The disagreement comes a couple of months after the FAA issued a blistering report on staffing and overtime issues at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) that painted the picture that FAA managers had virtually lost control of the facility. She noted that the conditions in New York are not typical of the agency’s other facilities. However, Carr alleged that both the timing and content of the report were a “shot across the bow” and part of a “very aggressive PR campaign leading up to the negotiations” on the part of the FAA. He described the FAA’s handling of the New York situation and other recent decisions, like the disbanding of a union-management liaison unit on technology, “strong-arm tactics” and accused the FAA of having a “narrow and ideologically driven” agenda. Blakey eliminated one potential hot spot from the discussions — privatization. She dismissed any notion of privatization or outsourcing air traffic control and said any discussion on the topic would be a red herring. Blakey and Carr both agreed that new technologies and new methods must be employed to meet rapidly increasing traffic counts and that both will cost huge amounts of money.
