End to Ban on Air Controllers Is Urged
Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) urged President Clinton on Monday to lift a hiring ban on unionized air traffic controllers fired by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 after they went on strike.
Metzenbaum sent Clinton a letter signed by 24 senators asking that he give the former air controllers a chance to get their old jobs back.
The Clinton Administration has said previously that it may lift the ban on the fired controllers.
The New York Times reported in today’s editions that the Administration has decided to allow the fired controllers to reapply for their jobs. The Labor and Transportation departments and the Office of Personnel Management hope to send plans for rehiring the controllers to the White House this week, the newspaper quoted Administration and congressional officials as saying.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., the union that now represents controllers, estimates that more than 3,000 of the 11,400 fired workers would like to return to their jobs. The fired workers belonged to the now-dissolved Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, or PATCO.
Metzenbaum’s letter urged Clinton to make lifting the ban “a top priority.”
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