@lucky not sure if you heard about the tragedy at Montreal where a ground worker was struck and killed by a plane backing up. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/airport-montreal-accident-9.7319215
In all unionized white collar professions, the blame is placed squarely on the unions. They refuse to increase their membership quota to meet market demand because they want their members to enjoy high earnings and compensation from businesses. Namely the AMA does not admit more qualified medical candidates to their fields and internship programs. Increase membership quota does not necessarily dilute the quality of its members. Americans chastise the government for too much interference and too many regulations then vilify it when things go hay-wired. The government only responds to crises when the death quota exceeds the tolerance level. We continue to vote in clowns to run the governments and the world since the 1980s. Decades ago, our Fortune 500 companies were respected for building great things in life. We now cannot build modern infrastructure such as high speed railways that developing countries leave us behind. We only have resources to spend on warfare that magnifies the deaths and destruction in developing countries. We should not blame the traffic controllers for leaving early at management's approval because when it was late into the night and things slowed down, all businesses tend to send employees home early to cut cost or to reward employees for a long hard work day.
Off topic but in response to another reader, the link below provides an excellent "food for thought" that covers many famous events in our country that officially offer no conclusive results or down right concocted deception, courtesy of the US government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGGGtMQxY4
globetrotter, that's quite the laundry list, from the American Medical Association to high-speed rail. I doubt all those grievances are really necessary, here. You're right in-part that late-shift departures happen everywhere and many governments seem to only react after a crisis, but scapegoating organized labor won't fix this (that'll just hurt workers, more broadly). The tragedy was the result of systemic understaffing and a lack of safety tech like ground transponders. We can and should fix those specific issues so that this won't happen again. We don't need to solve world peace to do that.
Oh and a note below about Amazon. In fulfillment and distribution centers, it has 2 shifts at 10.5 hours / 10 paid ( 4 days week ) and peak times 11.5 hours / 11 paid ( 5 days and fired even if your in hospital and don’t show ). So cry me a river. Do your job. Or find another.
Or become your own boss
Former Air Traffic controller in both of the Eastern Region Centers. There's quite a bit more to this situation than two controllers left an hour early. The WSJ doesn't describe the shift, next shift, whether or not they were held over 2 hours, was it a supervisor or CIC (controller in charge) in charge of the operation (which I believe it was based on the time of day) or did they leave the airport or were they in the terminal.
In my time, sign in/out timecards went from hand written to electronic. The employee, supervisors and CICs have access to an employees record. Unless it has changed in the 14 years since I retired, signing out could not occur until 15 minutes prior to the end of the shift. Someone needed to manually input the sign out time.
Tone deaf, false equivalency, and horrible career advice. If an Amazon packer makes a mistake, a box gets delayed. If an air traffic controller is exhausted or a system fails, hundreds of people die.
I suspect these two will be the scapegoats so FAA can be seen to be doing "something" while the underlying root causes remain (over worked ATC staff, too many movements at airports, etc). Interesting that they're talking about firing when the NTSB haven't completed their analysis.
More propaganda fed by the 2025 project regime. Blame the overworked public servant, and intimidate the once proud union into a corner.
Regardless of the worker / labour procedures that may or may not have been followed. The core fact that the system is still antiquated. Nav Canada has been doing it electronically for decades; yet still have paper strips in US towers. All communication via radio is limited in Canada to texting and communication that is faster and more clear/effective.
FAA needs to upgrade...stop trying to recreate the wheel and just implement what the rest of the world already has.....ironically...the uniion is pushing back against the more use of technology and centralized towers due to.....preserving jobs.....
Sometimes common sense needs to be used despite whatever electronic "safety measures" may exist.
For example: If I'm sitting at an intersection in my car and waiting at a red light, I'll always look left and right before moving forward when the light turns green. You never know when somebody in the opposing traffic will try to run a light. I'd much rather be alive then "right".