Presidential Perspective
Dear Friends,
America is currently enjoying the safest era in the history of commercial aviation. This feat is due in no small part to the dedicated, hard-working and skilled men and women of our air traffic control system, and it is in many ways in spite of the agency we serve and not because of it.
At facility after facility, at airport after airport, and in state after state, we are seeing fewer controllers guiding more and more airplanes with outmoded and unreliable equipment. We are also seeing fewer technicians and engineers maintaining the equipment, and we are seeing new, unproven methods of maintenance administration fraying the safety net of regular and preventative maintenance. This means increased stress for so many of us, and it demonstrates a shocking disregard for the safety of the flying public.
Add to this the agency’s current attitude toward contract negotiations, and our members have about as much animosity and stress as they can handle. It is time to enlist help from our congressional representatives, from our co-workers and from the public, and it is time to fight back. With all these challenges – a staffing crisis, slow modernization, plummeting employee morale – one might hope that Marion Blakey and the FAA leadership would roll up their collective sleeves and work with us to make things right again. But disappointingly, that hasn’t been the case.
And so, in late January nearly 400 NATCA members brought the union’s message to the halls of Congress and the offices of Capitol Hill. We gathered to support each other, share the facts with our elected officials, and to reclaim our right to collectively bargain. Thanks to Senators Obama,
Lautenberg, Durbin and Inouye, we now have the “Federal Aviation Administration Fair Labor Management Dispute Resolution Act of 2006,” which would create a three-step process for resolving an impasse. This bill would provide a way to restore accountability and fairness to collective bargaining process. Most importantly, it would force the FAA back to the negotiating table to find an agreement that benefits the flying public, the taxpayer and America’s air traffic controllers. And with the help of everyone who participated in this year’s NATCA in Washington event, we have the means to use this bill, and make it count.
And so, not only did we make our voices heard at NATCA in Washington, but we will continue to make our voices heard: to Congress, to the FAA, and to America in the weeks and months to come. America’s air traffic controllers and other safety related professionals understand and live by our solemn duty, out sacred trust: to keep the traveling public safe from harm. Now, we must ensure our elected officials understand their solemn duty, their sacred trust: to stand up for fairness and justice – and to do the right thing by supporting this bill.
At NATCA in Washington, we were several hundred individuals walking the halls of Congress to make our case to our senators and congressmen. But we are much more than that: we are nothing less than democracy in action, standing up for fairness, and justice, and the future of our system and our profession. Together, in our own facilities and with the public, we can continue standing up for fairness, justice, and the future of the collective bargaining process itself.
If we succeed, our prize will not be a better contract, but rather a better understanding for our movement and a greater respect for our values. Our prize will be a process that the next generation of air traffic controllers can point to with pride. Our prize will be the integrity of the national airspace system, and the integrity of the profession which is the life’s work of the men and women sworn to safely operate it. We have a just cause, a united army, and a passion for safety excellence in everything that we do. We carefully nurture the safety of the National Airspace System in the face of overwhelming challenges every day, and we will bring that ethic, that enthusiasm and that dedication to the fight for fairness in collective bargaining.
Sincerely,
John Carr
