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More Controllers Face Firing for Sick-outfBy BILL EATON Tribune Staff WriterFour air traffic controllers In the Eastbay and five in the Central Valley have been aided to the growing list of those facing dismissal from federal service for their leadership of a “sickout ”The Federal Aviation Administration claims the March 25 to April 14 walkout was a strike, and a week ago handed notices of proposed dismissal to six controllers in the Eastbay.Today the number is 15, all of them among 166 Bay Area controllers named as defendants in a federal court restraining order issued in San Francisco on March 30. Contempt of court charges against the defendants were dismissed May 11, but the restraining order remains in force.Under that order, attorneys for the controllers have filed a motion to ban the FAA from dismissing, suspending, or docking the pay of the controllers, and tin motion is to be heard Tuesday before UtS. District Court Judge Robert F. Peckham.Federal courts In New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Denver have prohibited any FAA punirtiment of controllers sent back to work under the court settlement, the prototype of which was engineered in the Cleveland court of U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Lam-bros by F. Lee Bailey, noted cnminal attorney who was a founder of the Professional Air Traffic Control Organization.It was PATCO’* 9,509 members, all of them fouroeyman controller*, whostaged the March-April walkout in pro-tesl against shortages of equipment and manpower and the stresses they said were engendered by the shortagesNo such court ban on punishment exists in other areas, including the Bay Area, and FAA officials here have issued the 15 dismissal notices which are to be effective in 30 days, during which time the controllers can file repliesThe latest notices name four men at the FAA’s Air Route Traffic Control Center (Oakland Center) in Fremont: Kermil F Nourse of Fremont, a regional vice president of PATCO, Richard K. Trcwhitt of Fremont, Gerald D Gibson of Fremont, chairman of PATCO’s political-congress committee here; and Nicholas C. Davis of Fremont.Also on notice of proposed dismissal are Bnan D. Rose of Clovis, a controller in the Fresno airport tower, and four controllers assigned to the FAA approach control at Lemoore Naval Air Station— Harold E. Cannon of Hanford, Robert B Farquhar of Hanford, James P Hughes of Hanford and Billy J. Hill of Tulare.Notices were sent June 4 and 5 to six Eastbay controllers, all local PATOO officials, three in the Approach Control at Oakland International Airport and three formerly assigned to the Oakland Center but transferred since the walkout to administrative jobs in the FAA’s area office in Burlingame.The three at the Oakland Center are Richard H. Holzhauer of Pleasanton, a member of PATCO’s national board of directon; Terry D. Falkner of Fremont, chairman of PATCO’s Oakland area branch, and Kenneth \V Barton of Fremont, president of PATCO at the Oakland CenterThe three at the Approach Control here are George Bell of Livermore, PATCO chairman at that facility; James Perkins of Fremont, assistant chairman, and Harold Heinrichs ofFremont, secretary-treasurerAll 15 are charged with violation of the U S Code section prohibiting federal employes from striking; with failure to comply with a March 2-5 restraining order issued by a federal judge in Washington D C by not reporting to work nor submitting “adequate medical proof” of illness withm 24 hours of notification, and an FAA charge of “unauthorized absence” from duty.But those among the 15 who are PATCO officials are also charged with “leading and/or encouraging employes in a concerted action to withhold their services from the Federal Governmentft *This charge of leadership Includes any statements made in the press or on television during the sick-out by the controllers, and the specification for it is contained in an April 22 message to all FAA offices from Bertrand M. Harding, FAA associate administrator for manpower.Harding came to that post in March after serving as staff director to the “Corson Committee,” a special panel established by the FAA to study the three-year complaints of controllers.The Oorson group found a substantial gap betweeo controllers and FAA management and urged that this be closed.HardiPg, in his new FAA job, said in May that the implementation of the Corson report was his first job — “It js an attempt to concentrate attention on the problem — a device or technique for bringing together the thinking and setting up (he objectives,” and to place greater emphasis on the “people part” cf FAA operationsBut Harding also said, according to the monthly bulletin of the Air Traffic Control Association, PATCO’s older rival, that “We have to finish the disciplinary actions — we’re going ahead with 1hem m all but the thiee (now four) jurisdictions where there aie court barriers ”His April 22 message of “supplemental guidance on disciplinary actions to be taken against controllers involved in the sftnke,” specifies that no action is to be taken against returnees who had satisfactory medical evidence of illness.Under the settlement arranged In Cleveland, controller claims of fatigue and stress were to be studied by court-appointed panels of physicians. In the Bay Area, the medical panel found 75 per cent of the defendant controllers to be suffering from fatigue, according to their attorney Darnel I. Mitchell. Controllers were found to be “too tense and nervous to work... with any degree of safety” in some cases, “nervous to the point of nausea” in others, and “too distracted by... personal problems to be able to put them aside and control traffic in a single-minded fashion.”Harding’s message also authorized suspensions both on a “day-for-day” and “two-for-one” day basis for those who had no acceptable excuse for absences, or were disciplined in connection with a previous PATCO sick-out in June, 1969.Removal from jobs, under Harding’s specifications, is authorized where a controller performed a “leadership role” and this indudes “those who made statements to the public such as the press, television, or radio,” and those “involved in picketing, intimidation, coercion or otherwise encouraging participation on the part of others.”(The FAA on Apnl 3 banned the press from all its facilities in the nation, banned all public tours of facilities, and prohibited its officials from discussing the sick-out except in terms of “statistical material’)).This delineation of the leadership role is applied in the notices sent toHolzhauer (nine specifications of airing his views in the press or on TV), Falkner, Barton, Nourse, Gibson, Davis, Rose, Cannon, Farquhar, Hughes, Hilo, Bell, Hennchs and Pertins, although not all are designated leaders because they talked to the press.Controller Trewlutt, although he is not a PATCO official and is not therefore in the “leadership role,” is charged under Department of Transportation standards of conduct prohibiting “public statements tending to undermine the public confidence in the safety of the Air Traffic System,” in statements in the press and on television. This same prohibition is usedagainst Holzhauer and Barton.
Newspaper Details
Oakland Tribune
Oakland, California, US
Sat, Jun 13, 1970
Page 32
Full Page
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CA, USA 15 Sep 2020
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