FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the two sides exchanged their final offers Tuesday night but were too far apart on the issue of compensation.
"We have simply concluded that the gap between us is too large to continue these negotiations," Blakey said.
Now that impasse has been declared, Congress has 60 days to intercede, according to federal law. The talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association began in July.
Blakey said controllers make much more money than other public servants, control scheduling and hold back modernization.
The union has said the FAA is hostile to controllers and that its offer would result in a wave of retirements because it creates a disincentive for controllers to stay on the job. Nearly half the current controllers are expected to retire in the next decade, as most of those workers are replacements for the controllers President Reagan fired in 1981 for striking the government illegally.
Neither side expects a strike.
KSDK News Channel 5-- St. Louis
Press Release from National Air Traffic Control Association
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