"The U.S. National Airspace System is the busiest in the world. There are over 450 towered airports that handle more than 180,000 airport operations — take-offs and landings — a day. The National Airspace System (NAS) relies on smooth coordination among 15,000 air traffic controllers, 600,000 pilots, and thousands of people and organizations to operate safely and efficiently" -- FAA Runway Safety Report 2000

Air travel in the USA....It has never been safer.  Along with the new security measures taking place across the country, TSA continues to improve and refine our processes in order to provide customers with a high level of customer service -- Transportation Security Administration

The Whistleblower Protection Program provides protection from discrimination for air carrier industry employees who report information related to air carrier safety or participate in other protected activities.

Employees of air carriers, their contractors, and their subcontractors, are protected from retaliation, discharge or otherwise being discriminated against for providing information relating to air carrier safety violations to their employer or to the Federal Government, or filed, testified, or assisted in a proceeding against the employer relating to any violation or alleged violation of any order, regulation, or standard of the Federal Aviation Administration or any other Federal law relating to air carrier safety, or because they are about to engage in any of these actions.

To qualify for protection under the Whistleblower Protection Program, you must:

1. Be or have been an employee mentioned above,
2. Be or have been engaged in an activity mentioned above, and
3. Believe you are being or have been discriminated against by your employer for engaging in an activity mentioned above.

Recently, as an airport maintenance worker I reported some airport security 
lapses to the management. It was about an unsecured door in an airport. 
Normally security clearance is required. This door had none. Thinking I'd be
protected by the FAA Whistle Blower Program, and thinking this was the right
thing to do, I went ahead and reported this.


I was fired soon after allegedly distributing "false and misleading information".  
The airport management refused to say what that information was or the name 
of the person who received this information from me. In other words, if an 
employee speaks out on aviation insecurity then all the airport management 
has to do is say that employee distributed false and misleading information, 
a made-up charge, and then fire that person. 


The union will not support that person because that person could have turned 
the other way and said nothing about the unsecured door. Some states have 
whistleblower laws and an employee can sue. Alaska does not. 


Employee have to raise tens of thousands of dollars while unemployed just to 
contest being fired on false grounds. By contrast the airline employees have 
federal OSHA to fight for them. The message here is that there is no protection 
from the federal government for airport employees like there is for airline 
employees, so it is best for the airport employee to turn the other way and 
not report on the unsecured door. The question is will you be putting in an 
amendment that will include airport employees?

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