunteering to be responders. Pending positive results of the evaluation, the FAA says, it intends to deploy AEDs to the remaining FAA facilities with 10 or more employees during the following two years, which cover 97 percent of agency personnel.

Read more ...

1000 characters left