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Richard Piatt ReportingThe people who make safe landings possible at Salt Lake International airport are not happy, and they say you're safety may be at risk. Air traffic controllers say it's all tied to their labor contract.
They guide hundreds of planes into Salt Lake International every day, tucked away in a tower that's part of the scenery around there. But inside, they say it's a stressful job that is misunderstood.
Bryant Peters, Air Traffic Controller: "It's choreographed anarchy. It's planes coming in at very different experience levels over terrain."
It's a job that demands experience, a point the controllers are making at the airport today. They're worried about a new FAA pay scale that could drastically cut their salaries.
Alex Silva, Air Traffic Controller: "This proposal is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to the public. It puts in jeopardy the world's best air traffic control system."
The result could be massive retirements and under-qualified people in the job. Air Traffic controllers earn an average of 110-thousand dollars a year in Utah. The new FAA pay scale would drop that average pay to about 85-thousand dollars a year.
But a spokesman for the FAA in Washington told KSL, air traffic controllers have had a 75 percent pay hike since 1998, and they want that in their new five-year contract too. Considering the hard times in the aviation industry these days, the government says that is unreasonable.
Because of the demands of the job, for safety reasons, veterans say the job is not a place to scrimp.
Brady Allred, Pres. Air Traffic Controllers Union: "It's constant in and out. It's dozens of airplanes with thousands of people on them, going for the same place in the sky."
The controllers union and the FAA are not talking right now. That means Congress will decide for itself what the future pay for air traffic controllers will be. Congress is expected to decide what it will budget for FAA raises by June 5th.
