As made known by SESAR News 2, five major staff associations representing a wide range of professional operational and technical skills across the ATM domains (e.g. pilots, air traffic controllers and assistants, handling staff, flight and air traffic safety electronics engineers etc.) are currently signing framework contracts with the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) through EUROCONTROL for their participation in the SESAR work program.
The associations concerned are the Air Traffic Controllers European Union Coordination (ATCEUC), European Cockpit Association (ECA), European Transport Workers’ Association (ETF), International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA), and the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA).
Their professional expertise is sought for the SJU work program regarding issues such as safety, security, and human factor aspects when developing and validating new procedures, methodologies, and technical elements. At the kick-off meeting on 4 December, representatives of the associations discussed with the SJU the key aspects of their future participation in order to finalize the more precise details during January/February 2010.
This is an important development since without the endorsement and support of controllers and pilots represented by these associations SESAR cannot be a success. However, a word of caution is in order here.
Some (but by far not all) of the same associations seemed to have some difficulty during the SESAR definition phase in separating reasoned
professional opinions and stand-points from the slogans elected union officials are so fond of.
SESAR is about necessary change and inevitable paradigm shifts. Change means that things do not stay the same and this is exactly the kind of thing we humans are not that good at accepting. This of course can put some staff associations in a difficult bind when they find themselves being pulled between the imperative of progress and the tendency of resisting change by their members.
Some association leaders are facing a major challenge if they want to be constructive supporters of SESAR. They will need to bring existing expertise to the program while at the same time also convincing their members that there are new concepts in town which they will need to understand, discuss, possibly improve, but in the end, after proper validation, simply do.
The associations will serve SESAR (and their members’ future for that matter) only if this two way communication is realised every step of the way.
Should SESAR find that some associations think only in one direction they must be reminded of why they are on board.
Change means things do not stay the same… this applies to everyone in SESAR.