Excuse me for butting in on hallowed ground, but whilst NATS management regard ATCAs as eminently dispensible/replacable, and engineers to a lesser extent but with the same disdain, neither profession is going to achieve the recognition it deserves.
I know that a good atca is worth their weight in real ale, and a good engineer is worthy of the same accolade, but there is a no shortage of suitable people to fill such posts as and when required.
Compare this with atco's, at the moment, there is a shortage of expereinced atco's, and current traing schemes are barely keeping up with demand. This will be the case for the forseeable future.
A simple case of supply and demand, and perhaps you should wake up to that.