I Think.....
Understandably you may have missed the point. What has happened at Swanwick is not the fault of the ATCOs and ATSAs who are there. It is wholly the responsibilty of NERC management
Indeed the operational ATCOs actually at Swanwick are just as pee'd off as you are, if not more so. In most cases they have uprooted and moved further south. "Mobile grade" I hear you say. Yet how would you like being told that NERC would open in 1996, move your family accordingly, and then spend SIX YEARS of unneccesary commuting. It creates more than a little stress, believe me.
All through the build up to the opening of NERC, the management were told repeatedly of the system failings from the ATCOs view (font sizes / ledgibility / reflections / manpower requirements / poor RTF/ poor telephones / headsets etc etc). THEY DID NOTHING.
Can you now understand the sheer frustration of the operational workforce at Swanwick?
You are probably right that other units have had better technology installed. The Swanwick system is an ergonomic nightmare and is not user friendly or indeed simple to use. That's why we had to spend nearly a year on OCT. The simple fact the Swanwick operational staff make it work AT ALL is staggering.
TC, MACC and Scottish are only being asked to fill their available airspace with aeroplanes. Why? Because the sectors at LACC ARE FULL. Not because Swanwick controllers "don't fancy working today" or are as you seem to infer, somewhat less than willing.They are busy with what they have got.
You seem to think that TC, MACC and Scottish require some sort of recompense for filling their sectors to TSF levels. At Swanwick this is the norm.
Airport ATCOs have indeed had accept lots of new technology in recent years. The difference is most of it works, is relatively easy to use and is user friendly. All the opposite of Swanwick. Juggling slots is not a new issue for TWR and GND people. Go back to the mid/late 1980s. There were more slot problems then I assure you and they were just as difficult to resolve. (Anybody remember the tents erected at EGKK when pax were delayed for DAYS?)
I repeat, Swanwick is a difficult system being run with too few staff. If you want someone to "blame" look at the management, not the frustrated operational staff, all of who are doing their level best despite the management
Rgds BEX