Rehiring Fired Air Controllers OKd by House

In a strong challenge to President Reagan, the House approved legislation Wednesday requiring the federal government to rehire at least 1,000 of the 11,400 air traffic controllers who were fired by Reagan after their 1981 strike.

Democrats and Republican supporters, contending that the additional controllers would help improve air safety, endorsed the bill on a 234-180 vote and sent it to the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.

Swing of Opinion

Proponents said, however, that they sense a swing of opinion on the issue in Congress and hope the large margin of House passage will spur the Senate to action. Two years ago, the House defeated a similar measure.

Reagan has indicated that he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

“This is a giant step toward making air travel safer for the American public,” said Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.). “Reports of . . . (near-collisions) are on the rise, and the air traffic safety control system is at the stretching point. We need this relief now.”

Sponsors noted that the number of controllers is still lower than it was at the time of the strike. At that time, the controller work force was 16,375, and it numbered 15,302 last year, according to Federal Aviation Administration statistics.

The Reagan Administration has agreed to seek funds over the next few years to hire an additional 955 controllers and to bring their numbers closer to pre-strike levels. But it is vehemently opposed to rehiring any of the controllers who participated in the illegal strike.

Reagan, who vetoed a 1986 bill that called for rehiring air traffic workers, has said that Congress would have to change the law outlawing controller strikes before it could legally rehire any of the workers. Until then, he declared in a letter to Congress last year, giving any of the controllers their jobs back would be “totally unacceptable.”

Safety and Punishment

House members brushed aside these concerns, contending that airline safety is more important than punishing strikers. Many of them cited the increasing volume of air traffic, frequent flight delays and FAA statistics showing that near-collisions in areas under air traffic control increased 41% last year.

“This is not the time to be replaying the strike of 1981. . . . It is not a referendum on the President’s action,” said Rep. Guy V. Molinari (R-N.Y.), who led the fight for the bill. “It would be malfeasance if we failed to take this action on behalf of public safety.”

Sponsors also cited a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, which said that the air traffic control system “is at times overburdened with traffic” and “lacks the number of qualified controllers necessary to fully staff control positions throughout the day.”

The safety panel, which did not endorse the House bill, issued its conclusions last year after a lengthy investigation of operational errors made by contbollers.

However, critics suggested that the bill is unnecessary, since Congress already has agreed to hire 955 new air traffic controllers in the next few years. More important, they suggested, new technology will allow controllers to perform their jobs with greater efficiency.

Fears of More Stress

Others warned that rehiring the fired controllers would hurt morale among the current work force, causing greater stress in air control towers.

“These people knew what they were doing when they went out on strike,” said Rep. Gerald B. H. Solomon (R-N.Y.). “We shouldn’t be sending the wrong message to other federal unions, letting them think they could strike again and again and again.”

Finally, opponents suggested that air safety has improved, noting that--despite the number of near-misses--aerial collisions dropped last year, according to FAA statistics. Congress should not meddle with the system because “the current group of controllers is doing a good job,” said Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-Ark.). “Overall accident rates have continued their general downward trend.”

But sponsors said that the former controllers are desperately needed because it would take them less time to qualify for fully certified positions--enabling them to assume all duties in a control tower--than new hires. They noted that the former controllers could assume full duties within three to four months, while new trainees could take as long as three years.

Deadline This Year

Although Congress specified that the FAA reach a specific level of fully certified controllers by this year, the agency remains 1,500 short of that goal, said Molinari. He added that the former controllers could spell thousands of air traffic workers who put in exhausting hours, often with no prospect of relief.

In 1986, the FAA reported that it needed more than 600,000 hours of overtime just to keep the air traffic control system operating, said Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.). This strain on the work force “inevitably leads to an increase in the margin of error and controller burnout. . . . This could have tragic consequences,” she added.