Patrick Forrey's Weekly Update

National Office Update for August 21, 2009

Sisters and Brothers

Last week we received the arbitration decision and award from the panel, marking the conclusion to the mediation process. Many of us have mixed feelings about the results of the arbitration, but I believe the entire process, including the arbitration award, has put this Union back on an even playing field with the FAA and culminated in a very good contract for our members. The work rules that have been agreed to restore dignity and respect our members deserve. The arbitration award eliminates the B-scale and provides fair compensation for our profession and our members. While there remain some holes that need to be addressed, the NEB and contract team unanimously recommend for ratification.

NATCA fought very hard for the restoration of an A-scale pay level for all our members, to mitigate the loss of basic pay and lost retirement annuity the majority of our membership suffered over the past three years, and in particular, to correcting the injustice levied on the 1440 controllers who were lied to about their pay when they were hired by the FAA. The arbitrators didn’t agree with our make whole remedy, but did provide that all our members would receive a guaranteed pay raise each of the three years during the life of the contract, and an additional 1% base pay raise for members eligible to retire for two years.

In reading the award, it’s hard to believe that the arbitration panel would offer an increase of 8% to the 1440 members who were lied to about their CPC pay only to see it evaporate with the next January increase. It seems clear that the intent of the arbitration panel was to award this additional raise to this category of employee to mitigate the harm caused when the FAA unilaterally broke their pay promise to these members. However, due to the decision to implement the pay bands over a three-year period, the affect is lost, and the intended raise to get these employees’ pay closer to what they should have been receiving, rendered this provision meaningless.

We have already made contact with the FAA and the mediation panel to discuss this very important issue over the next week. We need clarification on the way this provision of the award was written and the intent behind it, so that the panel can correct this seemingly unintended consequence. It is very disheartening that after several weeks of discussing this aspect of our proposal, the issue we fought the hardest over, is precisely the one that came out wrong. The fact that it was addressed in the award signals an intention to mitigate the harm, so we need to make certain the panel understands what the implications are as written. NATCA will continue to pursue a remedy for these members until we achieve an acceptable resolution.

There are many other questions that arise from the arbitration award, particularly surrounding pay setting. We will work with the arbitration panel and the FAA to resolve any outstanding issues that arise from the award. We already have a list of issues that need to be addressed, and we will continue to collect more information as we sift through the award and start receiving more questions concerning specific circumstances.

Next week, much of the contract team will be traveling to some locations to brief the membership on the agreement and award. Our intention is to make ourselves available to as many members as possible so that everyone will understand what this contract means to them in order to make an informed decision on ratification. As I stated earlier, this is a very good contract that our membership can be proud of. It signifies a new beginning in our dealings with the FAA and the Obama Administration, and will provide an excellent starting point to conduct our next negotiation in three years.

This past week we conducted four telcons to answer questions that the membership had. We are planning to conduct a few more in the next week as well as set up a phone bank to answer questions from the field. We do not have everything in place just yet, but we are hoping to have the phone banks in place by midweek. We may also put together a podcast of a contract briefing to place on the NATCA web page, and we will continue to answer questions as they are posed on the BBS contract list serve.

The TAU’d articles as well as the arbitration award are being mailed to each member today; you should receive them within two weeks. The ratification ballot will be mailed on September 1, and must be received by the close of business on September 22, 2009. Each member will have the opportunity to vote on line; instructions can be found in the ballot mailing.

Again, both the NEB and the contract team unanimously endorse ratification of this collective bargaining agreement. The arbitration award concerning Articles 3, 17, 24, 106 and 108 are not ratifiable; these articles are binding on the parties. The membership will only be ratifying the 113 TAU’d articles.

Once again I’d like to thank the members of the contract team for their outstanding work and steadfast dedication to our members. I urge everyone to look through this CBA and vote for ratification. If you have any questions, there will be ample opportunity to get some answers in the coming days and weeks.

Pat Forrey

President

NATCA