Here's my tuppence worth; -
I've recently joined NATS and it quickly became apparent to me there were some detrimental divisions in the company. One is Area v Airports and the other is ATCO v ATSA which we certainly did not have within my previous company. When I voiced this it was suggested by "management" that the ATSAs are a undesirable expenditure that needs to be reduced.
I believe ATSAs (and their unions may be) have brought some of the pain upon themselves though, by not adapting and taking on new roles, by demeaning the job (reading newspapers etc) and not clinching more important "safety" responsibilities to justify their salaries.
My conclusion is that the ATSA role is changing rapidly, basically being drastically de-skilled by the advance of technology, as were Flight Engineers, Navigators and soon ATCOs may be. We can all think of other types of industry/business where this has happened and where there has been considerable anguish for all concerned (banking, steel etc). I have no doubt that ATCOs will be called Voice Monkeys by Pilots in due course because most of the decision making will be taken away from them and be replaced by airborne and ground based systems.
So my advice to operational ATSAs is - don't look upon the job from now on as anything more than a step to other things. And expect to be paid for doing a job that an intelligent youngster can grasp in six weeks? I do agree good manners and being polite cost nothing - but are invaluable!
Good luck.
